TerraMaster F2-425 Plus review: A versatile desktop NAS at a great price

As a member of TerraMaster's new Advanced-Level NAS appliance family, the F2-425 Plus delivers a feature set that will appeal to enthusiasts and small businesses alike. At first glance, this compact desktop unit may look like a 2-bay appliance, but it's a hybrid model, as along with dual LFF/SFF front drive bays, it offers three internal M.2 NVMe SSD slots.

The appliance is powered by Intel's 'Twin Lake' Processor N150 CPU, which is a quad-core model with a maximum turbo frequency of 3.6GHz and a very low 6W TDP. The N150 targets a range of applications, including entry-level laptops, embedded systems, and NAS appliances, and is proving to be a popular choice as we've already seen it in mini-PCs such as Beelink's Mini S13 and Acemagic's Vista V1.

The appliance comes with 8GB of fast DDR5 SO-DIMM memory, upgradeable to a very usable 32GB. Multimedia is on the agenda as 4K 60Hz video from the CPU's embedded Intel Graphics GPU is piped through to an HDMI 2.0 port at the rear.

There's a lot more on the table as a peek around the back reveals dual 5GbE multi-Gigabit ports. USB ports are also in abundance, as you have one USB-A 3.2 Gen2 at the front, along with two more at the rear, plus a USB-C 3.2 Gen2, with the appliance supporting TerraMaster's external 10Gbps USB-C drive expansion enclosures.

TerraMaster F2-425 Plus review: Design and build quality

The F2-425 Plus eschews the cheaper plastic chassis of its entry-level brother in favour of an impressively solid 3mm thick aluminium alloy shell. It's a cinch to remove as you undo two cross-head screws in the base and gently slide it off the internal chassis.

The base 8GB of memory comes on a single SO-DIMM stick, which you'll need to lose if you want to upgrade, as there's only one slot. This is surrounded by the three M.2 2280 slots, but bear in mind that the N150 CPU has PCIe Gen3 channels, so don't waste your money on costly PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSDs.

The main SATA LFF drive carriers are the plastic tool-free variety and have mounting holes for SFF SSDs, so you can go all-Flash if you want. Power is provided by a small external 48W adapter, and all cooling is handled by a single 8 cm diameter fan at the rear, which we found to be extremely quiet during testing.

TerraMaster F2-425 Plus review: Deployment and 5GbE performance

For testing, we fitted two Kingston M.2 NVMe SSDs and followed the browser-based quick start wizard to create a mirrored system pool (RAID5 is supported for three SSDs), download the latest TOS 6 software, create a new superadmin user, and register an email address to receive notifications. We also fitted two 4TB Seagate IronWolf NAS drives for general data storage, which were accepted without any problems, as unlike Synology, TerraMaster doesn't have any drive restriction policies.

For 5GbE testing, we have every angle covered as we use Zyxel's XMG1930-30HP multi-Gigabit PoE++ access switch, which offers 24 2.5GbE and four 10GbE ports. Its near-£1,000 price tag is a big ask for small businesses, and although there is a limited choice of low-cost multi-Gigabit switches, you may want to consider TP-Link's TL-SX105 desktop switch, which offers five 1/2.5/5/10GbE ports for around £200.

With a NAS share on the appliance's SSD system pool mapped to a Dell PowerEdge Windows Server 2022 host on our 10GbE LAN, Iometer recorded 4.6Gbits/sec and 3.9Gbits/sec for sequential reads and writes. Swapping to random operations returned read and write speeds of 4.6Gbits/sec and 2.4Gbits/sec.

The appliance supports IP SANs and a 100GB iSCSI target mapped to the server, delivering very similar results to our NAS tests. We increased the pressure with a dual 5GbE MPIO link to the target and recorded respectable speeds of 7Gbits/sec and 5.1Gbits/sec for sequential reads and writes, while random operations delivered 7Gbits/sec and 3.6Gbits/sec.

TerraMaster F2-425 Plus review: Key TOS 6/7 features

The TOS 6 web console is easy on the eye and provides a ribbon menu across the top for quick access to common management functions. Apps are in abundance, with 57 now available for download from the App Center, which also provides a link to a choice selection of community apps.

Data protection features are extensive, with the Backup app providing a single location for quick access to all the suite's associated modules. Along with Rsync support, snapshots of NAS shares and iSCSI LUNs can be run at regular intervals, TFM (TerraMaster folder mirror) Backup handles local or remote copies of shared folders, and CloudSync supports fifteen cloud storage providers, including Amazon S3, Box, OneDrive, and Dropbox.

The Centralized Backup app is similar to Synology's Active Backup for Business, as it can protect physical Windows servers and workstations along with VMware and Hyper-V virtualized environments. We had no problems declaring our Hyper-V and VMware vCenter hosts and could choose which VMs to back up and apply a schedule.

The HyperLock-WORM feature provides valuable ransomware protection as it allows you to assign custom retention periods to volumes during creation. The Enterprise mode allows data to be modified or deleted after the set period has expired, while the Compliance mode stops data from ever being changed – even by administrators.

We also had a sneak peek at the new TOS 7, which is currently in public beta. It adds a heap of new features, along with optionally opening up full root access for developers, and it offers granular access permissions by updating the three basic types to thirteen domain-based ACLs (access control lists) and customisable rules.

TOS 7 presents a redesigned desktop and app icons, adds new Storage Manager and Device Monitoring apps, and increases the number of available apps to 82. The new Online Office is an app of distinction as it allows you to upload MS Office and PDF files to the appliance and edit them directly from the TOS 7 viewer.

TerraMaster F2-425 Plus review: Is it worth it?

Costing a very reasonable £399 including VAT, the F2-425 Plus compares well on value with competing products. Synology's DS725+, for example, costs around £443 but only comes with 4GB of DDR4, two M.2 NVMe slots, and one 2.5GbE multi-Gig port.

The F2-425 Plus is very well built, and its triple M.2 NVMe SSD slots plus dual 5GbE ports add extra levels of versatility. Performance over 5GbE is good, TerraMaster's TOS 6 software offers plenty of useful apps, including a good selection of data protection tools, and the upcoming TOS 7 shows a lot of potential.

TerraMaster F2-425 Plus specifications

Chassis Desktop chassis

Dimensions (WDH) 122 x 219 x 150mm

CPU Quad-core Intel Processor N150

Memory 8GB DDR5 SO-DIMM (max 32GB)

Storage bays 2 x SATA LFF/SFF, 3 x M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 3 NVMe SSD

RAID RAID0, 1, TRAID, 5 (M.2 slots)

Network 2 x 5GbE multi-Gigabit

Other ports USB-C 3.2 Gen2, 3 x USB-A 3.2 Gen2, HDMI 2.0

Power 48W external PSU

Management Web browser

Warranty 2yr limited