TERRAMASTER F4-423 4-Bay High Performance NAS for SMB
TERRAMASTER F4-423 4-Bay High Performance NAS for SMB with N5095 Quad-core CPU, 4GB DDR4 Memory, 2x 2.5GbE Ports,Network Storage Server (Diskless)
From the brand
TerraMaster’s focus has been on digital storage products. In line with the evolving technological landscape, TerraMaster has developed a distinctive product line, which includes both direct and network attached storage devices.
At present, TerraMaster sells its products in more than 40 countries, which are widely used in education, finance, government, supermarkets, clinics, scientific research, law firms, film production, home, and other fields.
| Weight: | 3.63 kg |
| Dimensions: | 30 x 28 x 18.9 cm; 3.63 Kilograms |
| Brand: | TERRAMASTER |
| Manufacture: | TERRAMASTER |
| Dimensions: | 30 x 28 x 18.9 cm; 3.63 Kilograms |
The unit looks good and has been very easy to add drives and set up. The operating system and support has been great, with no issues experienced so far. The unit connected to my local network first time swiftly. Using the Terramaster installation guide was straightforward and easy to follow. The app store is well integrated and provides loads of useful options.
Bought this a few months ago and it does everything I need it to.
Very much plug and play.
Able to set up local and remote access and stream content to all my devices.
TOS has a nice and easy UI to navigate and setting up RAID is very simple.
Great bit of kit and runs very quietly under my desk. 🙂
The F2-223 is a great little machine and I’ve had no hardware problems with it so far (purchased 2 months ago). Installing additional RAM does mean taking the body apart but this isn’t a problem and is very straightforward (just be careful with any thin plastic parts).
My only issue is the lack of readily available support (which comes from China so a completely different time zone to myself in UK). However, with enough digging on Google you will eventually find the answers you need. Don’t expect much from TerraMaster themselves.
Definitely recommend this product if you want to set up a media server on a budget like I did.
I only use this for machine backups and other backups. Runs well, very quiet with WD Reds in. Also really like the user interface. Mac’s pick up the NAS straight away and backup no issues. Only tip, buy the memory upgrade – and use terramaster sticks otherwise the memory won’t work.
This was my first attempt at a home media server, and I have to say I’m quite impressed with this device. It seems well constructed, the OS is intuitive, and there are a lot of extensions available for install.
The NAS works after about a week with fiddling. I’m a noob when it comes to these. I only just about cope with windows. So a large learnig curve for the TOS os. Getting there slowly. Using it as a plex machine
This is my second Terramaster NAS.
They are very easy to set up and run without problems. The interface is easy to use and clear and gives excellent diagnostics.
Terramaster make excellent products that work faultlessly
I’m new to NAS and been searching months to find something that would fit my needs (Personal storage, Plex Server etc) but something affordable and easy to use. I saw the Terramaster F4-223 on a deal (100 off) which fell within in my budget, but I did feel like I was taking a risk as I was keen on getting another branded NAS box which was well reviewed. After setting up plus extensive testing, I cant believe I didnt buy one sooner, i’m really chuffed with it especially the build quality, it minutes to install the hard drives and its streams to multiple devices without breaking a sweat (4K, transcoding etc). You get allot of bang for your buck and I like the fact that you can upgrade the hardware i.e. NVME SSD’s (for OS/caching), RAM and also add an expansion box via USB. If you are looking for a budget friendly NAS with great hardware for the price, then definitely give it a try! Double Thumbs up from me 🙂
been away from a dedicated nas for a while ,probably due the cost of others !
tried using a homebrew truenas ,but had issues with ZFS ,nfs shares ,
really i just need a basic network share ,
specs on this are really good for the money ,
software , meh ,tnas pc will not connect -,nor tnas .local
but i just used angry ip scanner and added the ip address bookmarked it that way
just seen the community apps and hoping i can install home assistant ,a usb hub for zwave – zigbee dongles
having a very lightweight system , will add a couple of NVME drive and upgrade the ram in the future
Having wanted a NAS for a long time I finally pulled the trigger on Black Friday 2023. This review is written after nearly 4 weeks of use.
I only wanted the NAS for video streaming & backing-up in the immediate, with the possibility of getting into the Home Assistant ecosystem further in the future, so my priority was hardware over software. With this Terramaster F4-423 I am definitely getting my bang for the buck.
That isn’t to say that the software isn’t up to par. For my use-case scenario it is more than adequate. Account and software set up was simple enough, though I think the instruction could be a little clearer, but with purposefully slow and steady progression I was soon up and running.
The Plex video playback, which was the #1 priority, has been faultless so far. The TOS OS & interface is easy to navigate and has provided me with everything I’ve needed so far.
My one major gripe was the installing the NVMe drive. I did this before initial set up and as a result the drive was folded into my TRAID instead of being available for hyper-caching. I didn’t see anything in the set-up instruction on how to avoid or correct this, or that the NVMe should be added after set up. I intend to simply purchase another and utilize the second NVMe slot, but it does seem to be a waste.
The other point I would raise is that when disassembling the F4-423 to install the NVMe (or RAM) there are a few wires that are tricky to disconnect and re-connect, but it is not too far from the norm for any one used to PC building or other electronics.
OVERALL
Very pleased so far with my purchase and would recommend to friends. 4/5
I purchased this due to the high specs at a decent price point. Expandable memory, NVME support and more make this a perfect unit with all I required. Very impressed with the ease of setup and feature set is strong. So far this is working very well indeed and I am more than happy. I’ve wanted a NAS for sometime now to replace a 10yr old device no longer supported. Amazing to have a proper unit with so many features so I’m well happy. Defiantly would recommend this so get it purchased.
Delighted with this. Feels well built, great specs (2x M2 2280, 2.5Gbe and an Intel chip is great at this price point). Simple but sturdy packaging. Yet to figure out all the features but apparently the TOS software keeps improving.
Spent a lot of time comparing this to other models from Synology, Asustor, QNAP and pleased with the decision to go with this.
I bought this to replace an old NAS. This NAS is well built and the hardware is great. The Amazon description states it comes with 2GB of RAM, but it comes with 4GB of RAM. I have updated the BIOS to allow booting to a different OS instead of TOS. I am yet to finish configuring the NAS and have no complaints with my purchase.
Ordered on Black Friday and arrived the following day. set up took miniutes, the creation of the volume takes longer due to the size of the four hard disks installed, so far at 24% and its been about 2 hours, but that is to be expected. the product support has been faultless so far, pre sales was extreamely helpfull and knowladgeable on the live chat. ill update further when i have finished setting up the volume and files. I need to install Plex which was the main reason for purchasing the unit for music and films.
I bought the F4-423 with a specific plan in mind and I am happy to say it works perfectly. Opened the unit and installed 16gb RAM and two NVME drives (All Crucial). Then replaced the TOS5 USB stick with one with unraid installed. Then transferred my unraid install out of my ageing and oversized case into this. It works ‘out the box’. My unit has an N5095 in it and most reviews online I have seen suggest this is the norm, however this is a little beast of a chip! I have Plex running in a docker and is transcoding using the iGPU which for a 4k HDR stream downscaling to the 1080p with HDR – SDR tone mapping is only using about 30-40% CPU usage and 50% iGPU load. I’ve also got a Win10 VM running on cores 3&4 and it is snappier than the same setup I had before with 4x cores on an old AMD FX chip. My only reservation at the moment is I can’t get the write speed anywhere near sensible if writing to the two NVME drives in a BTRFS mirrored cache pool. I know the NVME drives on this board only have one PCIe lane available limiting them to 1000mb/s speeds but even so I can’t get it to perform better than writing direct to the HDD array. But this could be a config issue rather than hardware so won’t mark it down for this at this stage. Overall for my use case I’m blown away by this device, does exactly what I need in a small form factor that is quiet and sips power.
Unit itself is reasonable, very easy to add in HDD but M2 or RAM upgrade involves removal of the case – luckily this is fairly straightforward. Fan noise seems non-existent, hard drive noise obviously dependent on the quality of your drives but I’ve certainly no complaints.
TOS seems functional but I am a little nervous about the level of support available, official forum on Terramaster website doesn’t seem very active so I’m hoping I don’t hit any major issues. But so far, all seems to be going ok for my pretty basic needs.
I made sure I read the compatibility list, and then ordered 2 x NVMe M.2: 2 x 16Gb Memory Modules and 2 x WD 16Tb Drives. All arrived and was assembled and up and running in less than an hour.
It has been running constantly, with little noise for 48 Hours and I have transferred all my data (8Tb) over to the TERRAMASTER.
Exceptionally happy
Joh
This is a replacement for my tired WD MyCloud (hard drive started to click and performance is sub par with today’s demands – no surprise considering it only has a dual core 650Mhz CPU & 256MB RAM) and I am very happy with it, the difference is night and day. It is a great choice for home users who need a reliable and affordable way to store and share files.
The F2-423 is a 2-bay NAS that comes with a quad-core Celeron N5105 processor, 4GB of DDR4 RAM, and two 2.5GbE ports. It also has two M.2 NVMe SSD slots for caching, I’ve populated one with a 250GB SSD which has improved caching performance.
I installed two Toshiba N300 4TB hard drives and configured them in RAID 1 for redundancy. This means that my data is safe even if one of the hard drives fails. These Toshiba drives are not as quiet as I was led to believe, choose wisely!
The TerraMaster operating system is intuitive and user-friendly but could do with a bit more polish. I was able to set up the NAS and get it running in just a few minutes although this is not factoring in the time it took to synchronise the RAID 1 array, this took around 6 hours.
I’m very happy with the performance of the F2-423. It is fast and reliable. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a NAS for the home.
Here are some of the things I like about the TerraMaster F2-423:
Aluminium housing (except the front and back panels).
Energy efficient design.
Powerful quad-core processor.
2.5GbE ports for fast file transfers.
Two M.2 NVMe SSD slots for caching.
Easy to use TerraMaster operating system.
What I don’t like:
Hibernation is a bit hit and miss.
More detailed logging is required.
Front and back panels are plastic (I thought they were aluminium).
I hope this helps!
Installed EMBY for the media center function, It was easy to install but during configuration of the library I could not see any sub folders inside the main shared folder. After a bit of searching i noticed that the installation had created a “media” user and set the permissions on the shared folders to “deny” access. Once I changed to read and write everything was visible and let me add the Movie and TV-Show folders to the library.
The the EMBY client on a LG OLED TV connected quickly to the server and it is very snappy to browse and watch anything.
The only negative points I can see with the unit is that to add a M.2 drive or upgrade the RAM you need to take dismantle to box to access the sockets. Not a big issue but would be nice to have an access panel so you don’t have to disconnect everything.
Setup was easy, via step by step guided install from a network attached PC using web browser. However I did need to connect my monitor via HDMI on first reboot and enter the bios to set the correct boot sequence. Plex works well, and read/write speed is good enough for my home use.
Many other apps available through the App Store and community forum. Will look into those in the near future.
I wanted this for both personal and business use. I use it perfectly with plex.
I also use it for backups and folder Sharing.
I have asked support two questions. One was a generic reply and the other was ignored so will try again.
Apart from slow and not very helpful support, the unit itself is perfect for small businesses who don’t want to pay out for features they’ll never use.
I bought a Terramster F2 223 to replace an old Synology NAS. Synology costs considerably more with poorer hardware specs. A lot of the cost of Synology is due to the software which is more extensive and more mature. However, as a home NAS user I will never use many of the Synology Apps. The Terramaster has much better hardware and has most of the features I need. I expect that Terrmaster will soon increase the number and quality of their Apps to remove the need for third party Apps. For example, the Multimedia Centre could could do with further development. I have not given Tech Support any Stars I haven’t used this service yet but expect that they will be able to assist with any problems I may have.