Our top recommended TerraMaster NAS in 2023

Source: TerraMaster

TerraMaster F2-223

Best Overall

Our top pick for a home TerraMaster NAS.

The TerraMaster F2-223 is one of the more powerful two-bay NAS from the brand, rocking a capable Intel processor, two drive bays, multiple 2.5GbE ports, and a decent OS. This is a good value choice for homeowners seeking a serious enclosure.

Pros

• Intel processor
• 4K media transcoding
• 2.5 GbE networking

The TerraMaster F2-223 is a very powerful NAS for its size, rocking just two drive bays. This is the minimum number of bays we’d recommend for live NAS deployment to ensure RAID is activated for protection against data loss. Inside the NAS is the Intel Celeron N4505 processor, which can boost up to 2.9GHz and has two physical cores for performing numerous tasks simultaneously. It’s perfect for a busy household or bustling office where not too much data needs to be stored (maximum of 20TB with RAID enabled).

TerraMaster F2-223

The default 4GB of DDR4 system memory installed is more than enough for most available apps on the TerraMaster OS. But should you require more RAM, up to 32GB can be installed. That’s more than what you’d find in many gaming desktop PCs. The integrated graphics processing in the chip makes this a good starter Plex NAS, too. Two M.2 SSDs ensure you have the possibility of adding caching to the OS, and two 2.5GbE ports likely support more bandwidth than possible with your current network infrastructure.

This is the best NAS TerraMaster has to offer in terms of value, and we’d put it up against the mighty (and more popular) Synology DiskStation DS224+.

Source: TerraMaster

TerraMaster F4-423

Best NAS for Plex

The TerraMaster NAS to buy for running Plex Media Server.

TerraMaster’s F4-423 is an Intel-powered NAS with four drive bays, M.2 SSD support, and 2.5Gb networking. For the price, it’s a very capable server foundation that can be used for various deployments.

Pros

• Intel CPU with 4K transcoding support
• Four drive bays and two M.2 slots
• 2.5 GbE networking

If you’re searching for the best TerraMaster NAS for running Plex, we’d recommend the TerraMaster F4-423. The most important factors for choosing the best Plex NAS are drive bays, the processor, RAM, and an HDMI port for directly connecting the NAS to a large screen. The Intel Celeron N5095 is a great little chip for running software and services, such as Plex Media Server. This thing has four physical cores that can boost all the way up to 2.9GHz and supports hardware transcoding for streaming 4K content.

The TerraMaster F4-223 has four drive bays for installing 3.5-inch hard drives or 2.5-inch SSDs, and there are two M.2 slots for installing NVMe SSDs for use as a cache. While the same TerraMaster Operating System (TOS) is installed and running on this NAS after all the drives have been inserted into the bays, one doesn’t have to spend too much time in the backend once all services have been activated. Running Plex on this NAS is super simple with the available performance and storage capacity, whether you’re streaming music, video, or both.

Source: TerraMaster

TerraMaster F2-210

Best Budget

For those on the tightest of budgets.

Powered by a Realtek ARM processor, the TerraMaster F2-210 won’t win any awards for performance, but it’s not designed to. This is an affordable entry-level NAS with everything you need to get up and running.

Pros

• Affordable
• Two drive bays

Cons

• Weak ARM processor
• RAM cannot be upgraded

The TerraMaster F2-210 is the most affordable enclosure you can buy from the brand. The company doesn’t offer a NAS with just one drive bay like Synology, but the two-bay F2-210 comes in at just $160. While it’s possible to load up to 40TB of data on this enclosure, you won’t be doing much else with the slower ARM processor. It’s not terrible and will be enough for simply storing data on the NAS, but you won’t be streaming 4K movies through Plex Media Server.

The RAM cannot be upgraded or expanded either, which means once you’ve hit the limits of what’s possible on the enclosure with the number of simultaneous connections in the office, you’ll need to look to replace it with a more powerful server. For getting started with your very first NAS or simply wanting somewhere to store some files and backups, the TerraMaster F2-210 is a great budget-friendly option.

Source: TerraMaster

TerraMaster F5-422

Best Performance

A great 5-bay NAS with 10GbE networking.

TerraMaster’s F5-422 is quite the NAS enclosure. It houses 4GB of upgradable RAM, an Intel processor, five drive bays, a 10Gb network connection, and support for many popular NAS apps.

Pros

• Powerful Intel processor
• 10GbE networking stack

The TerraMaster F5-422 is one of the more powerful enclosures from the company, even though it’s still an excellent value proposition. Inside is an Intel Celeron processor with more than enough RAM to start with, but can be expanded up to 32GB if desired. Then there are the five drive bays, allowing for up to 100TB of data to be stored, before taking into account reservations for effective RAID deployment. Throw in the 10GbE networking and you’ve got one serious NAS enclosure.

This is considerably more expensive than our top recommendation for the best TerraMaster NAS, but you’re getting much more specifications for your money, especially compared to the competition from other brands. The TerraMaster F5-422 is designed for the busiest of homes and bustling offices where multiple apps and services are running with numerous concurrent network connections.

Source: TerraMaster

TerraMaster D5-300

Best DAS

If you only need to store files on an external storage device.

The TerraMaster D5-300 is a direct-attached storage (DAS) enclosure with support for up to five drives. This is different to a NAS in that it doesn’t have a processor or operating system. It’s designed to emulate an external drive and as such it’s only effective for single-user applications.

Pros

• Plug and play
• Better value

Cons

• No OS
• Can only be used to store files

Not everyone requires a network-attached storage enclosure, which is where direct-attached storage units that connect directly to your computer come into play. The TerraMaster D5-300 is a five-bay DAS with no operating system, no RAM, no networking ports, and no M.2 storage slots. It’s about as basic as it comes, but this does mean it’s far more affordable than a five-bay NAS, costing just $260 at MSRP.

The D5-300’s five bays can hold up to an impressive 100TB of data, and it even supports various RAID modes to maintain data integrity in case of a mishap. You can connect it directly to your computer (Linux, Mac, and Windows are supported) using a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port, which is designed to offer up to 220MB/s of transfer speeds both ways.

If all you require is a place to throw some hard drives and connect them to your desktop or laptop PC, check out this budget-friendly DAS from TerraMaster. Freelance professionals working solo in particular will appreciate this DAS as it will save them quite a bit of cash upfront while also providing ample storage space for their massive project files.

Source: TerraMaster

TerraMaster T12-423

Best Capacity

Designed with big data and businesses in mind.

The TerraMaster T12-423 is a serious NAS for businesses and big data applications. It has 12 3.5-inch drive bays, a single M.2 SSD slot, upgradeable RAM, a powerful Intel processor, and high-speed network interfaces. It’s pricey, but well worth it if you require more powerful data storage.

Pros

• Powerful internals
• 12 drive bays

You likely don’t need the TerraMaster T12-423 and what it has inside the chassis, but should you have a budget of $1,400 and need a server with 12 available drive bays, TerraMaster’s tower NAS is a great choice. The NAS is powered by the mighty Intel Celeron N5095 processor with four physical cores and a maximum burst speed of 2.9GHz. While this may be a 15W chip, the CPU is more than capable of handling up to 240TB of data.

The other specifications are equally impressive, including the single M.2 SSD slot for caching, two 2.5GbE connections, and a single HDMI port. For growing businesses, a server such as the TerraMaster T12-423 can help provide a place to not only store more data securely but also run useful apps and services to provide additional functionality to the workforce.

Source: TerraMaster

TerraMaster U8-423

Best Rackmount

The best TerraMaster rackmount NAS for server cabinets.

The TerraMaster U8-423 is a compact 2U server with eight 3.5-inch drive bays, M.2 slot, fast network connections, and a capable Intel processor. It’s a great value choice for those with existing server cabinets.

Pros

• Powerful internals
• 8 drive bays

It’s time for the big one. TerraMaster also makes some rackmount servers and the TerraMaster U8-423 is the company’s most recent launch. It’s a 2U rackmount chassis with the familiar quad-core Intel Celeron N5095 processor inside. 4GB of DDR4 RAM is installed by default, but this can be expanded up to 32GB. The eight drive bays are good for storing up to 160TB of data, and the single M.2 SSD slot is handy for adding caching support.

It’s pricey, coming in at $1,100, and you will need a server cabinet to make the most of the form factor, but there’s some seriously good value here if you can overlook the rather rough OS. It’s good enough for running the server, but those coming from other brands may notice a slight downgrade in visuals.

How to choose the best TerraMaster NAS?

The TerraMaster F2-223 is one of the best TerraMaster NAS available for homeowners and small businesses. It has two 3.5-inch drive bays, a powerful Intel processor, M.2 SSD support, 2.5GbE networking, and a decent enough operating system. It may not be quite as good as the Synology DiskStation DS224+ with its superior OS, but this is more affordable and powerful.

But you can save some more cash with the TerraMaster F2-210, provided you are ready to live with some of its shortcomings, like a weaker processor and limited RAM. For basic data storage, it will do a fantastic job right out of the box — just don’t expect it to stream 4K videos, leaving media transcoding on the fly out of the question.

If all you’ve ever dreamt of is running a massive Plex server at your home, your best option among TerraMaster enclosures is the F4-423. It comes with a fairly new Intel Celeron processor which can handle 4K transcoding like a breeze. Plus, it has an HDMI out port (unlike the top Synology NAS), to let you directly play media off the NAS on a TV or your computer monitor.

Given its additional benefits like a 2.5GbE port and M.2 slots for caching, you can even get some serious work done on it. Spending a little more on the F5-422 will get you similarly capable internals, but with one extra drive bay to spare for even more storage along with 10GbE networking for faster transfers.

TerraMaster F2-223

Big businesses will be more interested in TerraMaster’s lineup of larger NAS models, like the standalone 12-bay T12-423 or the rack-mounted 8-bay U8-423. For upwards of a $1000, you can get access to hundreds of TBs of data that would be sufficient for your large workforce. While both these servers come with decent specifications for efficient performance, you have the option to expand their memory for even better multitasking. Just make sure to invest in the best NAS hard drives that are suitable for running 24/7 with quite a bit of vibration on these large, professional enclosures.

But if you are someone working alone from the comforts of your home, you probably don’t need a network attached storage and can easily do with a direct attached storage unit (DAS). DAS is basically a multi-bay external storage unit without a brain of its own, unlike a NAS. For this kind of use, the TerraMaster D5-300 will get you plenty of space (going up to 100TB) but at a much more affordable price than a 5-bay NAS.

Source: TerraMaster

TerraMaster F2-223

Best Overall

The TerraMaster F2-223 is one of the more powerful two-bay NAS from the brand, rocking a capable Intel processor, two drive bays, multiple 2.5GbE ports, and a decent OS. This is a good value choice for homeowners seeking a serious enclosure.