As already described in the headline, I’m sharing my very first impressions of a NAS system with you today. Unlike my colleague Tim, who showed you his successful DIY version, I am of course using an off-the-shelf NAS system. TerraMaster was kind enough to provide me with the F2-423 high-performance NAS for this purpose – in the conviction that I’ll get to grips with the system perfectly, despite being a complete novice. Let’s put it this way: I was able to tame the system, which has an RRP of 379.99 euros, with a few small hurdles at the beginning. And you are welcome to share in my NAS career today and who knows, maybe one or two of you will pluck up the courage to try it out for yourselves?
Why a NAS anyway?
As a content creator and reviewer here on igor’sLAB, I have a lot of data that quickly eats up the memory on my work computer. This includes a lot of data that needs to be protected (also from prying eyes), especially if it is subject to an NDA and you could be severely punished if such data becomes public. Well, you could say, just use cloud services like Google Drive or other clouds.
But I have to categorically reject the whole thing for a number of reasons. On the one hand, I like to be the master of my data and only trust myself. On the other hand, I trust third-party providers very little. The reason for this is probably also the fact that I keep hearing that there are security gaps and I can’t trust 100% that my data is really protected on trustworthy servers. There are certainly many other ways to protect your data. However, these are often far too cumbersome or you have to resort to a third-party provider. That’s why a NAS system was and is the simplest option for me, true to the motto: You can’t get in here. (if you do it right. Ok, learning by doing for me again.
Scope of delivery and equipment
TerraMaster ships the NAS in a plain, brown box with the obligatory TerraMaster logo. There are no colorful prints and packaging origami, which I really like. Inside the box, the NAS is packed very securely to protect it from knocks and annoying slippage. We also find the operating instructions, an Ethernet cable and a 40-watt power supply unit. That’s all there is. HDDs and M.2 SSDs have to be purchased separately. Here you only get the bare, freely configurable system. TerraMaster does not offer an option with full configuration ex works.
Let’s move on to the equipment. The rear IO shield contains an HDMI port, two USB 2.0 ports, two 2.5 GbE ports and the connection for our power supply unit in the bottom right-hand corner. On the front, we also have the mechanical on/off button and the status LEDs.
And for the very curious among you, here is the data sheet (better viewed with a magnifying glass or as a full screen):
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