Best 8-bay NAS under $1,500 for a home media library (2026)
Updated 2026-11-08
Short answer. Buy the UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus ($1,369.99; buy: https://dealectric.com/go/ugreen-nasync-dxp8800-plus), the best 8-bay NAS under $1,500 for a home media library in 2026, $1,369.99 diskless on 2026-11-03: the only 8-bay at that price with both 10GbE built in (two ports) and an Intel iGPU for Plex transcoding (Core i5-1235U, Quick Sync), plus two M.2 slots, two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a PCIe x4 slot. Eight 12 TB drives in RAID 6 give 72 TB usable.
The cheaper 8-bays give up one or the other: Synology's DS1825+ (about $1,150–1,219) and QNAP's TS-873A ($1,149) run AMD Ryzens with no Quick Sync and 2.5GbE only (the DS1825+ takes no Synology 10GbE mini card), QNAP's TS-832PX ($1,150) is ARM with 10G SFP+, and UniFi's UNAS Pro 8 ($799) is an ARM rackmount with no Plex. Reviews of the DXP8800 Plus measured 650–700 MB/s over 10GbE at the default MTU, 64–66 W idle and 90–94 W active with ten drives, and about 49 dB at 1 m under load, so give it a cupboard, not a shelf by the sofa.
- UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus, $1,369.99. Buy: https://dealectric.com/go/ugreen-nasync-dxp8800-plus
Published 2026-11-03 · prices checked 2026-11-03.
| Model | CPU / Quick Sync | RAM (max) | Built-in LAN | M.2 / PCIe | Plex HW transcode | Warranty | Price | Code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus Buy: https://dealectric.com/go/ugreen-nasync-dxp8800-plus | Intel Core i5-1235U, 10C/12T, Quick Sync | 8 GB DDR5 (64 GB) | 2× 10GbE | 2× NVMe; 1× PCIe x4; 2× Thunderbolt 4 | Yes (Docker, Plex Pass) | 2 years | $1,369.99 | No discount code applies. |
| UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Ultra | Intel Core 7 150U, 10C/12T, Quick Sync | to 96 GB DDR5 | 2× 10GbE | 2× NVMe; PCIe Gen4; 2× Thunderbolt 4 | Yes | 2 years | $1,779.99 (UGREEN NAS store, 2026-11-03): over the line | Not sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison. |
| Synology DS1825+ | AMD Ryzen V1500B, 4C/8T; no iGPU | 8 GB ECC (32 GB) | 2× 2.5GbE | 2× NVMe; 1× PCIe Gen3 x8 slot (x4) | No hardware transcoding | 3 years (5 with Extended Warranty Plus) | $1,149.99 (B&H) to $1,218.99 (Best Buy), undated | Not sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison. |
| QNAP TS-873A | AMD Ryzen V1500B, 4C; no iGPU | to 64 GB | 2× 2.5GbE | 2× NVMe; 2× PCIe Gen3 x4 | No hardware transcoding | 3 years | $1,149 (Newegg, Walmart; undated) | Not sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison. |
| QNAP TS-832PX | ARM Cortex-A57 4C 1.7 GHz | 4 GB (16 GB) | 2× 10GbE SFP+ + 2× 2.5GbE | None built in; 1× PCIe Gen2 | No | 2 years | $1,150 (Walmart, undated) | Not sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison. |
| QNAP TS-855X | Intel Atom C5125, 8C; no iGPU | 8 GB (128 GB) | 1× 10GbE + 2× 2.5GbE | 2× NVMe; 2× PCIe Gen3 x4 | No (no iGPU) | 3 years | Not found | Not sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison. |
| Asustor Lockerstor 8 Gen3 (AS6808T) | AMD Ryzen V3C14, 4C; no iGPU | 16 GB ECC DDR5 (64 GB) | 2× 10GbE + 2× 5GbE | 4× NVMe PCIe 4.0 | No hardware transcoding | 3 years | $1,681–1,817 (Saitech, Best Buy; undated): over the line | Not sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison. |
| Ubiquiti UniFi UNAS Pro 8 (2U rackmount) | ARM Cortex-A57 4C | 16 GB, fixed | 2× 10G SFP+ + 1× 10GbE RJ45 | 2× NVMe (cache); no PCIe | No app platform found | Not found (UI Care 5-year plan $199) | $799 (store.ui.com, 2026-11-03) | Not sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison. |
Rows marked with a code and buy link are products Dealectric lists: the price was verified on the brand's own US store on 2026-11-07 and the code is tested daily in that brand's cart; the date shown is its last pass (last check 2026-11-13). The other rows (Asustor, QNAP, Synology, UGREEN, Ubiquiti) are included so the comparison is complete; their figures and prices were read from the makers' own US pages on 2026-11-03 and are not re-checked daily. The buy links are affiliate links: they open the brand's official US store at no cost to the shopper, and the commission pays for the testing; see the disclosure.
What reviewers measured
- 10GbE: NASCompares (April 2024) saw about 650–700 MB/s up and down at MTU 1500, "less than expected" for a 10GbE link; its sibling DXP6800 Pro, with the same chip and ports, later measured 9.5 Gbit/s in iPerf3 at Notebookcheck, so the gap is in the drives and file protocol, not the ports. Jumbo frames and an SSD pool help.
- Power: UGREEN says 29 W hibernating and 70 W active; NASCompares' wall meter read 64–66 W idle and 90–94 W active with ten drives fitted. Size the UPS on the measured numbers.
- Noise: about 49 dB at 1 m under load (AppleInsider, via StarryHope); the 6-bay sibling idles at 34.6 dB(A).
- Plex: runs in Docker on UGOS; hardware transcoding needs a Plex Pass. No review published a stream count for the i5-1235U; the closest measurement, an Iris Xe i7-1165G7 in Jellyfin, held three 4K HDR tone-mapped transcodes at 73 fps each, so plan on about three tone-mapped 4K streams or many more plain 1080p ones.
- Software: NASCompares scored the hardware high and UGOS 6/10 at launch (April 2024); the OS has had two years of updates since.
Eight drives: capacity and cost
RAID 6 keeps two drives for parity: eight 8 TB drives give 48 TB usable, eight 12 TB give 72 TB, eight 16 TB give 96 TB (decimal; the NAS shows about 9% less in TiB). NAS drive prices swung widely in 2026: 12 TB IronWolf Pro drives were listed from $229.99 (Newegg, Best Buy) to $429.99 (Amazon, February 2026) and 8 TB WD Red Plus drives at $345–416 in September 2026, so eight 12 TB drives run roughly $1,840 to $3,440 depending on the week. Price them on the day; the NAS is the smaller half of the bill.
Why not the others
The Synology DS1825+ is the polished choice for backups and Synology Photos, but its Ryzen cannot hardware-transcode and its PCIe slot takes a full-size 10GbE card, not Synology's mini card. QNAP's Intel 8-bay with 10GbE (TS-855X) uses an Atom with no iGPU. The Asustor Lockerstor 8 Gen3 has the best network ports of the group and no iGPU, at $1,700 or more. UniFi's UNAS Pro 8 is the cheapest 8-bay with 10GbE but is a rack unit running UniFi Drive, with no Plex or Docker.
Sources
- UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Plus — ai.ugreen.com
- UGREEN NASync DXP8800 Ultra — ai.ugreen.com
- NASCompares: UGREEN DXP8800 Plus review (10GbE, power) — nascompares.com
- StarryHope: DXP8800 Plus specs and review summary (noise, power) — www.starryhope.com
- Marius Hosting: Plex on the DXP8800 Plus — mariushosting.com
- Notebookcheck: UGREEN DXP6800 Pro review (same chip, 9.5 Gbit/s) — www.notebookcheck.net
- computingforgeeks: iGPU transcoding tests (Iris Xe, Jellyfin) — computingforgeeks.com
- Synology DS1825+ — www.synology.com
- Synology E10G22-T1-Mini (compatibility list) — www.synology.com
- QNAP TS-873A — www.qnap.com
- QNAP TS-832PX — www.qnap.com
- QNAP TS-855X — www.qnap.com
- Asustor AS6808T — www.asustor.com
- UniFi UNAS Pro 8 — store.ui.com
- storagediskprices: IronWolf Pro prices (Feb 2026) — storagediskprices.com
Published 2026-11-03; figures for other brands read on 2026-11-03; our prices verified 2026-11-07. Corrections welcome at [email protected] or /feedback.