A stylish but basic four-bay NAS for the power-conscious
Ugreen NASync DH4300 Plus: 30-second review
It’s not well known that Ugreen had NAS boxes before they launched the Kickstarter for their DXP line, but these were only available in China. That makes the new DH series the second global NAS release, but it has been available in China for a while.
With the DXP series now considered one of the best premium NAS options around, and new AI models in the pipeline, Ugreen has shifted its focus away from entry-level NAS.
The Ugreen NASync DH4300 Plus is a basic four-bay NAS that runs the same UGOS Pro operating system used by the DXP machines, but with fewer features in this package.
Where previous designs used Intel processors, this one has opted for an ARM SoC, resulting in a lower-power consumption NAS.
This choice has limited the DH4300 in several respects, such as its non-upgradeable memory, no M.2 SSDs for caching, and lack of Thunderbolt support. However, the SoC is eight-core and offers plenty of performance to handle the four conventional drives and a 2.5GbE LAN port.
Ugreen’s prior four-bay, the NASync DXP4800 Plus, had an Intel 5-core CPU, 10GbE and 2.5GbE LAN ports, expandable memory, M.2 slots, but no Thunderbolt. However, that’s a much more costly option, being nearly $600, rather than the $370 that the DH4300 is priced at.
The alternative from Ugreen is the standard DXP4800, which uses a much less powerful Intel N100 CPU with 16GB of RAM, but has dual 2.5GbE LAN ports and dual M.2 SSD slots. But those extra features cost another $134.
Therefore, if you don’t need that level of performance, the DH4300 delivers a good file-serving and media-management experience for a lower outlay.
Where this machine is probably less suited is for developers, since with the maximum memory of 8GB of LPDDR4X, it won’t support many apps or Docker containers.
You could run a few, but other machines in Ugreen’s DXP series will be better in those roles.
Overall, the Ugreen NASync DH4300 Plus offers a solid and user-friendly NAS, which, depending on the drives installed, can provide a total capacity of up to 120 TB. If you don’t care for the UGOS Pro operating system that comes pre-installed, it’s possible to use an alternative, such as UNRaid or TrueNAS, if you want to install those.
This might not be the best NAS device for home and small business users, but the functionality and build quality you get seem impressive for its cost.Ugreen NASync DH4300 Plus: Price and availability
How much does it cost? From $366/€343.99
When is it out? Available now in the US and Europe
Where can you get it? US customers can get it directly or via Amazon
Ugreen has recently been offering discounts on its NAS, and even though it’s a relatively new product, there is a cost reduction on the Ugreen NASync DH4300 Plus, making it $86 less than the MSRP of $429.99, at $365.99 for US customers. Additionally, you can currently receive an extra $22 off for being a new customer.
Those prices are direct from Ugreen, but they can also be found for $364.99 on Amazon via the Ugreen store.
For European customers, the cost is €343.99, and a 5% discount is available for providing your email address. For some curious reason, the DH4300 Plus isn’t on the UK Ugreen website, but I’m sure it will be there soon. However, it is on Amazon.co.uk for £360.
The budget four-bay NAS market is well-stocked, and the primary competition comes from the QNAP TS-433-4G-US, which features an ARM Cortex-A55 quad-core 2.0GHz processor with 4 GB DDR4 RAM and typically sells for $379 (diskless).
However, those wishing to splash $399.99 can find the Synology DS423. A machine that only comes with 2GB of RAM, but it has dual 1GbE LAN ports and a four-core ARM CPU made by Realtek. What you are paying for here is the Synology DSM operating system and apps, because the hardware isn’t truly competitive.
Probably the most challenging product comes directly from Ugreen, the DXP4800 (not plus).
It might be $500, but for that outlay, you get an Intel N100 quad-core processor, 8GB of DDR5 memory (expandable to 16GB), dual 2.5GbE LAN ports, and two M.2 SSD slots.
The extra money does return some useful features for those wanting greater network bandwidth or a fail-over configuration.
Overall, the Ugreen DH4300 Plus is a solid choice for those who require a basic, affordable NAS with limited advanced features and low performance requirements.
Value: 4 / 5Ugreen NASync DH4300 Plus: SpecsUgreen NASync DH4300 Plus: Design
Top-loader
Easy access
Simple and silent
The Ugreen DH4300 Plus reminds me a little of the old WD MyBook designs, where you could swap the drives if (or rather when) they went bad.
The top of the NAS lifts away to reveal the drive bays. There is no catch to flip, but four magnets hold it in place, which seems a bit too easy.
That said, it isn’t the only thing about this design that is minimalist, as the whole thing appears to have been boiled down to only those things that are genuinely needed.
The four vertically mounted drive trays are plastic, but they are solidly made and have rubberised cushioning on them to protect the drives screwed to them.
I’m a fan of tool-less designs, but both drive sizes need screws on the DH4300 Plus, and those are provided along with a small screwdriver. Once the drives are mounted to the trays, they can be pushed back into position, landing with a confident click.
To keep them cool, air is drawn through a grill on the rear of the lid, and it then descends down past the drives before cooling the mainboard in the bottom and then being ejected out of the case along the sides.
For those curious, there is no direct access to the system board without disassembly, and since the memory is surface-mounted, there is little point in doing so.
