Terramaster F6-424 Max NAS - Should You Buy (Review)

[@lindsaybruce1396]

I am currently torn between the F4-424 and building my own NAS, and your 5 Reasons Not To are very helpful. I may end up spending a little more, but I think now I'm edging towards having a newer CPU and USB 4.0 connectivity. Terramaster produce great compact NAS at an affordable price, but for my tinkering I think I prefer the old school rack storage case with my own choice of (upgradable) CPU and motherboard in the back. It will cost me more power and space, but I'm okay with that - others mileage may vary.

[@D.hodge87]

I love my f6-424 max, I use it as an unraid plex box. It small form factor, lower power usage, and super quite are all benefits that drew me to it!

[@RRYYLT]

I have an F2-423 and an F4-424 pro, both running TOS 6 for months now. I am happy with these little boxes.

[@smegleberry]

Waiting for you to get your hands on the Minisforum NAS

[@nascompares]

You and me both buddy!

[@disarrayer]

I think, I might be the target audience of that NAS and maybe can help some others decide: TL;DR: If you can afford it, like a pre-built solution for a NAS, have no need for virtualization on a NAS and have a reliability over features mindset, you might want to buy it. I bought this NAS some months ago and can say that most of the negative points were a positive for me: - 6 instead of 4 bays for 100 is fine for me and most other vendors ask for more for that upgrade - The "old" CPU was the main reason I chose Terramaster and not some other vendor, since it is still a series where Intel had no degradation issues - Intel was chosen should I decide in the future to re-purpose it as a jellyfin server for transcoding - The HDMI port is exactly what it should be (for me) on a device like this: a console (for TrueNAS in my case) and nothing else. The other two negatives I can kinda agree with or at least am ambivalent about. Yes, I upgraded to 64GB of RAM just to be on the safe side and hate to waste a perfecctly fine 8GB stick. For me, and I can only speak for me, this is a good solution. As an IT guy, I don't like to combine too many features in one device - especially a NAS - and for that this device is kinda perfect. I have old HP Microservers with TrueNAS on them running for about 10 years now - with Intel G2020T and AMD N40L. And they do what they are there for: Being NASs. Reliability over features. And I hope this NAS will do the same and give me 10 years plus of storage service. If you want an all-in-one device, the newer ASUS or UGREEN stuff might be more interesting for you.

[@CyberDragon10K]

I ended up getting an F4-424 Pro fully setup over Black Friday/Christmas/New Years, and I have to say that I agree with this being an excellent out-of-the-box use case as passive storage. Mine currently is updated to the latest version of TOS6 and basically lives in Security Isolation Mode with additional powering off/on depending on when I'm asleep and at work vs. being at home. I'm happy with what it's doing. Granted, the F6 Max has the extra bays and hardware tweaks, but I'm just a home user looking out for mine and my sister's data. The extra room from the 2 more bays will definitely payoff long term.

[@Bob_Smith19]

Since Synology is chasing enterprise customers I can only assume they won’t take notice of hardware like this.

[@kirle5455]

How are they chasing them? They have NO support!

[@PreDaToReLeaSeD]

im very very close to getting their new 12 bay unit because of synology dragging their feet and hybrid raid being so important to me, im just worried about software glitches/security holes, this is the only thing im worried about

[@ala1for]

Purchased the F4-424 Pro 16gb last week for £471 (20% off voucher) on Amazon, wasn't impressed with TOS so threw Unraid on it... brilliant little nas now.

[@darrenhaken]

Has it been working ok?

[@0xKruzr]

I just bought Colten's (Hardware Haven) demo unit off of him; looking forward to setting it up today.

[@astro-canuck]

Subtitle keeps translating the product as 'Terror 'Master' . Must mean that if you are worried about storage, this device will sooth your worries.

[@frustratedalien666]

I own the F6-424 non Max with the N97 processor running TrueNAS. I am satisfied with it and the price was excellent. I believe if Aoostar offered their WTR Pro with 6 bays, they'd charge a similar enough price.

[@agrumpycapybara]

Many thanks for this vid, Rob. I've been looking at buying this as I'm upgrading my network to 10gbe, so need a NAS with 10gbe capability, and this fits my needs perfectly. I just need to find a vid on migrating Plex settings from one NASto another 😀

[@jaimeduncan6167]

I will suggest you take a look at the QNAP and Synology in particular the QNAP TS-h973AX a little bit less expensive, less CPU support to U.2 and no political shenanigans.

[@agrumpycapybara]

​​@@jaimeduncan6167Thanks for the info. I already have a Synology DS918+ with a DX517 and will xfer the 5x 18tb HDDs from the 517 to the F6-424 and have it just for Plex. I don't trust QNap's o/s tbh. I also have a Ds214+ and love Synology but I'm not confident in their next batch of NAS'.

[@agrumpycapybara]

​@@jaimeduncan6167Thanks for the info. I already have a Synology DS918+ with a DX517 and will xfer the 5x 18tb HDDs from the 517 to the F6-424 and have it just for Plex. I don't trust QNap's o/s tb and the unit you mentioned isn't QuickSync compatible so crap with Plex. I ultimately want a decent Plex server with 10gbe, so Ryzen CPUs are off the list, and I don't have much confidence with Synology's next batch of NAS' whatever they may be. Happy to be proven wrong by them though.

[@TLBJ24]

@@jaimeduncan6167 not a bad suggestion, but for the features to money comparisons, I would look at the UGreen DXP6800 Pro six bay. Same CPU, same dual 10GB nics, but with two Thunderbolt 4 USB C as well 2 USB A 10GB/s USBs, SD Card reader, DDR5 Ram (vs DDR4), 8k HDMI, 8Gb Ram standard upgradable to 64GB, and supports drives up to 26TB. That’s a nice set of hardware to start with right out of the box. And also like TM, UGreen allows you load other operating software without violating the warranty. Again, just another option to consider.

[@willyfox5597]

Using a f4 pro with n305. Just for exploring all i am learning: Installed proxmox and indeed using the hdmi for a mate-desktop over it. Only downside, It has 2 different raid-controllers (2x2) so use virtual truenas with 2 zfs-pools. So far a really good allrounder for learning. Speed is not that important at moment and later-on will probably end up with truenas baremetal or Tos for only NAS. Curious how those raid-controllers will function. As substitute for a self-made, time wasting N305-motherboard with all it's pittfalls (also raid 5+1 , nvme shared with Pci-slots) this Terramaster works great so far. Will probably use this as backup NAS in future and end up with a P520 to go a step up with more horsepower. Great videos Rob (every July being attacked by seagulls when putting clothes to dry) greetings from Spain.

[@BrandonCole3]

Highly recommend this NAS, great hardware at a small & quiet form factor. I haven't used the TOS software, I immediately booted using Unraid instead which I also recommend. I run Plex (with impressive transcoding leveraging the integrated graphics of this Intel CPU), HomeAssistant, etc, this thing can handle it without breaking a sweat. Synology seems to be moving away from Intel CPUs, from a hardware spec perspective at this form factor size I think this is the best option.

[@TheTribeIAm]

Any chance you have or will try TrueNAS Scale, to determine drive availability & or support for the Network adapters, USB support, maybe Video Drivers for the HDMI etc.

[@agelikemilk351]

I have one and it's very good.

[@EmperorTerran]

would like to see how these fare as just hardware, meaning truenas scale or unraid...

[@BrandonCole3]

I've been running Unraid on this F6-424 max with no problems at all, running Plex (with transcoding via the integrated graphics), HomeAssistant, etc without breaking a sweat. Highly recommended.

[@darrenhughes8406]

Have they solved the issues that every firmware release seems to require a degree in linux to fix them?

[@petelanzone484]

it just seems like the Unas and installing your own OS on it may be the best all the road if you wish to stay away from Synlogy. The hardware on that Ugreen is just awesome. Terramaster seems like it as well. .. Hmm decisions, decisions.

[@tschorsch]

What s the problem with the HDMI port. Is it just that TOS doesn't use it, or is it a problem with other OSs?

[@TheTribeIAm]

One thing about DDR5, it does have on chip ECC, so it is somewhat better than non-ECC DDR4. They definitely missed the boat on Thunderbolt 4. the CPU and BIOS even support Thunderbolt 4, even if they raised the price $100, they would have had a price point catagory killer.

[@nlrz313]

I would like to change this year, but Qnap does not want to let the TS-453D die! 2025 looks so good for those who want a NAS.

[@themodesttraveler745]

can you use that other SSD for like a middle, so you send you 100gb file to the sdd at 10 gbe and then it auto copy to the Sata

[@FouDeFafa]

@nascompares Aside from the upcoming N5 Pro, which OEM nas system offers a more modern cpu (not an N-series chip) with an Intel iGPU for Plex/Jellyfin for a similar price?

[@computerenthusiast402]

What’s the best NAS for Apple users with Time Machine support.

[@robertt9342]

I’d always like built for use NAS, but so much more expensive than my pc nas build… not sure if the power savings will make up the difference very quickly.

[@monochrome5297]

i really want to make my own but tey arnt as compact and efficient witch is bad

Thank you for a good preview of this Terramaster NAS. I got this for about a week ago after some comparing between different Synology as I had 213j and 718p before. I got mine from Amazon and did not see the difference in price between the k4 and 6 bay that big but I would rather prefer to have an option to have it without memory. That 4GB usb memory have I removed because I choose to install Truenas scale on it. Must say as a user of Synology so it very different and not that easy to get everything to work as I'm used to on the Synology 718+ I think Truenas have made a good open system with decent hardware. Would have been nice to be able to use ECC memory but that is as I understand it only available on AMD based system. Dust filter have been good to have but I haven't seen any NAS with that future. Don't remember the name of the KZbin channel but there is one guy who is part L1 tech that used this Terramaster with 2 pics of 48GB memory to a total of 96GB of memory. Might be overkill but I might test it if I see someone else report successes on that. To much ain't enough 😉

[@Cosminmzq]

plex test sir, Pretty please !

[@nascompares]

It's on my to-do list, just a bit backed up from CES a week ago (work to-do wise...not medically!). I'd recommend watching the F4-424 Max Plex test vid for now. Apologies for the delay bud

[@Cosminmzq]

@@nascompares saw the F4-424 MAX plex tests. Could this be diferent ? Same hardware...

[@cheeselottery]

For what it costs I think the casing and drive trays feel too cheap and flimsy

[@bernhardschuepbach4533]

are you wearing a seagull -shirt? 😆 They got in your head!

[@jaimeduncan6167]

It looks nice, and it should be a call for Synology. QNAP has the QNAP TS-h973AX with 10gbit, it has far less CPU but more bays and with 8GB is a little bit cheaper. The QNAP also is not built by a company that has a review board of the CCP inside the company having the last call about every single decision made. The QNAP also supports two U.2 bays and has a fall better OS. synology has the Synology DiskStation DS1621+ has less RAM and one has to add the 10gbit ethernet.

[@alekseit6285]

Read the official forums before buying it. The bios is locked, they support the devices only for 2 years. And this particular model is made of thin plastic with lots of ugly supports on the inside. Not the quality for the price

[@villarudera452]

It’s 2025 already 😂

[@nascompares]

I know...my head hurts. Chronological inertia and whiplash is a thing

[@LeighParry-z3j]

And it's going to last all year. 😁

[@robertt9342]

Even Apple now gives you 16GB of ram…

[@prime_dew]

first.... keep up the great work

[@keithculvahouse1191]

I have problems with the price, the old processor, lack of ram, and that it os made in China. Makes me worry they built in a backdoor for hacking by the ccp. I am looking at building my own server rack nas using a 14th gen intel processor.

[@lindsaybruce1396]

The only problem with it being made in China is that Trump is about to slap them - or rather the American public - with tariffs. I don't see Terramaster stealing your data, but Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft definitely will.

[@alain-m2t]

I guess you should have a price limit on your videos marketing for normal people may be $200-300 max for any NAS

[@kicaj741]

BeWare of TOS. Unless you are about to Unraid it or sth, its useless as TOS is totally unreliable. Otherwise is very good hardware with supremly bad software.

[@stclaws9580]

unreliable in what way?

[@RRYYLT]

@@stclaws9580 Which version of TOS are you referring to, and what specifically are you dissatisfied with? I previously used TOS 5, but I wasn't impressed with it. Now, I'm using the latest TOS 6 and am happy with its overall performance.

[@tonymontana24596]

Linux+CasaOS is the way to go for me personally.

[@abzzeus]

Initially it looks great *but* that CPU represents a huge red flag, it's age plus the limit of 64GB when more modern CPS give 192GB? Not good. I can understand why but this more of a Plus than a Max model compare to the standard. You gain 64GB vs 32 GB, 2 x 10 Gb vs 2 x 2.5Gb and 2 x PCIe 4 x4 vs 2 x PCIe 3 x1 plus more cores, with the problem that you can really use them. (VMs limited by memory) If they did a barebones 14th gen with an extra 2 x 2.5 SATA bays, for boot OS it becomes a real game changer

[@Bronko15344]

What do you mean with the age of the cpu???

[@abzzeus]

@@Bronko15344 it's a 12th gen

[@lindsaybruce1396]

@@abzzeus Yeah.... there's a reason they didn't go with Intel 13 or 14th gen. You might have heard about that in the media :)

[@abzzeus]

@@lindsaybruce1396 Not the mobile chips and not new production

[@TheTribeIAm]

I have installed 96GB of Crucial in it and it works fine.