Beastly specs for a 4-bay NAS

There are many great NAS options for home offices and small businesses, but most people only shop through models based on how many drive bays and network ports are available, often overlooking the CPU and RAM. TerraMaster’s F4-424 Pro is configured to keep up with some high performance and processing demands for anybody who needs to run virtual machines or host a heavy database. Naturally, it also comes at a higher price, but it’s a lot more reasonable than you might expect.

Price and availability

The TerraMaster F4-424 Pro retails for $699, which is on the high end for the company’s home and small business lineup. However, it is fully loaded with RAM straight out of the box, and there aren’t any other add-ons or upgrades to consider besides choosing some good hard drives to load it up with.

If everything else looks good but the price is a bit too high, there’s also a non-Pro version for $499. It has identical specs and design, but uses a lower-tier CPU and comes with less RAM. Both models are available from Amazon, or you can order either of them directly through the TerraMaster website.

Design and hardware

Is it a NAS or a desktop?

If there’s one place where TerraMaster typically shines, it’s the spec-to-price comparisons. While the $699 retail price is on the high end for a 4-bay NAS, the big story here is the Intel Core i3-N300 CPU, which includes 32GB of DDR5 RAM. The RAM alone isn’t a huge factor in the price, but it’s notable when many similarly-priced competitors ship with just 4GB or 8GB.

What you’re paying for is the Intel Core i3-N300. Released in early 2023, the N300 was designed to be an entry-level laptop CPU, retailing by itself for $300. Performance is comparable to some of the old Skylake Core i7 chips running at 35W-45W, but the N300 power consumption is a much lower 7 watts, so there’s less heat and a lower electric bill. The N300 also has a fairly powerful integrated GPU, which makes short work of video transcoding jobs.

The one spec that gives me pause is the choice of two 2.5GbE ports, but no 10GbE port. On the one hand, most people don’t have 10Gb routers or switches because they’re fairly expensive, and most client devices and adapters are probably just 1GbE. Logically, the pair of 2.5GbE ports should be sufficient for a small office with moderate needs and more than enough for most home users.

However, given the “Pro” name and pricing, not to mention a CPU with plenty of bandwidth, it feels like a 10GbE port would future-proof this build. Most people expect to keep a NAS in service for many years, and if the price of higher-speed networking equipment drops, it would be disappointing if the NAS becomes the bottleneck.

TerraMaster revamped the housing design of its home and small business NAS products last year, starting with the low-cost F2-212. All of the newer models are now encased in nondescript black plastic instead of the accented silver chassis found on older models like the F4-423.

While the previous design was sometimes criticized for looking dated — and I won’t deny it had a 1970s stereo equipment vibe — it looks just like every other NAS on the market now. Perhaps I’m making too much of that since most people hide a NAS somewhere out of view, like a basement or the office server closet, not next to an entertainment center.

But that’s not to say it couldn’t reasonably go next to a TV. I have to give some credit to the LEDs, which are so small and produce so little light that they would be fine in a dark room. They certainly produce less light pollution than anything else in my office or living room.

In all other ways, the F4-424 Pro is similar to other contemporary NAS boxes. It has four 3.5-inch toolless drive bays in the front, vented logos in the side walls, and a stack of ports on the rear panel next to a large fan that stays fairly quiet during operation.

Before moving on, I want to quickly note that the HDMI port isn’t too useful with TerraMaster’s operating system. It only shows the boot process and status messages, which may be useful for diagnosing problems, but that’s about it. I’ve heard other operating systems like TrueNAS can display more through the port, but I haven’t tested it myself.

Software and features

Like every current NAS from TerraMaster, the F4-424 Pro ships with TOS v5.1 installed. In addition to the normal operating system functions, it provides a web-based interface for administration. Once the setup process is complete, the browser interface resembles most desktop platforms like Windows and is relatively easy to learn.

Very little has materially changed since I wrote about TOS v5.0 in the F4-423 review, so check that out for more details about the setup process and mobile app. It’s worth briefly mentioning that TerraMaster is also working toward the next major update, TOS v6. Public betas are already available for the F4-424 Pro, so it stands to reason the stable releases will be too. I won’t say too much about this update until it’s final, but I have used the insider preview builds (on a different NAS model), and I think it’s generally a good upgrade, though it does take some getting used to.

Competition

Several established NAS manufacturers offer models at similar price points, though the specs rarely make for easy direct comparisons. It can also be important to consider differences in the software, features, and security.

Synology is probably the most recognizable name, with several great NAS models in the current lineup, and the software experience is highly regarded. Naturally, that is also reflected in generally higher prices. TerraMaster’s name is built, in part, to compete directly with Synology with similar specs while keeping prices lower. The caveat is TerraMaster has fewer first-party apps, and the operating system isn’t quite as mature or feature-rich, though that’s sometimes a positive thing since there are fewer settings to get in the way.

But other names like QNAP and Asustor shouldn’t be overlooked if you’re shopping around. Alternatively, while not exactly a direct competitor, this approaches a price point where it may be more efficient to build out your own custom Mini PC. This route is certainly more flexible in terms of hardware and OS, but it may cost more time with manual software setup and maintenance, and you’re sacrificing some of the apps and services provided by the NAS manufacturer.

Should you buy it?

The TerraMaster F4-424 Pro is a pretty great machine, and it’s hard to point to any meaningful failings. It’s a great option for anybody who wants to host large databases, run virtual machines, or spin up several Docker containers and servers. I would still like to see a 10Gb ethernet port, but that’s mostly a future-proofing issue for now.

But I must admit, this model is probably overkill for most people and businesses, and the price is high enough that it wouldn’t be the first model I recommend unless that power is necessary. The CPU and RAM are an order of magnitude above anything needed for simply hosting files, transcoding video, or running standard services. The non-Pro F4-424 can usually handle all of that without breaking a sweat.