Terramaster F8-SSD
7. Conclusion
The TerraMaster F8-SSD is a different solution for users who wish to get an NVME SSD-based NAS server with a 10G port connection. The product has small dimensions, consumes less power compared with a traditional NAS server with HDDs, and produces almost no noise, since all NVMEs are passive-cooled, apart from the two spinning fans at the back. The system can be upgraded from the 8GB DDR5 SO-DIMM up to 64GB DDR5 SO-DIMM, however no ECC memory is being supported. Due to the CPU restrictions, the eight (8) PCIe slots are limited to PCIe 3.0 x1 port which in theory should give you enough bandwidth to fill the 10G port connectivity.
The TNAS operating system has matured enough and the 6.xx version works very well without many problems. We did notice some issues with GUI and the 8x NVME SSDs we installed, we would wanted a separate NVME temperature control widget or better reports for %CPU usage over the period. Again Terramaster continues to evolve with each release of the TNAS and all upgrades are for free with this powerhouse you are covered for the years to come. The TNAS operating system does offer many apps to choose from that should accelerate your tasks (backup, virtualization), and the fact that it's an Intel x64-based machine, means you can use it to install also alternative operating systems (either Linux or Windows based) and experiment with with on your own. If we had to suggest something to Terramaster, would be to include a second 10G port and perhaps make the device slightly bigger so that each NVME SSD that is being installed has a great gap for better cooling performance and airflow. Maybe even use in the future a better CPU that would allow PCIe x4 Gen support for even higher speed with dual 10G nic.
Concluding this review, the Terramaster F8-SSD is a rather unique product for experienced users that wish to move to memory storage, since both the buying cost and the cost per GB for the NVMEs is not low, at least compared with a traditional NAS server that it's based only with HDDs. Of course, there are also hybrid solutions (like the F424-Max that can hold both HDDs and PCIe x4 NVMEs) from Terramaster that users can look for. Both the F8-SSD and the F8-SSD Plus deserve your attention and if you are in the market for a compact, robust, low-noise power consumption solution, take a look at the full specs and read carefully our review.