The current Ugreen NAS systems allow the RAM to be upgraded or they simply have an accessible RAM slot. This also applies to my Ugreen DXP4800, for which you can find a test here.
But what’s the point of upgrading the RAM? With some QNAP and Synology NAS systems we have the option for virtualization, where more RAM obviously makes sense. But Ugreen NAS systems do not yet support this function.
So does more RAM actually help with Ugreen NAS systems? Do these even accept all normal RAM modules or do we need special RAM?
Let’s find out all this in this article!
SO-DIMM DDR5 beim DXP4800
The Ugreen DXP4800 has a SO-DIMM DDR5 RAM slot on its underside. This accepts “notebook” DDR5 RAM modules. The larger Plus models from Ugreen should even have two RAM slots. Here Ugreen “officially” speaks of up to 64 GB.
The DXP4800 contains the Intel N100 processor. I have already written about how much RAM the Intel N100 can basically accept.
48 GB RAM im DXP4800
Currently the largest DDR5 notebook RAM modules are the 48 GB sticks from Crucial. If the NAS accepts these, then 16 GB or 32 GB modules should also work without any problems.
And yes, the DXP4800 accepts the 48 GB RAM module without any problems! Although apparently Ugreen didn’t expect the NAS to ever see that much RAM.
The control panel shows “only” 32 GB of RAM, but the task manager shows that the NAS can use the full RAM.
What’s the point of more RAM in a NAS? (Theory)
So what’s the point of having more RAM in a NAS, in theory? Most NAS operating systems, whether from QNAP, Synology or Ugreen, are very economical when it comes to RAM!
The DXP4800 barely needs 2 GB when idle, and the situation is similar with other manufacturers. Then why more?
Reason 1 – Virtualization and Docker
Ugreen NAS systems do not yet offer this function, but Synology and QNAP do. These systems allow you to virtualize operating systems or run Docker containers, which can be quite RAM-intensive. Here it can make sense to install more RAM.
Grund 2 – Caching
Many Linux-based operating systems, like the one we have here, use excess RAM that is not currently needed by the operating system as temporary storage.
So if you copy data to the NAS, it may first be loaded into RAM and then onto your drives, which can greatly speed up file transfer.
If you copy a file to your NAS and the copying process is faster in the first few seconds than the rest of the time, this is a sign of a RAM cache.
The test
For this test, I equipped the Ugreen DXP4800 with a 6 TB HDD, as well as 8 GB RAM and 48 GB RAM.
The 6 TB HDD is clearly a bottleneck on a NAS with 2.5 Gbit LAN! This does not achieve the 250 MB/s+ that the NAS can in principle achieve.
Here I transferred a 35 GB file to and from the NAS and stopped the time.
Here we see a massive difference in data rate between 8GB RAM and 48GB RAM.
Sure, the test is “optimized” for a clear result. The differences would become increasingly similar for a file larger than 35 GB.
The same applies if you use faster HDDs or SSDs. With SSDs you effectively won’t feel any difference.
We can also see this difference in data rate in a diagram. Here I logged the network activity.
Here you can see how the transfer stays at a high speed significantly longer with 48 GB of RAM.
Again, apart from the RAM, I didn’t change anything between tests.
In the software
During the copying process, you can also see in the Task Manager how the “in cache” part slowly fills up.
However, the NAS does not use 100% of the RAM as cache.
Conclusion
More RAM can significantly increase the speed of NAS systems! Especially if you use slower HDDs.
This is simply because the excess RAM is used as a cache. This applies to Ugreen NAS systems, as well as to Synology or QNAP models.
A RAM upgrade can make sense, especially since Ugreen also uses normal “standard” RAM and even accepts up to 48 GB modules from Crucial.