What’s up, guys? Welcome back to another blog. In today’s blog, we’re diving into a hardware review and this time, it’s all about the TerraMaster F4-425 Plus.
This NAS is a sleek, powerful little box that can handle up to 144TB of total storage, giving you plenty of flexibility for centralized storage, backups, and lightweight services. In my setup, it fits perfectly for backups, file sharing, and maybe even running some smaller workloads
Unboxing and First Impressions
The unboxing experience is simple and clean. The main NAS unit takes up most of the space, and inside you’ll find:
- A power cable
- Screws for the drive trays
- An RJ45 Ethernet cable
- The power brick
- Basic documentation
Nothing fancy, but everything’s neatly packed.
Visually, the F4-425 Plus looks great. The silver and black color scheme gives it a professional, premium look. The chassis is metal, adding some nice weight and durability, while the rear panel and accents are plastic but don’t feel cheap at all.
There’s a good amount of airflow too, with a large fan on the back and vents on the bottom. The non-slip rubber feet keep it stable whether you set it on a desk or rack shelf. Overall, the build quality feels premium, solid, sturdy, and ready to handle some serious uptime.
Ports and Connectivity
Most of the I/O lives on the back of the unit, and TerraMaster didn’t skimp on options. From bottom to top, you’ll find:
- A 12V DC power input
- One USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port (up to 10Gbps)
- Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports (also up to 10Gbps)
- Two 5GbE Ethernet ports
- One HDMI port for display
- A reset button
On the front, there’s another USB port and the power button.
Now, you might notice there’s no 10GbE port, and I get it, that’s something a lot of people want. But realistically, most small environments or home labs aren’t even saturating 2.5GbE. The dual 5GbE ports still give you options. You can combine them using link aggregation (LACP) for a total throughput of up to 10Gbps if your network supports it. For my setup, the dual 5G is plenty.
Drive Bays and Storage Support
The F4-425 Plus comes with four drive trays, each supporting up to 30TB SATA drives (HDD or SSD). That’s up to 120TB just from the bays alone. The trays themselves are plastic but solid no cheap or flimsy feel. They pop out easily, with a simple latch mechanism that’s tool-free if you prefer.
Inside, things get even more interesting: You get three M.2 NVMe SSD slots, each supporting up to 8TB drives. That means you can add up to 24TB of NVMe storage on top of your 120TB of HDD storage bringing the total to 144TB of hybrid capacity.
This design gives you a lot of flexibility:
- Use the HDDs for bulk storage and backups
- Use the NVMe drives for fast caching or high-speed workloads
That kind of hybrid setup isn’t common at this price point, and it’s one of the biggest selling points for this model.
Internal Hardware and Build Quality
Opening the chassis is easy, just remove four screws on the bottom, and the entire metal cover slides right off. Under the hood, the TerraMaster F4-425 Plus is powered by an Intel N150 quad-core processor, clocked up to 3.6GHz. It’s a low-power CPU, ideal for NAS workloads like backups, media storage, and lightweight apps.
It’s not built for running multiple VMs or anything too heavy, but it’s perfect for efficient NAS use and small Docker setups. It also supports up to 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and TerraMaster was kind enough to ship this unit with the full 16GB already installed which is the maximum the board supports.
Inside, you’ll also find the three NVMe slots, the CPU heatsink, and a clean internal layout that’s easy to upgrade or service. Everything’s well thought out.
Setup and First Boot
For testing, I installed four 8TB drives and one NVMe SSD. It’s nowhere near the full 144TB potential, but it’s enough to get started and explore what the NAS can do. When I first powered it on, it didn’t boot correctly. Turns out the RAM wasn’t seated properly (probably my fault during filming). Once reseated, it started up smoothly and was surprisingly quiet.
The fan noise is minimal. It’s quieter than many other NAS devices I’ve tested, which makes it perfect for an office or homelab setup where noise can be distracting.
When it first boots, you’ll see an IP address printed on the console (or a 169.x.x.x address if it’s not connected properly). If that happens, just check your DHCP server or firewall to find the IP assigned to the device. TerraMaster also provides a discovery tool if you prefer using that.
Software: TOS (TerraMaster Operating System)
Once you log in through the web interface, the setup process walks you through creating an admin account and initializing the drives. If your NAS is connected to the internet, it automatically downloads and installs TOS (TerraMaster Operating System). If not, you can download the OS manually from their website.
TOS immediately feels familiar. The layout is similar to Synology’s DSM, with a clean, intuitive desktop-like interface. During first login, it even runs a security advisory check that scans for weak passwords or outdated settings.
From there, you can dive into:
- File management
- Backup tools
- System configuration
- App installations
The built-in App Center gives you access to both official and community apps including Plex, Home Assistant, Watchtower, Vaultwarden, Docker Manager, and many others.
That’s a big plus. For users who want a simple interface to manage apps and containers without manually configuring Docker, this system makes it really easy.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the TerraMaster F4-425 Plus offers an excellent balance of performance, expandability, and efficiency. For small offices, homelabs, or anyone looking for a central storage solution that’s not going to break the bank, this NAS delivers a lot of value. The hybrid storage flexibility, quiet operation, and simple OS setup make it a strong contender in its class.
As always, thank you for reading. Stay geeking, stay curious, and if you’ve got questions about the TerraMaster F4-425 Plus, drop them in the comments. Peace!
