UGREEN NASync DXP2800 vs QNAP TS-264

For a first two-bay NAS for media, containers and backups, the UGREEN NASync DXP2800 is the stronger value: an Intel N100, 8 GB of DDR5 that officially expands to 16 GB, a 2.5GbE port and two M.2 NVMe slots, with a 4K HDMI output. Choose the QNAP TS-264-8G when networking and expansion matter more: two built-in 2.5GbE ports, a PCIe Gen 3 x2 slot for a 10GbE card, and the QTS operating system with its app ecosystem and snapshots. Both enclosures are diskless, so the drives are a separate purchase on either side.

Official specifications checked November 4, 2026. Recommendations are based on manufacturer documentation, not physical evaluation.

Quick picks

Compare specifications and all conditions

First media and container NAS

Our choice

DXP2800

What decides it

N100, 8 GB DDR5, two M.2 NVMe slots, HDMI out, lower entry price class

Fast wired transfers and future 10GbE

Our choice

TS-264-8G

What decides it

Dual 2.5GbE with port trunking; PCIe slot for a dual-port 10GbE card

QNAP's app and snapshot ecosystem

Our choice

TS-264-8G

What decides it

QTS with Container Station, Virtualization Station and volume/LUN snapshots; QuTS hero option

Simplest path from empty box to running

Our choice

DXP2800

What decides it

UGOS with Docker and virtual machines, and a wide drive-compatibility stance with no vendor lock-in

Surveillance or camera recording

Our choice

TS-264-8G

What decides it

QTS surveillance suite compatible with 6,000+ IP cameras of 190+ brands

Full comparison table ↔

Swipe to compare. Row labels stay visible.

Your job	Our choice	What decides it
First media and container NAS	DXP2800	N100, 8 GB DDR5, two M.2 NVMe slots, HDMI out, lower entry price class
Fast wired transfers and future 10GbE	TS-264-8G	Dual 2.5GbE with port trunking; PCIe slot for a dual-port 10GbE card
QNAP's app and snapshot ecosystem	TS-264-8G	QTS with Container Station, Virtualization Station and volume/LUN snapshots; QuTS hero option
Simplest path from empty box to running	DXP2800	UGOS with Docker and virtual machines, and a wide drive-compatibility stance with no vendor lock-in
Surveillance or camera recording	TS-264-8G	QTS surveillance suite compatible with 6,000+ IP cameras of 190+ brands

Your job	Our choice	What decides it
First media and container NAS	DXP2800	N100, 8 GB DDR5, two M.2 NVMe slots, HDMI out, lower entry price class
Fast wired transfers and future 10GbE	TS-264-8G	Dual 2.5GbE with port trunking; PCIe slot for a dual-port 10GbE card
QNAP's app and snapshot ecosystem	TS-264-8G	QTS with Container Station, Virtualization Station and volume/LUN snapshots; QuTS hero option
Simplest path from empty box to running	DXP2800	UGOS with Docker and virtual machines, and a wide drive-compatibility stance with no vendor lock-in
Surveillance or camera recording	TS-264-8G	QTS surveillance suite compatible with 6,000+ IP cameras of 190+ brands

The headline numbers

• 2Drive bays in both enclosures, plus two M.2 NVMe slots each
• 16 GBOfficial maximum memory in both (the TS-264 revision-dependent)
• 2.5Gigabit Ethernet speed class, built into both

Both are x86 Intel two-bay towers with separate NVMe slots and 8 GB of memory in their documented shipping configurations. TS-264-8G buyers should still confirm the memory revision, because older QNAP documentation lists non-expandable 8 GB. The differences are the network ports, the expansion slot and the software.

Full comparison

Best value for a first media and container NAS: UGREEN NASync DXP2800

UGREEN's DXP2800 product page lists the 12th Gen N100, 8 GB DDR5 expandable to 16 GB, and UGOS with Virtual Machine and Docker support. Its two SATA bays take 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives, and its two M.2 NVMe slots work for SSD caching or as a separate SSD storage pool, so you can keep applications on SSD while the hard drives hold the media library.

• N100 with 8 GB DDR5; UGREEN says the memory officially expands to 16 GB, which helps when running several Docker containers or virtual machines at once
• One 2.5GbE port; 10Gbps USB ports for fast external backup
• HDMI output with 4K 60Hz playback directly from the box
• 80TB maximum installed capacity (two 32TB SATA drives plus two 8TB M.2 SSDs)
• Noise: 29 to 34 dB in quiet mode
• 2-year warranty

The trade-offs: a single 2.5GbE port caps wired transfer speed, there is no PCIe slot to change that later, and the warranty is a year shorter than QNAP's. UGREEN says its NAS works with a wide range of 3.5"/2.5" SATA drives and M.2 SSDs with no vendor lock-in, so drive choice is flexible.

• Yes: Docker containers and virtual machines on both (UGOS, and Container/Virtualization Station on QTS)
• Yes: Two NVMe slots for cache or an SSD pool on both
• Yes: Snapshots: QTS records volume and LUN snapshots; UGREEN's DXP2800 page documents RAID levels and backups, not snapshots
• No: DXP2800 has no PCIe slot; TS-264 can take a dual-port 10GbE card
• No: DXP2800 has one 2.5GbE port; TS-264 has two, with port trunking

Best for networking and hardware expansion: QNAP TS-264-8G

The TS-264's advantages are wired and physical. QNAP's TS-264 page and its specification table list two 2.5GbE ports, and QNAP advertises up to 589 MB/s with port trunking — its comparison to a single-port 10GbE NAS; actual speed depends on the switch, cabling, drives and workload. One PCIe Gen 3 x2 slot can accept compatible expansion cards such as a dual-port 10GbE network card or a QM2 card for more M.2 SSDs, so confirm card compatibility before purchase.

• Celeron N5095, 4 cores, burst up to 2.9 GHz, 8 GB DDR4
• Current US table: 8 GB SODIMM DDR4, two memory slots, 16 GB maximum, footnoted Since 2024/01; confirm the actual hardware revision because earlier units may differ
• Two M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 3 x1 slots for cache acceleration or a storage pool; QNAP recommends heatsinks, and M.2 hot swapping is not supported
• Hardware-accelerated transcoding, and Virtualization Station to run Windows/Linux virtual machines with a keyboard, mouse and HDMI monitor
• QTS 5 standard, with a documented switch path to the ZFS-based QuTS hero (switching requires backing up and removing all disks)
• 3-year warranty, extendable up to 5 years

The trade-offs: QNAP's own documents conflict on this model's memory. The current US comparison table gives the SODIMM configuration above, while the older TS-x62/TS-x64 family manual lists the TS-264-8G with non-expandable 8 GB RAM — check the actual enclosure before buying RAM. The current table also labels the HDMI port 2.1 while the older manual says 2.0, so confirm the exact revision before relying on HDMI 2.1 features or buying cables and adapters. QNAP directs buyers to its model-specific compatibility list for drives, SSDs, memory and expansion cards, rather than UGREEN's no-lock-in stance.

Equal two-drive kits, and what you actually get to keep

1. 1

   Pick two matched drives

   Two equal drives in RAID 1 keep one drive's capacity and survive a single drive failure; UGREEN says two-bay models support Basic, JBOD, RAID 0 and RAID 1 only.

2. 2

   Add SSDs if you run applications

   Both enclosures have two M.2 slots for cache or a separate pool, so apps and indexes can live on SSD while media stays on the hard drives.

3. 3

   Plan the network side

   The DXP2800 has one 2.5GbE port; the TS-264 has two, and its PCIe slot can add 10GbE later.

4. 4

   Keep a separate backup copy

   RAID is not a backup. Either way, budget for an independent backup destination — see our NAS vs cloud storage guide.

With two matched drives, capacity math is identical on both platforms: RAID 1 gives you the capacity of the smaller drive. QNAP's own example builds the TS-264 with two 3.5-inch 24 TB drives in RAID 1 plus two 2 TB M.2 SSDs, with drives and SSDs sold separately and exact models checked against QNAP's compatibility list. UGREEN's maximum configuration is two 32TB SATA drives plus two 8TB M.2 SSDs for 80TB of installed storage. How much you keep depends on the RAID level you choose, not on the enclosure.

Software: UGOS vs QTS

UGOS ships with the DXP2800's Virtual Machine and Docker support, media management with 4K 60Hz HDMI playback, and UGREEN's app and mobile ecosystem. QTS is the more mature platform: Container Station and Virtualization Station, Hybrid Backup Sync for local, remote and cloud backups, and volume and LUN snapshots that QNAP positions as ransomware protection. QTS uses ext4 by default; QuTS hero uses ZFS with data integrity and deduplication, but it needs at least 8GB RAM, at least 16GB for inline deduplication, and a full backup before switching.

If your decision is really Synology vs QNAP — the OS comparison — the QNAP side is covered here; our Synology vs UGREEN comparison covers the other pairing, and our two-bay NAS guide puts both in the wider field.

Backup, snapshots and recovery

QNAP's workflow is documented in depth: Hybrid Backup Sync backs up to another NAS, to mainstream public clouds, or over Rsync, FTP and CIFS; Snapshot Replica copies snapshots to a second NAS; Time Machine and Qsync cover Macs and PC file sync. QTS also supports QuDedup for deduplicating backups. The DXP2800's documentation covers RAID 1 drive-failure protection and phone photo backup in UGREEN's apps, and UGREEN explicitly warns that RAID is not a backup — but it does not document a snapshot feature, so plan file-version and off-box backups accordingly.

How we choose

We haven't tested either enclosure. Processor, memory, ports, slots, warranty and software capabilities come from UGREEN's and QNAP's own product pages, specification tables and the TS-x62/TS-x64 family manual, linked in each section above, checked November 4, 2026. Where a maker's own documents conflict — the TS-264-8G's memory and HDMI versions — we name both rather than pick one. Picks are ordered by what a two-drive buyer actually keeps: platform choice, wired speed and expansion, then software workflow. Full method: How we choose.

Buying guide

Start with the network. Both boxes speak 2.5GbE, but your switch and computers have to as well: our 2.5Gb switch picks and USB 2.5Gb adapters cover the cheap upgrades. If you already run multi-gig, 10GbE on the TS-264 is optional via a compatible PCIe expansion card, and the DXP2800 has no PCIe expansion slot.

Then the software. QTS offers the deeper bench: Container Station, Virtualization Station, snapshots and a documented ZFS path in QuTS hero. UGOS covers Docker and virtual machines with a simpler, newer interface. Buyers choosing between platforms rather than boxes should also read what a NAS actually is before committing either way.

Verdict

Buy the UGREEN NASync DXP2800 for a first two-bay media and container NAS: the N100, expandable 8 GB DDR5, two NVMe slots and HDMI output deliver the most hardware per dollar at this size, accepting a single 2.5GbE port and a shorter warranty. Buy the QNAP TS-264-8G when the network and the platform matter: dual 2.5GbE, a PCIe slot that can grow into 10GbE, QTS snapshots and a three-year warranty — after confirming the SODIMM memory revision. For the wider two-bay field, including Synology's options, start at our two-bay NAS guide.