TerraMaster F8 SSD Plus NAS Evaluation: Tiny, Quick, Quiet, and Spectacular

TerraMaster’s F8 SSD Plus NAS was launched lately and is designed for customers who demand high-speed efficiency that may journey with them and doesn’t create extreme noise like its SATA Drive siblings. The brand new system appears to cater to professionals and informal customers who want quick community storage that doesn’t take up numerous house of their properties or places of work. The query is, does it ship on its promise, and is it well worth the worth?

The TerraMaster F8 SSD Plus NAS guarantees to carry professional-level network-attached storage to photographers, videographers, and artistic professionals requiring quick, dependable, and safe information administration. On this evaluate, I’ll dive into a number of the specifics of this eight-bay SSD NAS system, exploring its construct high quality, efficiency, software program capabilities, and general worth for superior customers and rookies.

Disclosure: TerraMaster and Western Digital despatched us a evaluate unit and SSDs to check. Neither firm had any enter on content material, and all opinions shared are these of PetaPixel.

Out of the gate, the F8 SSD Plus NAS system appears to be one of the vital fascinating all-flash NAS choices. It’s one of many solely programs that gives eight bays for M.2 SSD drives in a surprisingly small package deal, clearly geared toward content material creators and photograph/video lovers. The system feels very inexpensive (for what it’s) when in comparison with its competitors (And that features its SATA system rivals).

This system excites me after testing a number of totally different NAS and DAS programs over the previous couple of years, particularly since I’ve been slowly delving extra into video manufacturing and face a larger want for bigger and sooner storage programs.

Design and Construct High quality

TerraMaster’s F8 SSD Plus NAS is available in a a lot smaller package deal than one would count on of a typical NAS system. Out of the field, it’s not a lot greater than a typical exterior USB onerous drive. Constructed with a modern, minimalist design, the enclosure can simply mix into just about any workspace with out inflicting any distraction. Its compact construct, measuring 6.96 by 2.36 by 5.51 inches (177 by 60 by 140 millimeters) and weighing nearly 1.3 kilos (0.6kg) with out drives, permits for handy placement (vertically).

Not like the remainder of the TerraMaster NAS Lineup, the brand new F8 SSD Plus has no indicator LED standing lights on the entrance for the drives, community exercise, or system well being. The one LED mild occurs to be on the highest of the system the place the ability button is positioned. To view this method standing’ you’ll have to make use of the TNAS Cell/Desktop app or web-based login, so relying in your stance, this may be considered as a constructive or unfavourable. I have a tendency to make use of the apps and have many automated alerts arrange with my programs, so I didn’t thoughts the lacking indicator lights. In truth, I most popular it because it was much less of a visible distraction whereas the system was on and doing its factor.

You’ll discover all of the connections and ports on the rear of the system. These embody a single 10GbE port, a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-C and two Kind-A ports (all providing 10Gbps), and an HDMI output, offering customers with a scaled-down however versatile vary of connectivity choices. Whereas there are fewer connection choices just like the SATA siblings of the TerraMaster lineup, the F8 SSD Plus nonetheless caters to customers needing high-speed information switch and those that wish to join the NAS on to a show for media playback or monitoring.

Beneath all these ports are the place you’ll discover the small thumbscrew for popping open the system from its enclosure casing so as to add/take away drives and carry out any upkeep wanted. The eight M.2 SSD bays are simply accessible and clearly labeled (1 to eight), permitting for fast set up and upkeep of drives. One of many standout options is its tool-free drive set up, making the setup course of easy, even for many who aren’t tech-savvy. Now, it’s value noting right here why entering into and sealing the enclosure solely requires a thumbscrew; securing the SSD drives requires a smaller (precision) screwdriver, which is supplied with the system. So it’s debatable that the F8 SSD Plus isn’t fairly as “tool-free” as marketed.

{Hardware} and Inner Parts

Given the intensive workloads that NAS programs typically deal with, environment friendly cooling is important. The TerraMaster F8 SSD Plus is provided with two massive, low-noise followers on the rear/backside, making certain enough airflow to maintain the system cool throughout operation. Even below heavy hundreds, the system maintains a comparatively quiet operation at an marketed lower than 19 dB(a) from a meter away, a big benefit for customers working in noise-sensitive environments like residence studios or small places of work.

The F8 SSD Plus system has eight M.2 SSD slots (capped at PCIe Gen 3×1 speeds), they usually even present eight heatsinks, adhesives, and rubber bands to maintain all of it connected must you really feel like some further safety for the drives. The rubber bands are very cosy, and actually, there was a little bit of a battle to recover from the gadgets, and I even broke a number of of them. The excellent news is that TerraMaster appeared to have deliberate for this and packed numerous further bands. With my testing, Western Digital offered 4 250GB WD Crimson SN700 NVMe SSD drives which I setup as a 500GB BTRFS TRAID Plus for a 50/50 redundancy.

By default, the F8 SSD Plus ships with a 16GB DDR5 reminiscence stick put in within the system’s single SODIMM RAM Slot. You possibly can enhance this setup to 32GB in case your workload with the NAS system requires it. Lastly, the eight-core, eight-thread Intel i3-N305 processor mustn’t solely deal with most all the things you possibly can throw at it (from a NAS storage perspective, however it’s additionally a reasonably spectacular power-efficient system that’s seated simply above the twin 50-millimeter followers on the backside of the enclosure to assist hold issues cool below any excessive workloads that pop up. One factor I did discover, although, was the shortage of a mud filter over (or inside) the followers. Whereas not an enormous deal, this may very well be a little bit of a fear over time. On the constructive, opening up the case to wash it out is simple, however that also requires extra upkeep to schedule and plan.

Software program and Setup

Establishing the F8 SSD Plus is simple, due to TerraMaster’s step-by-step information, which is straightforward to make use of. Customers can initialize the system by connecting it to their native community and following the on-screen directions through the online portal (And even the desktop app). As soon as initialized, customers can make the most of a desktop or cell app to handle and monitor their NAS in the event that they don’t wish to use the online interface. That stated, whereas handy, the online interface is fairly intuitive and full of a variety of apps and settings, making it simpler to tailor the NAS to particular person wants. New customers might initially discover the interface barely overwhelming, however the studying curve is manageable.

The F8 SSD Plus runs on TerraMaster’s TOS 6 working system, lately up to date to six.0.5, which presents a reasonably polished and intuitive consumer interface. The corporate says the OS has been considerably improved over the earlier generations, with greater than 500 enhancements and new options targeted on enhancing information safety, efficiency, and ease of use. Whereas I haven’t examined the older working programs, I can verify that there are locations for just about all the things you would wish to regulate and management which can be simply accessible via the management panel. In the event you ever get confused, TerraMaster has a reasonably intensive library of step-by-step guides and movies on their web site to stroll you thru any complicated components. So, the preliminary setup of the NAS is simple, together with the guides to configure community settings, consumer accounts, and storage swimming pools.

Whereas it might not really feel as strong or intensive as its Synology rivals, the TerraMaster NAS and TOS 6 working system embody a good vary of built-in apps like TerraSync for seamless file synchronization, TerraPhoto for managing massive photograph libraries, and TerraMaster’s app retailer with over 100 different functions that cater to totally different use instances akin to media streaming, backup options, and digital machine internet hosting. Moreover, for customers conversant in Docker, the system permits for much more customization, enabling the set up of extra software program that will not be natively supported by TerraMaster.

Efficiency

That is the place issues obtained a bit irritating. Whereas the NAS was simple to arrange and reported no pressure by any means (the system by no means even went over 48 levels Celsius throughout hours of steady use), throughout stress assessments with Blackmagic Design Disk Velocity Assessments and AJA System Check, the F8 SSD Plus constantly offered learn and write speeds of about 100 MB/s throughout my community. Because it seems, when utilizing a Gigabit LAN (1Gbe), you are usually a bit restricted as to your information switch speeds may be.

So, to make issues extra thorough, I introduced the NAS to a colleague’s workplace to check out the 10Gbe switch charges and was pleasantly shocked. The switch speeds would peak briefly at about 1,000 megabytes per second after which settle between 600 and 850 megabytes per second. It’s a rather more improved and anticipated efficiency than my residence community. I examined these speeds utilizing the AJA and Blackmagic software program for long-duration stress assessments. I additionally transferred over about 150 gigs value of video information (starting from a number of hundred megabytes to 10-plus gigs in dimension) to watch the efficiency. Nonetheless, the system by no means went over 50 levels in warmth and had no points letting me load and watch these movies throughout the community, working from them utilizing the SSD NAS.

What was extra spectacular if you examine this to straightforward SATA drive NAS programs, is that at no time did the system make any extreme noise from the followers. Throughout its heaviest workload of stress testing, the followers began to go as much as as loud as about 28 dB(a) however shortly dropped beneath the marketed 19 dB(a) degree. Each mine and my colleague’s workspace had been already louder than what the NAS was producing at its noisiest, making it ultimate to have inside the identical room you’re working in in comparison with SATA fashions.

Are There Options?

There aren’t numerous purely SSD NAS programs available on the market at this degree, however there are nonetheless a number of related programs accessible to select from. These embody the $999 UGreen DXP480T Plus 4 bay SSD NAS, the $399 Ugreen DXP2800 Sata/SSD Hybrid NAS, and the $799 12-bay SSD Asustor Flashstor 12 Professional.

Ought to You Purchase It?

Sure. Priced at round $799 — not together with the M.2 SSDs — the TerraMaster F8 SSD Plus presents strong worth for its efficiency and have set. The small dimension, constantly quiet efficiency, energy, and storage expandability make it a compelling alternative for customers who want a dependable, quiet, high-speed NAS with out breaking the financial institution. The system’s eight drive bays present a ton of growth house for future progress (as much as 64TB), which must be sufficient to maintain even essentially the most prolific information hoarders glad.

The one actual draw back with this system is the one 10Gbe Ethernet port, which may really feel considerably limiting when you’ve got a workload requiring numerous aggregation and failover protections. Past that, it’s a strong funding for somebody needing NAS storage and a minimal bodily footprint.