TerraMaster F2-425 Review

The TerraMaster F2-425 is TerraMaster's entry 2-bay x86 NAS for households that want Plex or Jellyfin, phone photo backup, and PC backups on one quiet box without paying Synology Plus money. The diskless Amazon listing sits near $299.99 as of October 2026, and TerraMaster's own store has listed it a little lower. Drives are extra.

This review is spec and source grounded, not a lab test. Hardware details come from TerraMaster's F2-425 spec sheet and the current Amazon listing. Performance, noise, and build notes summarize what published reviews (TechRadar, PCWorld, Neowin) and owner feedback consistently report. One correction up front: some listings and store headlines call this an N95 box, but TerraMaster's own spec table lists an Intel Celeron N5095. The N95 lives in the pricier F2-424 and F2-425 Plus.

Quick verdict

The F2-425 does one job well: it turns two hard drives into a mirrored, always-on home server for files, photos, and media at a price closer to a pair of drives than a premium NAS. The N5095 is an older Jasper Lake Celeron, but it is a real x86 chip with Intel UHD graphics, so Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin can lean on hardware decode instead of brute force. The 2.5GbE port is the right default for 2026, and TOS 6 covers the backup basics without a subscription.

What you give up is headroom. There is no M.2 slot for an SSD cache or a fast app volume, memory tops out at 16GB in a single slot, and there is only one network port. PCWorld called it good value for streaming, backup, and IP cameras while noting the plastic case; TechRadar found it nearly silent in a home office but flagged the single port. Amazon buyers rate it around 4.0 stars across roughly 90 reviews, a smaller and more mixed sample than the big Synology 2-bay listings.

If the bigger decision is still NAS versus Mac mini versus a quiet 4-bay, read Apartment quiet NAS and Plex upgrade path first. For a full under-desk build with drives and backups, see Quiet under-desk NAS for Plex and backups.

Hardware: CPU, RAM, bays, and ports

CPU: the N5095 is a 15 W quad-core part. It is plenty for SMB shares, scheduled backups, photo indexing, and a handful of containers like Home Assistant or Pi-hole. It is not a virtualization chip, and PCWorld notes it falls short of Roon's recommended hardware, so audiophile servers and VM stacks belong on something bigger.

RAM: 4GB ships in the only SODIMM slot. That is fine for file serving and Plex. If you plan to run several Docker containers, TerraMaster lists a 16GB maximum, so the upgrade means swapping the stick rather than adding one.

Storage: two bays means RAID 1 (or TerraMaster's TRAID, which behaves like a mirror with two drives) for most buyers. Pick Btrfs to get snapshots, which is the main reason to choose it over EXT4. TerraMaster also lets you add capacity later through its USB DAS enclosures over a 10Gbps port, but that is an add-on, not internal growth.

No M.2: this is the biggest hardware gap versus the F2-424 and UGREEN's DXP2800, both of which have two M.2 slots. Without NVMe, apps and Docker live on the hard drives, which is slower and keeps the disks spinning.

Networking: what the 2.5GbE port really delivers

TerraMaster markets the 2.5GbE port for fast multi-user transfers. Real numbers depend on the drives and the RAID level. PCWorld reported reads and writes in roughly the 250 to 300 MB/s range with a single SATA SSD, which is close to what one 2.5GbE link can carry. With two hard drives in RAID 1, expect large sequential copies to be limited mostly by the disks, and small-file work to land well below that.

To benefit at all, the rest of the path has to be multi-gig: a 2.5GbE switch port and a 2.5GbE adapter on the PC or Mac. On a plain gigabit network the F2-425 will negotiate down to roughly 110 MB/s like any other NAS. There is no second port for link aggregation or a separate camera VLAN, which TechRadar called out as a drawback.

TOS 6 software and apps

The F2-425 ships with TOS 6, TerraMaster's browser-based NAS OS. Neowin's review unit ran TOS 6.0.783. TerraMaster is now promoting TOS 7 on its product pages; check its compatibility notes before you count on an upgrade for this model.

What TOS 6 covers out of the box:

• Setup from a phone: TNAS Mobile can initialize the NAS without a PC and then handles automatic photo and video backup.
• Photos: a local photo library with smart albums that TerraMaster says scales to millions of images.
• PC and Mac backup: TerraSync for two-way sync with version history (TerraMaster quotes up to 32 versions), plus Centralized Backup and Duple Backup. Pair it with an offsite copy using the 3-2-1 backup strategy for a NAS.
• Cloud sync: CloudSync links Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox for hybrid setups.
• Media: Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin packages plus DLNA. HDMI out can also drive a TV directly.
• Containers: Docker with Docker Compose and Portainer support for self-hosted apps.
• Cameras: Surveillance Manager for ONVIF IP cameras.
• Security: firewall, two-factor (OTP) sign-in, and HyperLock WORM folders that TerraMaster pitches as ransomware protection.

For remote access without opening router ports, set up Tailscale on a NAS. TOS is easy to learn, and reviewers generally praise the setup flow. It is still a smaller ecosystem than Synology DSM, with fewer third-party guides and a shorter track record on long-term updates.

Noise and power

TerraMaster rates the F2-425 at 19.0 dB(A) with two drives in standby, measured at 1 m in a 17.3 dB(A) room. That is a standby figure, not a load figure, and real noise depends mostly on your drives.

Published reviews line up with the spec at idle. TechRadar described it as almost silent sitting next to a router for three weeks, and Neowin reported only a soft fan whir on a work desk. Both TechRadar and owner reviews note that the rear fan ramps up during sustained photo indexing or video processing, so plan for some noise during the first library scan.

TerraMaster lists power draw at 22 W during access and 11 W in hibernation with two 4TB NAS drives. The power supply is an external 48 W adapter; one owner review notes a bulky plug-mounted adapter that can crowd neighboring outlets on a UPS. If you want clean shutdowns during outages, pick a unit from our compact UPS picks for a desk NAS and confirm TOS sees it over USB as a HID UPS.

Drives to pair with it

Use two matched CMR NAS drives (WD Red Plus, Seagate IronWolf, or Toshiba N300 class) and avoid SMR desktop drives for RAID rebuilds. See CMR for why it matters. For a first 2-bay mirror, two 4TB to 8TB drives give 4TB to 8TB of usable space at a sensible cost per terabyte. Quieter 5400 to 5900 RPM class drives suit a bedroom or desk better than 7200 RPM enterprise models. TerraMaster does not restrict you to its own branded drives, which keeps the total price down.

Price vs Synology DS225+ and UGREEN DXP2800

The F2-425 is usually the cheapest of the three and has more base RAM than the DS225+. The DS225+ costs more for DSM, a longer warranty, and a second network port. The DXP2800 adds two M.2 slots and 8GB of DDR5 for roughly the price gap. Full head-to-heads live in Synology DS224+ vs UGREEN DXP2800 and Synology DS225+ vs UGREEN NASync DXP4800. If four bays and M.2 matter more than price, compare TerraMaster F4-424 Pro vs ASUSTOR Lockerstor 4 Gen3 or the Synology DS925+ review.

Who should buy

Buy the F2-425 when:

• This is your first NAS and the goal is phone photo backup, PC backups, and a Plex or Jellyfin library
• You want x86 transcoding and 2.5GbE for around $300 diskless
• Two mirrored drives will cover your storage for the next few years

Skip it when:

• You want SSD cache or NVMe app storage (look at UGREEN DXP2800 or TerraMaster F2-424)
• DSM's ecosystem and a 3-year warranty are worth the premium (Synology DS225+)
• You need four bays, VMs, or 10GbE

Bottom line

The TerraMaster F2-425 is a solid first NAS: quiet at idle, frugal on power, and capable enough for photo backup, PC backups, and hardware-assisted media streaming over 2.5GbE. Its limits are clear: no M.2, one network port, a plastic shell, and TOS instead of DSM. Specs and price above come from TerraMaster's spec sheet, published reviews, and the current Amazon listing, not a personal lab. If two bays and simple backups fit the plan, View on Amazon and confirm the current price before buying drives.