A 5-Bay RAID Enclosure Costs Less Than a 4-Bay NAS and Is the Wrong Answer for Most People — Unless You Only Have One Computer
UGREEN sells a 5-bay USB-C RAID enclosure around $200 and a 4-bay NASync around $620. The gap is not build quality; it is whether the storage has its own computer. One serves a single machine at USB speed, the other serves everything on the network, always.
Same company, similar shape, completely different products
UGREEN sells both, and the price difference points the wrong way for most buyers:
| 5-Bay RAID Enclosure | NASync DXP4800 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Approx. price | $199.78–$269.99 | $619.99 |
| Bays | 5 | 4 (+2 M.2 NVMe) |
| Connection | USB-C to one computer | 10GbE + 2.5GbE network |
| Has its own computer? | No | Yes (Intel Pentium Gold 8505) |
| Available when your laptop is off | No | Yes |
| Serves other devices | No | Every device on the network |
| Max raw capacity | 100TB | 144TB |
The enclosure has more bays and costs a third as much. It is still the wrong purchase for a lot of the people who buy it, and the reason is the row in bold.
A DAS is a box of drives. A NAS is a computer that owns a box of drives.
What that difference means day to day
The DAS exists when your computer says so. Unplug the laptop, close the lid, take it to a meeting — the storage is gone. For a desktop that never moves, this is irrelevant. For a laptop, it means your archive is available only at the desk.
The DAS serves exactly one machine. Your partner’s laptop cannot reach it. Your phone cannot back up to it. The TV cannot play from it. Everything must go through the one computer it is attached to, and only while that computer is awake.
The NAS runs continuously and independently. Scheduled backups happen whether you are there or not. Photos sync from phones automatically. It is reachable from any device, and with configuration, from outside the house.
The NAS costs more because it is a computer. The DXP4800 Plus runs an Intel Pentium Gold 8505 with its own operating system, network stack and app platform. You are not paying $420 extra for a nicer metal case.
Check UGREEN multi-bay RAID enclosures on Amazon
Where the DAS is genuinely the better buy
It is not a lesser product; it is a different one, and there are cases where it wins outright.
One desktop computer that never moves. A video editing workstation, a photography desktop. The DAS gives you more bays for less money, over a direct USB connection with no network in the path.
Working directly off the array. Editing from a NAS over Gigabit Ethernet is limited to about 110MB/s. A USB-C DAS runs several times that. If you scrub timelines off the array rather than copying files to local storage first, direct attachment is faster and simpler.
You already have a NAS and need bulk archive. A DAS attached to the NAS or to a desktop as a backup target for the NAS is a sensible second tier.
Budget is the binding constraint. $200 for five bays of redundant storage is a lot of protection per dollar, and it is far better than no redundancy at all.
Where it disappoints
“I want my photos backed up automatically from my phone.” That is a NAS job. A DAS cannot do it.
“I want to stream media to the TV.” NAS.
“Two people need access.” NAS.
“I want it to just work while I’m asleep.” NAS.
If more than one of those describes you, the $420 difference is buying the thing you actually wanted, and the cheaper box will sit half-used.
The RAID warnings that apply to both
RAID is not a backup. It protects against one specific failure — a drive dying — and nothing else. Accidental deletion propagates instantly to every drive. Ransomware encrypts the array as readily as a single disk. A fire, a flood or a theft takes the whole box. You still need a copy elsewhere, ideally off-site.
The rule worth remembering is 3-2-1: three copies, on two kinds of media, one off-site. A RAID array is one copy that is resilient to one kind of failure.
Hardware RAID ties you to the enclosure. A hardware RAID controller writes the array in its own format. If the enclosure fails, you may need an identical unit to read the drives. This is a real risk for a product line that gets discontinued. Software RAID on a NAS is generally more portable, because the array can often be reassembled on different hardware.
Rebuild is the dangerous window. When a drive fails and you replace it, the array reads every remaining drive completely to rebuild. That is the moment a second, marginal drive is most likely to fail — which is precisely why RAID 5 on very large drives makes some people nervous, and why RAID 6 or a mirror exists.
Buy drives from different batches. Drives from the same production run tend to fail at similar times. Mixing batches is a free way to decorrelate that risk.
Check UGREEN NASync network storage on Amazon
What to buy
One desktop, editing large files, budget-conscious. The 5-bay RAID enclosure, around $199.78–$269.99. Run RAID 5 or a mirror, and arrange a separate off-site copy.
A household with phones, laptops and a TV. NASync DXP2800 at $369.99 for two bays, or DXP4800 Plus at $619.99 for four. The refurbished DXP4800 Plus at around $449.99 is worth considering — the fragile, expensive parts are the drives, which you supply.
You want both. NAS for availability and household access, DAS attached to the NAS or a desktop as the backup target. This is a genuinely good architecture and cheaper than two NAS units.
You only need one big drive. Neither. A single external drive plus cloud backup covers more failure modes than a RAID array without off-site copies does.
Caveats
Prices are UGREEN store prices captured in 2026 and change frequently; the multi-bay enclosures in particular were showing significant discounts when we checked.
Maximum capacity figures assume the largest drives currently available and will change as drive capacities increase.
RAID level behaviour, rebuild times and enclosure-specific recovery options vary by product. We have not tested these units or attempted a rebuild on either.
Nothing here is a substitute for a tested backup. An untested backup is a hypothesis, and RAID is not a backup at all.
Related guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- Q: Is RAID a backup?
- A: No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in storage. RAID protects against a drive failing. It does not protect against deletion, ransomware, fire, theft or the enclosure itself dying — all of which affect every drive in the array simultaneously. You still need a separate copy somewhere else.
- Q: What is the real difference between a DAS and a NAS?
- A: A DAS plugs into one computer over USB and exists only while that computer is on and connected. A NAS has its own processor, operating system and network port, so it serves every device in the house continuously. The RAID enclosure is a DAS; the NASync is a NAS.
- Q: Can I just plug a DAS into my router and share it?
- A: Some routers offer this and it is almost always disappointing. Router USB ports are slow, the sharing implementations are basic, and there is no scheduled backup, no snapshots and no app ecosystem. If network access is the goal, buy a NAS rather than approximating one.
- Q: Which RAID level should I use?
- A: For most people RAID 1 or RAID 5. RAID 1 mirrors two drives — simple, and you lose half your capacity. RAID 5 stripes across three or more with one drive's worth of parity, giving better capacity efficiency. RAID 0 offers no redundancy at all and doubles your risk of total loss; avoid it unless the data is disposable.
- Q: Is a hardware RAID enclosure risky if the enclosure fails?
- A: Yes, and it is an underrated risk. Hardware RAID formats drives in a controller-specific way, so a failed enclosure may require an identical replacement to read the array. A NAS using a standard software RAID is generally more recoverable, because the array can often be reassembled on other hardware.