Terramaster F4-424 PRO NAS Review

I mean, ports…thats more than any Synology – 2.5G + HDMI + USB-C

People should really think about these units!

Is this that much better than the qnap ts-464? Or does the processor in this just outclass the qnap?

Is this version quieter than the previous F4-423 model? I have one for almost a year now, using it with TrueNAS, so there is no fan-speed control and I think it is a bit too loud for my taste. Also, the full metal chassis is just resonating with the drives sometimes. I would be happy to switch to one of the newer versions if I knew that it would be quieter than the current one.

Also, can that one big fan cool down 4 "normal" disks? I mean, the non-Exos/non-datacenter, simple NAS drives like Ironwolf or Red series.

32GB RAM is not an issue with that chip. Intel has been playing this game for a while now when they handicap these lower-end chips with arbitrary limitations (like the 1 DIMM channel only…), but the supported memory configuration on the Ark site is such a joke sometimes… Even the older N5095/N5105 chips were able to handle 2*16GB RAM, while the Ark page states the max supported memory size is 16GB. I have an i7-1360P mini PC at home, originally the Ark page stated that the max memory config is 32GB, but it later got updated to 96GB (I have a 2*48GB config in it, and it works like a charm…). I also have an N100 machine at home, which handles a 48GB DIMM, and it has the same memory controller as the N300/305. Heck, dmidecode reports that even 64GB is supported, although as far as I know, there are no 64GB DDR5 SODIMM modules available as of now, so we will see some time in the future.

Also, I found it quite interesting when you said that it would be good to see their solution instead of VirtualBox. While I hate that software, I would love to see a NAS software that leverages popular open-source solutions. Like for example, every brand has its own Docker app. But why? I had a Synology NAS, and that docker interface is horrible IMHO. So they spend a bunch of resources to develop something, that could be entirely replaced by simply pre-installing Portainer with Docker. It is an open-source, well-known solution, that is miles better than anything that I have ever seen on any NAS. But this way, they had to develop it, and now they have to maintain and support it, which uses a bunch of resources instead of simply using something popular with a good reputation. I don't think that Portainer is the only docker UI that should exist, but even if someone has other preferences, they would still probably agree that it is way better than any one of the "custom" NAS solutions.

Can you please say something about the fan noise compared to the QNAP 464?

Hi, Please i beg you to do plex performance without hardware transcoding, purely cpu transcoding

Very nice review of this unit. I picked one up from the Amazon link. I have heard a lot of people say not to use the m.2 for caching but instead to setup one or both of the m.2 slots with drives for running the TOS and applications. If I did that, then what setup would you suggest? One or two m.2 drives? What size drive(s)?

I been thinking i purchase one to run my home lab, proxmox with truenas, home assistant, and other things.. i think would work fine right? That way i can remove my old qnap and my nuc and replace with just onde device..

The only downside i can find is number of usb ports, i will need to had a hub, to connect my 3d printer and ZigBee dongle.

I don't think i can diy a nas with same hardware for the same money.. Or i am wrong?

I seriously hate all the bloat and BS that is included and ENFORCED by default with QNAP NAS's these days, which means it can take upwards of 10 minutes to shutdown, reboot and boot back up to a useable system.
The Terramaster NAS's I've used so far, have been lightening fast in use, but is severely crippled by crap software. Local backup -> USB always fails. There's no way to have logs emailed. ISCSI backup is flakey.
I terms of the N300 CPU, it's only listed as supporting 16GB DDR5 so that particular CPU doesn't take market share away from Intel's other low end CPU's.

Does it support ECC? I know it officially doesn’t but sometimes they unofficially support it.

Also just because the CPU doesn’t officially support 32GB, it doesn’t mean it won’t work reliably. Because it could just be a soft limitation.

My sincere compliments for your correct pronunciation of 'Celeron'….well done! 🙂

Had one delivered last week. Runs unRAID perfectly! 4x12TB spinning rust plus a couple of 512GB NVMe for cache.

Very happy with this after downsizing from a Fractal R5.

Gonna see if I can get a couple of heatsink shims on the SSD, as they can get a little toasty at times when downloading saturates the broadband link (1 gigabit).

Is there a possibility to use it as a DAS to one computer via the 10GB USB Port and as a NAS to the network? Thanks

Hoping that Terramaster release an 8 bay version (F8-424 Pro?) with 64GB of RAM support. Together with the dual NVMe slots – this would be an ideal box for my uses (unRAID).

Great Review, i think iwould put Unraid on it, it is aroud 60 Euro and so much easier ….

It would be interesting to know if they still have an internal USB Drive for the NAS Software installation, like the previous models. That can open the door to alternative NAS OS like TrueNAS Scale. The Hardware looks decent. The memory recommendation from Intel does not mean that 32GByte ran unstabilly. I ran my SandyBridge Intel i7 Mac for 7 years with 16GByte, and 8GByte was officially supported by Intel. No problem at all! Just a better performance.

I have to say that I encounter the problem of your reviews beeing to good. I thought about getting this and now that you said that Qnap (that i dont get because of security) would let me start a virtual machine using the HDMI (what i wanted to do with this Terramaster) I'm angry once again, because the system is almost perfect besides this point.
I just want a NAS that i can hook up to my TV to maybe play some SNES emulator or old games on it. I would like a OS that doesnt tell me that my HDDs are about to fail after 2 years (hello synology), forces me to use their own SDDs (synology again) or is a security risk to get hacked and host my movies on the internet from my IP (QNAP). I mean i could deal with the extra price on the SSD and ignore the HDD warning on a Synology, but they dont have the HDMI port and the slow connection makes SSDs pointles. So i guess i wait a bit longer to see if terramaster rolls out a "HDMI Gui" or hope that synology releases a product that doesnt have limits from the start to indirecly force to be willing to upgrade to the next model?

But well… i still respect Terramaster for this release and hope that QNAP gets their security done to force Synology out of their comport zone.

Yeah, only real bad thing with these N chips, Intel still seems to be reserving features for their enterprise line of CPUs like extra PCI-E lanes.

The new chasis looks like a slim down DS920+