Ugreen NASync DXP6800 Pro is a serious piece of network storage, and if you are considering one for a home office, studio or small business, it is worth thinking beyond the NAS itself. The six bay system comes with dual 10GbE networking, but without a suitably fast switch, you may not be able to make full use of that connectivity.
Right now, the diskless DXP6800 Pro is available for around $1,099.99, while the TRENDnet TEG S762 adds another $91.99 to the setup. That takes the combined networking and NAS hardware cost to roughly $1,192 before adding any storage drives.
That extra investment makes sense if you regularly move large files around your network. For everyday backups and occasional photo transfers, however, the additional networking hardware may be difficult to justify.
A six bay NAS built for demanding workloads
The DXP6800 Pro is aimed at users who need more than a basic place to store files. It has six SATA drive bays, giving you plenty of room to build a large storage pool, while two M.2 NVMe slots provide additional options for fast storage or caching, depending on how you configure the system.
It also comes with two Thunderbolt 4 ports and dual 10GbE networking. That combination gives the NAS plenty of flexibility for users working with large photo libraries, video projects, backups and other data intensive workloads.
Inside, Ugreen has fitted the NAS with an Intel Core i5 1235U processor and 8GB of DDR5 memory. The memory can reportedly be expanded to 64GB, which gives the system considerably more headroom than the typical entry level NAS.
Storage configuration is also flexible. The DXP6800 Pro supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6 and RAID 10, along with JBOD and Basic configurations. That means you can choose between prioritizing performance, capacity or redundancy depending on how important your data is and how many drives you install.
Of course, there is an important catch. The advertised price is for the diskless NAS, so you still need to purchase the hard drives separately. Filling all six bays with high capacity NAS drives could add a significant amount to the final bill.
Why the TRENDnet switch is worth considering
A 10GbE port on a NAS is only useful if the rest of your network can support it. If your existing router or switch is limited to Gigabit Ethernet, connecting the DXP6800 Pro to it will prevent you from getting anywhere close to the NAS’s maximum network performance.
This is where the TRENDnet TEG S762 becomes useful. The compact unmanaged switch includes two 10GbE RJ45 ports and four 2.5GbE ports. That gives you a straightforward way to connect the NAS at 10GbE while also providing faster network connections for compatible computers and other devices.
The two 10GbE ports are particularly important. You could connect the NAS to one port and a workstation equipped with 10GbE to the other, creating a much faster path for moving large files between the two systems.
That can make a noticeable difference when dealing with video footage, large photography catalogs, virtual machines or sizeable backup sets. A transfer that would take a considerable amount of time over standard Gigabit Ethernet can be completed much faster when both devices have sufficiently fast storage and 10GbE networking.
The switch also offers a 60Gbps switching capacity and uses a fanless metal design. For a home office or creative workspace, the lack of a fan is a useful feature because it removes another potential source of background noise.
It is also compatible with existing Cat5e or better cabling, although the actual speeds you achieve will depend on the quality and length of your cables, as well as the network hardware at both ends.
Is this setup worth the money?
The answer depends heavily on what you plan to do with the NAS.
If your main requirement is backing up documents, storing family photos or keeping a media collection in one central location, spending more than $1,000 on a diskless NAS is probably unnecessary. A cheaper two bay or four bay NAS could handle those jobs perfectly well, especially if your network is already based around Gigabit or 2.5GbE connections.
The DXP6800 Pro becomes much more interesting when several devices need to access large amounts of data regularly. Photographers, video editors, developers and other creative professionals can benefit from having fast shared storage that multiple computers can access across the network.
The TRENDnet switch is also more useful in a setup where there are multiple fast network devices. Its four 2.5GbE ports mean you are not buying a switch purely to connect one NAS. Other compatible PCs, workstations or storage devices can use those faster connections as well.
There is another point to consider before buying. The DXP6800 Pro has previously fallen to around $969.99, so $1,099.99 is not its lowest historical price. It is still a reasonable current price if you need this particular class of NAS, but buyers who are not in a hurry may want to watch for another discount.
Adding the TRENDnet switch for about $92 is comparatively modest next to the cost of the NAS. If you already have 10GbE networking, there is obviously little reason to buy it. If you do not, however, the switch could be the piece of hardware that allows the NAS to deliver the performance you are actually paying for.
The biggest thing to remember is that the NAS and switch are only part of the equation. Your hard drives, client devices, network adapters and cabling all need to be capable of keeping up. A 10GbE connection will not automatically make file transfers run at 10Gbps if the drives or computer on the other end become the bottleneck.
For users building a high performance home storage system, though, the combination is compelling. The DXP6800 Pro provides substantial storage capacity and plenty of expansion options, while the TRENDnet switch gives compatible devices a much faster route to that storage.
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