UGREEN NASync DH2300 Network Attached Storage

URGREEN have recently launched the NASync DH2300 and the NASync DH4300 Plus for the UK and Irish market.

We reviewed the NASync DH4300 Plus here, but today we are looking at the more budget-friendly NASync DH2300.

The NASync DH2300 is a 2-Bay device which is really easy to set up and use and is aimed at the beginner market. Even so, it doesn’t skimp on features, and the unit is very well spec’d for its price.

What’s in the Box

Inside the box, the NASync DH2300 comes with a power supply, Ethernet cable, an instruction manual, a set of screws for fastening drives into the carriers for each bay, and a small screwdriver.

Specs

Initial Setup

The setup of the NASync DH2300 is very straightforward, even for a beginner. The included manual will step you through each step if it’s your first time, and for anyone else who has any experience with PCs, you will be up and running in no time.

The two drive bays are accessed from a cover at the top of the device. Once removed it reveals two hard driver carriers which can be removed by squeezing two tabs together and pulling up.

The carriers can accept both 2.5” and 3.5” hard drives or SSDs. UGREEN include the screws and a small screwdriver to help you secure your chosen drives in the carriers.

We went with two 4TB, 3.5” drives from Seagate to test out how the unit will perform. It is best practice with NAS to use matching drives to avoid any performance or storage issues.

We fitted both drives and then connected the power supply and Ethernet cable to a free port on a router in the office, and we were ready to power the device up for the first time.

Time to Boot!

We powered up the device and checked the manual to see how we could find the device on our network. To find your device, you open a browser on your PC and navigate to find.ugnas.com.

From there, you are presented with a UGOS Pro operating system and UI, which will guide you through the setup.

The UI guides you through creating an Admin account, linking an email address, and once that is done, it configures the system for a few minutes and then presents you with the UI of the operating system. In total, from pressing the button on the front of the device to turn it on, to the initial setup being complete, and the OS being available to use, took 8 minutes.

The next thing you need to do is to create a Volume using the storage pool available and select the RAID option you require.

As this is a 2-bay device, there are fewer RAID options than there are with the larger 4-bay NASync DH4300 Plus.

We went with RAID 1, which is the recommended choice for a two-drive system. This allows for your data to be stored and backed up on each of the drives, so if one drive fails, your data will still be safe.

The steps to set this up are easy and explained to you along the way. Once you have selected what you want, the system creates the storage pool. As we used large capacity spinning disks, this took about 20 hours to complete.

The system is usable during this time, so you can get busy adding users, installing apps and setting up remote access.

NASync DH2300 Features

The NASync DH2300, while more budget-friendly, is still feature-packed and includes everything you need to a device like that.

Multiple Users

It is possible to add multiple users to the NAS and allocate certain access rights and storage quotas, all of which is easily managed from the Control Panel.

Remote Access

Remote access to the UI is available either through an intermediary server or through port forwarding if you choose to set it up this way.

Ports

The NASync DH2300 comes with three high-speed USB ports (2 x Type A & 1 x Type C) as well as a 1GbE port and an HDMI port that supports 4K/ 60Hz.

File Services

There is support for common file transfer services such as SMB, FTP and NFS, making it really easy to map/access the device’s storage from your PC’s file explorer. The range of services ensures support for just about any of the main PC operating systems.

Security

The system comes with a range of security services to keep your device, connections and data secure, including a Firewall, 2FA for login security, HTTPS certificates and a range of options for blocking suspicious access attempts or IP addresses.

Terminal

For more advanced users, it is possible to use SSH or Telnet to access and control the device.

App Centre

We highlighted the main apps of interest, which are available to download and install on your device in our review of the NASync DH4300 Plus, so rather than cover them here again, please go to the App Centre section of that review to take a look.

File Transfer

When we tested the DH4300 Plus, we installed four SSDs so file transfers were very quick, as you’d expect. With the DH2300, we have gone for spinning mechanical disks, which bring the advantage of far greater storage space at a much more competitive price than SSDs.

During our testing, the mechanical disk performed very well in the DH2300. We performed similar tasks as we did with the DH4300 Plus, and the results were very good given the price point of the device and the mechanical drives.

We transferred 487GB of music files by connecting an NVME SSD to the USB-C port on the front of the device and timed how long it took to complete the task. In total, it took 61 minutes, and we saw transfer speeds averaging 130 MB/s per disk and peaks of around 160 MB/s. The drives have a quoted write speed of 180 MB/s, so for a real-world test in a NAS, these are good numbers.

For day-to-day use of backing up or viewing photos, streaming music or watching movies, which this device is mainly aimed at, the drive speed is going to be more than sufficient for a seamless experience.

Conclusion

The UGREEN NASync DH2300 is an excellent device for keeping all your photos and videos backed up to locally. It can act as a media centre to store your movie and music libraries and is capable of many other more advanced features.

It is simple to set up and operate from a PC or phone, and you don’t need any prior knowledge of NAS devices, so it is very suitable for first-time users. It is available to purchase from UGREEN directly on their UK webstore, so you get the correct 3-pin plug for Ireland, priced at £169, and they are also available to purchase from Amazon.