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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Hmm curious if network bonding is possible on these 4 network gbe ports..