Designed for home backup and personal cloud storage, the TerraMaster F2-212 ($169.99) is an entry-level two-bay network attached storage (NAS) drive that offers solid performance, quiet operation, and 4K video encoding capabilities. It's also easy to install and manage and uses handy tool-free drive sleds. The TerraMaster is a good value for home users, but the identically priced Asustor Drivestor 2 AS1102T offers slightly faster performance, multi-gig connectivity, and more apps.
The Design: All Black, No Tools
The F2-212 eschews the silver aluminum alloy enclosure that TerraMaster uses for most of its NAS devices, using instead a plastic matte black chassis designed to reduce noise and provide better airflow. It measures 6 by 4.6 by 8.7 inches (HWD) and has TerraMaster-badged ventilation grilles on either side.
(Credit: TerraMaster)The front of the NAS provides access to the two drive bays, which use tool-free drive sleds and support hot swapping. The F2-212 supports 2.5- and 3.5-inch SATA drives and 2.5-inch solid-state drives (SSDs). It can hold up to 44TB of raw storage using two 22TB drives. (As with most of the network attached storage devices we review, drives are not included in the unit's price.) Also up front are tiny LED indicators for drive activity (one for each drive) and power.
(Credit: TerraMaster)You don't get a lot of I/O options with the F2-212. There's a 1GbE LAN port around back, along with USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, the AC adapter connector, and a power switch, but there's no HDMI port. Also missing is the multi-gig LAN port that you get with the Asustor AS1102T. While it's nice to have two USB ports, it would be even nicer if one was located on the front, which would make it easier to connect the NAS to external drives.
Under the hood is a Realtek ARM quad-core 1.7GHz processor plus 1GB of DDR4 RAM. The device has no available slots for upgrading the memory, nor any M.2 slots for NVMe or PCIe solid-state drives. A single 80mm fan keeps internal components cool.
The F2-212 supports BTRFS and EXT4 file systems as well as RAID 0, RAID 1, Single, and JBOD. This NAS also supports TRAID, a feature that can automatically combine disk space from drives with differing capacities to create a flexible redundant array that allows you to add newer, high-capacity drives later on down the road.
The F2-212 uses TerraMaster's web-based TOS 5 operating system, which offers a Windows-like user interface that makes it easy to manage the NAS. You can also control the device using the TNAS mobile app, but the web console offers more controls and settings. At startup, the home screen features icons labeled File Manager, App Center, Control Panel, Backup, Remote Access, Help, Technical Support, and Security Advisor. Additional apps are automatically added to the home screen as you download them.
(Credit: TerraMaster)File Manager lets you access public and private folders, upload and download data, and manage background tasks. The App Center is where you go to download TerraMaster and third-party apps that let you use the NAS as an AI-enabled photo organizer, a video-camera surveillance center, a multimedia server, a cloud server, and more. As of this writing, there were 41 apps in the catalog. By way of comparison, the Asustor AS1102T gives you more than 100 apps to choose from.
(Credit: TerraMaster)The Backup icon opens a screen where you can configure Time Machine and RSync backup settings, install the Snapshot disaster recovery tool (which requires you to use the BTRFS format), download and configure a USB backup app, and create automatic backup schedules.
(Credit: TerraMaster)You use the Control Panel to add users, create user groups, assign file and folder permissions, configure security settings, and monitor drive health. The Security Advisor lets you see the results of your latest security scan and will tell you which items are considered at risk ("in risk," in TerraMaster's terminology) and require your attention. Finally, the Remote Access icon opens a screen where you can configure settings to connect to the NAS over the internet without having to create port forwarding rules.
Testing the TerraMaster F2-212: Take the Easy RAID
Setting up the NAS for first use was a cinch. I started by installing two 10TB Seagate Iron Wolf drives and connecting the NAS to my router. I opened a browser on my desktop PC (also connected to the router), typed https://start.terra-master.com, and entered my email address and NAS model number. Next, I clicked the link to download the TNAS utility in order to search for the NAS. Once the F2-212 was recognized, I tapped Start and selected Default as my initialization method. This configures the NAS with TRAID and yielded 9.09TB of available storage with my two 10TB drives, but you can also choose Custom to apply your own RAID settings.
I waited around 10 minutes for the TOS software to be installed and for the NAS to restart, then tapped the F2-212 entry again to log in to the device. I used the default name and password and was immediately prompted to create a superuser name and password. I verified my email and entered my time zone to complete the installation.
The F2-212 posted respectable scores in our file-transfer tests, in which we use a 4.9GB folder containing a mix of music, video, photo, and office document files to measure NAS read and write performance.
Its score of 87MBps in the write test was faster than the TerraMaster F2-223 (84MBps) and equaled the Synology DiskStation DS220j but was fractionally slower than the Asustor Drivestor 2 AS1102T (89MBps). In the read test, the F2-212 matched the Asustor at 89MBps, basically tied with the Synology (90MBps) and well ahead of the TerraMaster F2-223 (74MBps).
Like its F2-223 sibling, the F2-212 ran quietly with very little fan noise during testing.
Verdict: A Good, Not Great Network Storage Solution
Whether you're looking to set up your own personal cloud server or simply require a painless backup solution for your home network, the TerraMaster F2-212 is worth a look. You won't get a lot of extras or a wide selection of apps, but the NAS is easy to install and operate and delivers solid file-transfer performance. It's an attractive value at $169.99, but would be more attractive on sale—the Editors' Choice award-winning Asustor Drivestor 2 AS1102T offers better write performance, a multi-gig Ethernet port, and more than twice as many apps for the same price.
