TerraMaster F4-420

£459.95 | $459.95 www.terra-master.com

Powerful NAS hardware that needs a better software platform

TerraMaster’s F4-220 is a 4-bay Network Attached Storage (NAS) device that’s ideal for home or small business use, or at least it would be, if it didn’t have some serious shortcomings in its software platform.

Design

The appearance of the F4-420 is something that you’ll either love or hate, but it’s consistent with TerraMaster’s range of other NAS boxes and its passion for rounded silver surfaces. Essentially, it’s a metal and plastic construction that feels robust even if it doesn’t break any new ground in terms of style.

On the front are four vertically mounted 3.5-inch drive bays, an array of LED indicator lights and the power button. Around the back are two USB ports (one USB 3.0 along with a USB 2.0 connector) and dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports. There are also two 80mm fans at the rear to keep the contents cool, and a power input for a laptop-style power supply unit (PSU).

In the packaging, along with the TerraMaster F4-420 is a box that contains the PSU, power cables, a single Ethernet cable, and a screwdriver to use with a selection of drive mounting screws.

It is possible to install 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch mechanisms, allowing for 2.5-inch SSDs along with conventional spinning platterbased storage. However, you can’t allocate an SSD as a cache for conventional drives, unfortunately.

Specifications

If you have 12TB hard drives handy, there is the potential for 48TB of storage, but only if you’re willing to decline any form of resilience to drive failure. Using a RAID 5 configuration a whopping 36GB of usable space is available. Or 24TB if you decide to use a RAID 1 mirror.