TerraMaster made no bones about the F2-210 being a value-orientated option for those on a budget, so measuring it from that viewpoint, we have many reasons why we’d recommend the enclosure, but also a couple of reservations.
The metal chassis with plastic elements feels robust enough to hold its own, but we’d have liked to see metal drivebays instead of plastic; hard drives are fragile and can easily cost more than the enclosure if you aim for 6TB or above. The rear-mounted 80mm fan is more than up to the job of keeping the enclosure cool at its lowest speed but it does produce a small high-pitched sound, something to bear in mind if you’re putting this within earshot. The fan can be ramped up to 2000RPM if you plan to install the device in a warmer environment, which moves a considerable amount of air.
TerraMaster have equipped the device with just enough hardware to offer a pleasant experience without costing a fortune, with 1GB of RAM and a quad-core 1.4GHZ processor; thanks to that, performance is decent, with speeds above 100MB/s in CrystalDiskMark and close to that in extended file transfers, however it did struggle to transfer that data back to our system for some reason. We tested the Plex usability and found it absolutely suitable for streaming films throughout your network, but transcoding is a bit above the processor’s ability.
TerraMaster’s Operating System is a work in progress, we feel. The issues we encountered during setup should be set up in such a way that there are error messages which describe the problem instead of leaving users in the dark, and with the unit still showing as “Disconnected”, two to three weeks later, you’d be forgiven if you thought the unit was faulty. There’s also still Chinese tooltips present in the software and some instability/chance work in the process of installing applications. Having said that, it does work really well, once you’re up and running, providing the user with a seamless, smooth and elegant experience that feels just like running a desktop operating system.
The biggest reservation we have with this unit is that it only has 2 drivebays, limiting upgrade options further down the line, as well as which RAID types can be deployed. It also caps the total capacity that you can install to begin with, if you’re limited to a smaller budget in the outset. The F4-210, with an additional two drive bays (for 4 total) and an extra 1GB of RAM (for 2GB total) is exactly £100 more in the UK, which does somewhat negate the value aspect of the idea but the 4-bay is still excellent value compared to equivalent models.
Looking for an inexpensive NAS enclosure to backup cherished memories and data that can run a Plex Media Server and do much more? The F2-210 fits the home/small business user perfectly.
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The metal chassis with plastic elements feels robust enough to hold its own, but we’d have liked to see metal drivebays instead of plastic; hard drives are fragile and can easily cost more than the enclosure if you aim for 6TB or above. The rear-mounted 80mm fan is more than up to the job of keeping the enclosure cool at its lowest speed but it does produce a small high-pitched sound, something to bear in mind if you’re putting this within earshot. The fan can be ramped up to 2000RPM if you plan to install the device in a warmer environment, which moves a considerable amount of air.
TerraMaster have equipped the device with just enough hardware to offer a pleasant experience without costing a fortune, with 1GB of RAM and a quad-core 1.4GHZ processor; thanks to that, performance is decent, with speeds above 100MB/s in CrystalDiskMark and close to that in extended file transfers, however it did struggle to transfer that data back to our system for some reason. We tested the Plex usability and found it absolutely suitable for streaming films throughout your network, but transcoding is a bit above the processor’s ability.
TerraMaster’s Operating System is a work in progress, we feel. The issues we encountered during setup should be set up in such a way that there are error messages which describe the problem instead of leaving users in the dark, and with the unit still showing as “Disconnected”, two to three weeks later, you’d be forgiven if you thought the unit was faulty. There’s also still Chinese tooltips present in the software and some instability/chance work in the process of installing applications. Having said that, it does work really well, once you’re up and running, providing the user with a seamless, smooth and elegant experience that feels just like running a desktop operating system.
The biggest reservation we have with this unit is that it only has 2 drivebays, limiting upgrade options further down the line, as well as which RAID types can be deployed. It also caps the total capacity that you can install to begin with, if you’re limited to a smaller budget in the outset. The F4-210, with an additional two drive bays (for 4 total) and an extra 1GB of RAM (for 2GB total) is exactly £100 more in the UK, which does somewhat negate the value aspect of the idea but the 4-bay is still excellent value compared to equivalent models.
Looking for an inexpensive NAS enclosure to backup cherished memories and data that can run a Plex Media Server and do much more? The F2-210 fits the home/small business user perfectly.
Pros
+ Robust, simple enclosure
+ Easy to setup and use
+ Snappy and elegant operating system
+ Relatively quiet when idle and under operation
+ Excellent value
Neutral
+- Plastic drivebays
Cons
- If the setup goes badly, it goes really badly
- Waited 72 hours for a response from Customer Services
+ Robust, simple enclosure
+ Easy to setup and use
+ Snappy and elegant operating system
+ Relatively quiet when idle and under operation
+ Excellent value
Neutral
+- Plastic drivebays
Cons
- If the setup goes badly, it goes really badly
- Waited 72 hours for a response from Customer Services
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
Stay connected with the Vortez Social Media pages:
Join in with the discussions on Discord
