TerraMaster F5-221 NAS Review

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Introduction

Terra Master F5-221 5 bay NAS

Today, we review the Terra Master's F5-221 5 bay NAS. Terra Master is a network storage solutions company whose offer starts with 2-bay products, up to 16-bay enterprise-grade arrays priced at approximately 10K USD. Inside, you’ll find an Intel Celeron J3355 Dual-Core 2.0 GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, and 2 x 1 Gigabit Ethernet Port. The reviewed unit’s MSRP is 359.99 USD. There are also three other 5-bay NAS variants from Terra Master:

  • F5-420 (Intel Celeron J1900 Quad-Core 2.0GHz CPU, 4 GB RAM, 1 Gigabit Ethernet Port x4) for 589.99 USD
  • F5-421 (Intel Celeron J3455 Quad-Core 1.5GHz CPU, 4 GB RAM, 1 Gigabit Ethernet Port x4) for 469.99 USD
  • F5-422 (Intel Quad-Core 1.5GHz CPU, 4 GB RAM, 10 Gigabit Ethernet Port x1, 1 Gigabit x2) for 599.99 USD

So, what do we have here? The F5-221 supports a total of 80 TB of storage space. Max Single Volume is listed as 108 TB (but how?). Still, 80 TB should be enough not only for the home user (well, if you’re trying to back up the Internet, then maybe not) but also for small businesses. Several different types of RAID are supported:

  • Single,
  • JBOD,
  • RAID 0,
  • RAID 1,
  • RAID5,
  • RAID 6,
  • RAID 10
 

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It’s best to use the same types of HDDs/SSDs for the RAID setups, but you probably should know that already. NAS is not just for storing files. The F5-221 can also be used as a mail/web server, media/streaming server, or FTP server, with even MySQL, supported. Apart from MySQL (a slightly more specialized application), I can see all of those options being very useful to the tech-savvy home user in need of a storage solution. You can control the NAS via desktop applications (PC/MAC) with a Linux-based GUI. There’s also the option to use Android/iOS apps to monitor the NAS. I’ll be testing this product using a couple of HDDs that I had lying about. Terra Master lists a range of different drives from various vendors that are ideal for use in a NAS environment, so it would best to follow their recommendation for long-term reliability. With my 5 HDDs inside, the F5-221 is not entirely silent, but we’ll check that later in detail. The device comes with a 10-minute 'duty cycle' functionality, which means that the drives inside the NAS will automatically go to sleep if they’re idle for 10 minutes. This should reduce power consumption and noise while making the drives last longer. File permissions are handled via the integrated Windows Access Control List (ACL). As for the file protocols, the following are supported:

  • SAMBA
  • AFP
  • NFS
  • FTP
  • WebDAV

Remote access is possible via TNAS or DDNS. Additionally, there’s the option to establish a personal cloud drive to satisfy your remote access needs. Access rights can be granted to your colleagues, relatives, or friends, and with support for two-way sync cloud drive, enjoying the benefits of convenient cloud life has never been easier. This can be used for Dropbox, ElephantDrive, and Baidu Cloud. Overall, the features look very impressive at first glance. Let’s check it all out in practice.

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