There is a market for budget-friendly 2-bay NAS units and TerraMaster F2-210 is positioned squarely in that market. The entry level TerraMaster F2-210 is a 2-bay NAS powered by the Realtek RTD1296 quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 1.4 GHz processor. The F2-210 is optimized for home and SOHO users supporting cloud sync, remote access, and mobile apps. We have looked at two other 2-Bay NAS units from TerraMaster, the F2-220 and F2-221 and will now continue on with the F2-210.
TerraMaster F2-210 2-Bay NAS Overview
We received our TerraMaster F2-210 as a complete retail unit which includes all items you would get if you purchased this NAS. After opening the box, we see foam padding to protect the NAS and the accessory box at the side. Along the side, we find the accessory box. After removing the F2-210 from its packing material, we can now take a look at the NAS.
The enclosure of the F2-210 is identical to the F2-220 and F2-221 that we have reviewed before, Looking at the front, we find a silver power button on the left side with status LED’s above. There are no real product identifiers on each of the NAS’s which shows TerraMaster uses common components to lower costs.
While we see a similar front design and chassis for all three of the TerraMaster 2-bay NAS units we have reviewed, the rear of each NAS is different to accommodate each model’s different output ports. The rear of the TerraMaster F2-210 has two USB 3.0 ports, a 1GbE RJ-45 LAN port, and power connector.
One massive 80mm cooling fan takes up the bulk of the rear panel space. It provides the primary cooling for the NAS.
The accessory package is the same that we find in the other TerraMaster 2-Bay NAS units.
Accessories included with the F2-210 include:
- Quick Installation Guide
- AC Power Adapter
- AC Power Cord
- RJ-45 LAN Cable
- 2x packaged of assorted hard drive mounting screws
- One small screwdriver
We like the inclusion of a screwdriver. It is probably not something that is entirely necessary, but it makes installation much easier. For a low-cost NAS, it is a welcome addition that we would not expect.
Let us move on to see how to install hard drives into our unit.
Installing Hard Drives in the TerraMaster F2-210
The TerraMaster F2-210 has two drive bays. Each drive bay can accommodate either 3.5″ or 2.5″ hard drives or solid state drives. Using the current maximum specified drives for the NAS, 12TB 3.5″ hard drives, one can get up to 24TB raw capacity.
The drive trays are not tool-less and will require mounting screws to secure the HDD to the drive tray. There are four screws and one can simply use the supplied screwdriver to install the drives. After mounting they slide into the NAS and lock in place.
In the future, we would like to see TerraMaster offer a tool-less solution across their range. The current version is easy enough, but it would make the installation slightly faster.
Now that we have taken a look at the TerraMaster F2-210, we will show installation, features, and performance.
