I’ve always been interested in setting up my very own NAS server. There are many uses and advantages of a dedicated NAS server as opposed to standalone hard drives. A NAS is not a cheap investment, but TerraMaster aims to change that with their new F8 Plus SSD NAS.
When I first started researching NAS servers, I primarily viewed them as a solution for storing my image archives and backing them up. This, of course, is a very viable solution for the long-term storage of dozens of terabytes of files. However, with fast internet connections now available in many households, network-attached storage becomes much more than that. It can act as a real-time backup solution, a quickly accessible editing drive you don’t need to carry with you, and so much more.
I have been a Mac user for the longest time. While there are many great things about a MacBook, there is one major downside: the storage. It’s not that you can’t add storage to a MacBook; it’s that as soon as you start adding storage, the price skyrockets. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way the Mac Mini is priced, starting at $599 for the base model and an extra $800 for 2 TB of storage. Enough said.
Because of this storage problem, I have historically relied on a fleet of external SSD drives. With 512 GB of storage on my Mac, I really can’t handle a large production and save it on the internal drive. The problem, of course, is that sometimes those SSDs get left behind and don’t make it to the set. If the production spans several days, this becomes a real issue. It may be manageable with photos, but as soon as you venture into video, storage demands skyrocket. Being able to store files remotely is a huge benefit for photographers.
Another benefit of storing files remotely is working with a team. There hasn’t been a shoot in my memory that didn’t involve a team. Sometimes deadlines are so tight that the retoucher has to start editing the images as soon as they are shot. The ability to access the entire library of raw files immediately is a huge advantage in terms of how quickly you can deliver files. For example, I recently had a shoot with a three-day turnaround—mind you, with high-end retouching and corrections in mind. It wasn’t easy, let me tell you. Being able to share the files immediately allowed the retoucher to meet the tight deadline.
The reason I opted for an SSD-based NAS server instead of an HDD-based one is simple: speed. I knew I would be using my NAS as a work drive of sorts. It would either be my backup solution on set or my main drive when needed. Some other requirements included a compact footprint and low noise levels.
After looking online for solutions, the TerraMaster F8 Plus SSD caught my eye as a cost-efficient option. It balances price, upgradability, efficiency, and compactness.
Build Quality
The TerraMaster F8 Plus SSD ships in a fairly small, unassuming box containing the device itself, a few tools, assembly components, cables, and manuals. The device is made of decent plastic and features two rubber legs at the bottom for ventilation. Overall, it measures no larger than a standard book, coming in at 177x160x140 mm—a convenient size for most tables. The top and bottom have vents to aid with cooling. My unit has been largely silent, rarely needing to spin up to full RPM. On the back, there is a 10 Gbps Ethernet port and three USB ports (one USB-C and two USB-A). It also includes an HDMI port and a power input.
Inside the NAS, there are eight M.2 NVMe SSD slots. You can configure it to have up to 64 TB of storage using eight 8 TB SSDs. This is plenty for setting up a RAID storage solution. It supports RAID 0, 6, and 10, as well as an intelligent RAID option that works with drives of different sizes, offering better failure resistance and faster rebuild times.
Installing the SSDs is easy. Simply slot your drives in, attach the necessary heat sinks, and you’re ready to go. However, the design of the slots requires screws to secure the SSDs, when a screwless design would be more convenient. Another issue is that the heat sinks attach with rubber bands, which can be flimsy and prone to breaking.
Performance
Let’s discuss the performance of this NAS and how it compares to other solutions in use. One of the main reasons people choose an SSD NAS is for the added performance over HDD solutions.
I’m not a professional when it comes to network storage; I’m simply a user who needs fast, reliable network storage. My performance assessment is based on personal experience. If you’re looking for a detailed review of performance characteristics, you may need to look elsewhere.
The NAS features an Intel i3 N305 processor with a single 16 GB DDR5 RAM module, expandable to 32 GB. The processor has 8 cores and 8 threads and includes a small integrated GPU.
Setting up the NAS is straightforward—you just download the relevant software and let it handle the setup process. The entire process takes about ten minutes. The NAS supports speeds up to 10 Gbps, but achieving those speeds depends on your network. If your network isn’t capable of handling such speeds, you won’t fully benefit from the device. If you invest in this NAS, I strongly recommend upgrading your network. I haven’t yet upgraded mine to take full advantage of its speed.
The NAS OS is decent and includes many features. However, it’s not designed for power users who want extensive customization. For someone like me, who prefers basic configurations, it’s absolutely perfect.
What I Liked
- Price
- Ease of setup
- Hardware capabilities
What Could Be Improved
- My internet connection
- SSD Mounting procedure
- Terramaster Software
Closing Thoughts
The powerful hardware of the Terramaster F8 Plus is likely to be limited by your internet connection. It’s an excellent budget choice for general-purpose SSD NAS servers for users who don’t want to spend too much time fiddling with tech. As a fan of plug-and-play solutions, I appreciate its simplicity. I must say, I’m quite happy with the total cost and the features it offers. And besides, it’s about time I upgraded my internet, right?
The most important info didn't make it to the article! What where the speed test results and were they fast enough to use as a working drive?
You were absolutely the wrong person to review this device. I feel empathy for the NAS company. This device has a 10Gbps network port on it which, like other 10Gbps NAS devices, can connect directly to a 10Gbps network port on a Mac. This gives a ~10 fold increase in speed as relates to the more common 1Gbps home network speed. Still need a physical network connection to your router? Use a USB network adapter. Also, I haven't read the manual but it also has a 10Gbps USB-C port on it which _might_ be able to connect to a Thunderbolt port on the Mac for 10Gbps speeds. You should get somewhere around 700MB/s transfer speeds between the Mac and the NAS.
A cheaper and likely better performing configuration would be cheaper conventional magnetic drives (in a RAID configuration) and 2x 4TB SSDs as a read/write cache. I have a Synology NAS configured like this with a 10 Gbps network and push 3-4 Gbps from my Macbook Pro. Read speeds can be similar, depending on whether the files are in the cache or not.
Hey Tony! I am in the market for another NAS since WD ended support for my little dinosaur....lol
I have been considering either the DS923+ or DS 620 SLIM. Any input would be appreciated.
Sorry, I haven't compared those. But my Synology NASs (I have two identical copies for backups) are 6 years old and will last me at least a decade... and you never have too much space. So more drive bays is really useful. If you ever work from the NAS, having two SSDs dedicated to a read/write cache really helps, and that will consume 2 bays alone.
I wish Synology would just release their OS to run on a spare PC. Their software is one of the easiest to use since it just automates things where it makes sense. The only issue is the sky high prices for getting enough drive bays.
From a hardware standpoint, especially if you are willing to go with older gen hardware,or if you just want to turn an old PC into a NAS ( I used an old core i7 6700k system), I started with 6 HDDs and 1 m.2 SSD, and eventually added more expansion cards and moved to 12HDDs (sadly any more and I will need to find creative ways to mount drives in my case, or get an HBA with an external connector and buy a used server disk shelf and add more drives that way.
Overall it is great on the performance side of things, but the software ease of use is nowhere near what synology offers.
I would love to be able to just take that system, install synology's software and just make things simple to use, especially since I don't really need many of the extra features that software like truenas offers.
i agree with Tony.. for most.. a better solution would be something like a synology with multiple drive bays.. you could/can set up a volume with SSD's and another volume with traditional HDD's.. and set up an nvme cache. This would be a more flexible storage solution.. you use the SSD volume for your active work, then move it to the spinning drives volume for archival/completed work.
This is actually what I use. My "active work" drive is a 4TB 40Gbps SSD connected to one of my Mac's thunderbolt ports. I could just do my video work directly from my 10Gbps NAS but the SSD is just a smoother and more instant experience.
I have been thinking of adding an L2ARC cache to my NAS though I never followed through since my current setup can saturate a 10GbE connection for linear reads and writes, and since I don't use the NAS as a working drive for editing work, the increased IOPS from an all flash storage setup or even an additional ARC cache, has not felt as necessary. The main reason why I am still partial to it is because I have a few extra 512GB Samsung 970 Pro SSDs which have great write endurance, though the most write intensive workload the NAS gets are periodic windows backups and much of the rest of the work are linear.
For the one exception of occasionally launching a game backup (GOG games can launch directly from a NAS, even on multiple separate PCs at the same time without issue). The RAM ARC is enough to offer a decent experience.
As for my active working drive, I use 2, 2TB WD SN850X drives, and so far 7.3GB/s from each SSD has never been a bottleneck for my workflow.
One function that I feel that these NAS products really need, is a focus on combining ample SSD storage options while also supporting multiple hard drives.
having a server that is exclusively using SSD storage is often a waste if you need both capacity in general but also occasional speed. For example, suppose you need to maintain an archive of around 40TB of data, and a need to actively work on around 2-3TB of data. That system will essentially have you using 2 separate NAS devices.and moving files between them.
Ideally, it would be good to have 4 or so 2-4TB m.2 NVMe SSDs, that can act as a cache, especially for recently added files, and frequently used ones, while also dumping that data to a storage array of 8-12 8TB hard drives (storage pool with 2 drive failure tolerance), and provide a simple and intuitive way of configuring the caching behavior to better fit a user's work flow. E.g., if you have 8-12TB of SSD storage, what if they could offer an option to immediately use 50% of that space for recently added files, and the other 50% will act as a ARC cache. Only downside is with ZFS, other than using the SSD for logging, there is no proper write caching (for those that are fine with the data loss risk)
I agree with Tony, SSDs are too expensive for NAS drives. I use a QNAP TS-673 NAS with Iron Wolf hard drives and they work fine over an ethernet connection with Lightroom. Lightroom quickly loads/saves my 50mb RAWs from my Canon R5 and R5Mk2 which are stored on the NAS. Operating in Raid 0 configuration where each drive is duplicated ensures that unless your wife takes a hammer to the drive it is virtually impossible to lose a image due to hardware failure.
There is no redundancy with RAID 0. Your wife "takes a hammer" to your array it's toast. You need at least RAID 1 for redundancy (two copies) and RAID 5 for striping with parity.
I took the time to read the documentation on the F8 SSD Plus and the D8 Hybrid on Terra Master's site and here is what I found:
Terra Master makes a product called the D8 Hybrid that uses a combination of SSD’s and spinning rust for up to an additional 128 TB of storage. https://www.terra-master.com/us/products/homesoho-das/d8-hybrid.html
The slots for the internal SSD’s on F8 SSD Plus are PCIe 3.0, not 4.0 or 5.0. While this was probably done to reduce heat, it also reduces performance. It also means that I would not spend big bucks on high performance SSD's unless you plan to migrate them to a device that supports them in the near future.
In order to get the maximum capacity stated, you are limited to using JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) or RAID 0. Neither of those provide any fault tolerance or redundancy and if used in this manner, the solution would benefit from using the D8 Hybrid as a backup device, adding to the cost while reducing its portability.
To fully populate the F8 SSD Plus with 8 TB SSD’s would cost a minimum of $5,199.00 (Western Digital WD Black SN850X at Best Buy), plus the F8 SSD Plus makes it a $6,000.00 solution. While the idea of portable, large capacity storage solutions looks good, the price makes it attractive to those who have deep pockets.
The filesystems available for the F8 Plus, ext4 and btrfs severely limit options. ext4 is general purpose filesystem and does not support features like snapshots without adding LVM to the mix and btrfs, while supporting protection for bitrot but at least two major vendors have recommended not using btrfs for mission critical data. ZFS would be a much better option across the board.
While the F8 SSD Plus has a 10 GbE Ethernet port, I somehow don’t see people bringing switches, cables and NIC’s “on the road” unless it is a well-rehearsed collaborative effort with dedicated IT support. If I was considering a group effort storage device, I would be looking at a device that has two ports and supports Link Aggregation for fault tolerant network connections. As a personal device it would do the job with the single 10 GbE port. You could "sneaker net" it from computer to computer to "share it", but you could do that with any external SSD or HD.
Considering this is a consumer grade device, I would not use it over the Internet unless it was behind a firewall and accessed through a VPN to ensure secure connections. The problem with using a VPN is that performance takes a hit and also requires people with networking skills to make sure everything works.
I think we are a few years from anything that has enterprise grade features at a consumer grade price.