TerraMaster F4-421 Review 4-Bay NAS for SMB Users

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TerraMaster F4-421 4-Bay NAS Performance

A TerraMaster F4-421 can be set up to run in seven different configurations, RAID 0, 5, 6, 10 and JBOD or as a single disk. For our testing, we built the F4-421 with each different RAID type available for a typical four drive NAS. Before we continue testing we allowed each RAID type to finish its Synchronizing process.

As a note here, we suggest using RAID 10, RAID 5, or RAID 6 with this unit to ensure there is some redundancy in your NAS storage.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

The Intel NAS Performance Toolkit (Intel NASPT) is a file system exerciser and analysis tool designed to enable performance comparisons between network-attached storage (NAS) devices.

TerraMaster F2 421 RAID 0
TerraMaster F4 421 RAID 0

Here we see the results of our RAID 0 tests, in this set the F4-421 performs very well for a 4-Bay NAS in this class. Results are very close in the playback tests across the board. Most of these units can easily push data faster than a 1GbE link can handle. Higher-end NAS units do show a performance edge which enters at a premium cost.

TerraMaster F2 421 RAID 5
TerraMaster F4 421 RAID 5

In our RAID 5 tests which may be the most common RAID type used with this NAS, we find the TerraMaster F4-421 performs as expected with results keeping up with top end 4-bay NAS units in most cases.

TerraMaster F2 421 RAID 6
TerraMaster F4 421 RAID 6

RAID 6 is another common RAID type for 4-Bay NAS units and our results match close to RAID 5 results.

Let us continue on with the rest of the RAID types.

TerraMaster F2 421 RAID 10
TerraMaster F4 421 RAID 10
TerraMaster F2 421 RAID JBOD
TerraMaster F4 421 RAID JBOD

Performance of the TerraMaster F4-421 is solid enough that it is keeping pace on 1GbE tests throughout the range.

Next, let us continue our TerraMaster F4-421 review with encrypted benchmarks and our final words.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Hi!
    It seems TerraMaster like to reuse the same backplane in several of their nas, and i saw a 4 bays model that had the backplane of the 5 bays model, hence you could dremel the front panel to use the fifth bay.
    Could you check if it is the case with this one? you could put a 2.5″ SSD inside the case to be used as a cache this way, without losing one of the 4 “official” bays… :)
    That would increase its value even more!

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