TerraMaster F4-421 4-Bay SMB NAS Review

Bohs Hansen / 5 years ago

A Closer Look at the Device

It is time for us to take a closer look at the device itself, after all, it’s a beauty as all the TerraMaster NAS’ are.

Front-Facing Features

The only front-facing features, besides the drive trays, of course, are the LEDs and the power button. There’s an LED for each of the hard drives, one for the network, and one for general power.

The green pinhole LEDs give the unit a great premium look which matches the aluminium cover.

Rear-Facing Features

The rear side is where all the connectors are. At the top, you get an HDMI port followed by two USB 3.0 ports. Below them are the four Gigabit Ethernet ports which can be linked or used separately.

The exhaust fan is extruded from the general enclosure which makes it very prominent. But then again, as this side is turned away from you, you won’t notice it.

Side View

The sides don’t have any particular features, but there is a TerraMaster logo on each side.

The Power Supply

The included power supply delivers 7.5A at 12V, making it a 90W PSU.

Drive Trays

The drive trays are made of plastic all the way. The front latch doesn’t feature spring systems or the likes which is a shame. But it isn’t a bad thing as such.

You can mount both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives of all sorts in these caddies. They feature screw holes for them all, including all types of HDD.

HDMI Output

Sadly, the HDMI port only offers a status view at this point, but hopefully, that will change with future software updates. One can only imagine that this is the reason behind the addition of an HDMI port to the NAS.

How To Upgrade The Memory?

Upgrading the memory in a TerraMaster NAS is quite easy and nothing to worry about. Of course, you should be careful. But it isn’t hard.

You start with the removal of the six screws in the back. Once they’re out, you can gently pull the rear cover off. At this point you have to options: Either you can remove the fan connector from the motherboard, but it’s hot-glued for a secure connection. The second option is to just turn the whole rear contraption and it will fit through the enclosure.

You can then pull gently at the front and the whole thing will come out. You should, of course, remove the drive trays first. It’s also worth noting that you might need to lift a little up at the rear to get it out.

Once you got it all seperated, we can see the SO-DIMM slot on the rear of the inner workings. No further dissasembly is required here. Plug in the memory module, reverse the above-steps, and it’s done.