NAS Reccomandation

[Enquiries]

Hi Nascompares,

First of all, thank you for the amazing work you do—your videos and articles have been indispensable in helping me navigate the NAS landscape. I’ve just watched your YouTube video “UGREEN NAS 1 Year Later – Should You Buy?” and it convinced me the platform could be a strong fit.

I’m a Software Engineer about to buy my very first NAS, and these are my key requirements:
• Adobe Lightroom photo catalog
• Video editing directly on the NAS/storage
• Mac backups (Time Machine)
• Running Docker containers
• Running virtual machines
• Home video streaming

I’d also like straightforward remote access and easy file-sharing so I can finally cancel the various cloud-storage subscriptions I’m still paying for.

Right now I’m considering the UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus paired with 2 × Seagate IronWolf drives (8 TB or 10 TB each).

Does that sound like a solid setup for my workload, or would you recommend something different?

Thanks again for all the advice you’ve already shar

[ed]

Thank you so much for your kind words! We're really glad the videos and articles have been helpful—that means a lot.

Based on your needs and the budget of €1000–1100, the UGREEN NASync DXP4800 Plus actually looks like a solid fit. It checks a lot of the boxes:

Docker and VMs – The Intel N100 isn’t a powerhouse, but it’s efficient and more than capable of running lightweight containers and a few VMs.

Adobe Lightroom & video editing – If you’re working with large files, using fast network access (2.5GbE+) and maybe an SSD cache could really help. Editing directly off the NAS is possible, though for heavier projects, local scratch disks might still be faster.

Mac Time Machine – Works well with SMB shares, and the UGREEN OS is improving support steadily.

Remote access & file sharing – UGREEN has its own cloud gateway and apps, which are straightforward, though not quite as mature as Synology or QNAP yet. But for personal/home use, it’s pretty smooth.

Home video streaming – If you're streaming to Apple TV, Plex on Shield, or similar devices that support direct playback, you should have no issues. Just avoid relying too much on real-time transcoding, as the CPU isn’t really built for that.

As for drives, 2 × 8TB or 10TB Seagate IronWolf is a great start. You can run them in a mirrored (RAID 1) configuration to get redundancy with around 8–10TB usable space. That setup fits nicely within your budget, especially if you already have some drives or can grab them on sale.

The only real alternative I’d suggest—if you're looking for something more mature and customizable—would be a DIY NAS using TrueNAS Scale or Unraid. But it sounds like you’re aiming for a turnkey experience, and in that case, the NASync DXP4800 Plus is one of the best-value options out right now.