Best drives for the TerraMaster F2-425 in Canada
By Devin Chua · Data checked by Owen Nakamura · Updated For the TerraMaster F2-425 fit CMR NAS drives like Seagate IronWolf Pro or WD Red Plus across all 2 bays up to 60 TB raw. TerraMaster locks no drive brand on the F2-425: its list is advice, not a gate. At 2 × 8 TB the F2-425 keeps 7.28 TiB usable in TRAID. Since its Intel N5095 (4 cores, 2.0 GHz) hardware-transcodes Plex through Intel Quick Sync and runs a stack of containers, with a light VM or two as the ceiling, an ordinary CMR drive already saturates the F2-425's link.
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CMR NAS drives for the F2-425
Only families with confirmed CMR recording and a 24/7 rating, in stock on Amazon.ca and sized for the F2-425. SMR drives are deliberately kept out.
What sets the F2-425 apart
The cheapest x86 two-bay with 2.5-gigabit networking. With two equal-size drives TRAID gives no advantage over RAID 1; it only gets interesting once you add a larger drive later.
Who the F2-425 is for
The F2-425's Intel N5095 (4 cores, 2.0 GHz) is the home-NAS sweet spot. Its integrated graphics hardware-transcode Plex — 4K HEVC included, through Intel Quick Sync — and it runs a stack of Docker containers without complaint; heavy virtualization is the one thing it leaves to bigger machines. With 4 GB stock and up to 16 GB, the F2-425 suits a household that wants its media server and its drives in one quiet box.
How the F2-425's network shapes the drive choice
The F2-425 runs 1 × 2.5GbE. Two-and-a-half gigabit is about 280 MB/s — almost exactly what a modern high-capacity NAS drive reads off its outer tracks — so the F2-425 sits in the sweet spot where an ordinary CMR drive saturates the link and a Pro model buys nothing on speed. Drives under about 8 TB fall short here for lack of areal density; from 8 TB up, a standard IronWolf or WD Red Plus is the right call on the F2-425.
A worked configuration for the F2-425
Seagate IronWolf Pro or WD Red Plus in every bay is the recommendation for the F2-425. At 2 × 8 TB in TRAID, the F2-425 lands 7.28 TiB usable, gives up 8 TB to parity, and survives 1 drive failing. Step the same 2 bays of the F2-425 up to 16 TB drives and it holds roughly twice that, at the CA$/TB the live table above shows.
One rule holds on every NAS, the F2-425 included: use CMR drives, not SMR. SMR drives rewrite overlapping tracks and collapse during a RAID rebuild, dragging a repair from hours into days.
The TerraMaster drive policy on the F2-425
unrestrictedOpen. TerraMaster explicitly does not restrict drive brands.
The F2-425 at a glance
| Bays | 2 × 3.5-inch SATA and 2.5-inch SATA SSD |
|---|---|
| Maximum raw capacity | 60 TB 2 × 30 TB, per the manufacturer |
| Processor | Intel N5095 (4 cores, 2.0 GHz) |
| Memory | 4 GB, DDR4 SO-DIMM, no ECC (1 slot) 16 GB official |
| M.2 NVMe | none No M.2 slots. NVMe and 5GbE come only with the F2-425 Plus. |
| Network | 1 × 2.5GbE |
| Operating system | TOS 6 |
| RAID types | TRAID, TRAID+, Single, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1 TRAID also makes use of mixed drive sizes. |
Keep calculating
To see how much capacity is left after parity, the F2-425 capacity calculator is preset to its 2 bays and RAID types. For the F2-425, the wider basics of choosing a drive are in the buying guides, where we also explain why CMR rather than SMR is mandatory in any RAID array.
Frequently asked questions
Can I put third-party drives in the F2-425?
Yes. TerraMaster locks no drive brand on the F2-425 — its compatibility list is guidance, not a gate — so any CMR NAS drive works.
Which drives fit the F2-425?
The F2-425 takes any 3.5-inch SATA and 2.5-inch SATA SSD drive; use a CMR NAS family rated for 24/7 duty such as IronWolf, WD Red Plus or Toshiba N300. On its 1 × 2.5GbE, a standard CMR drive is already fast enough for the F2-425.
How much capacity is usable in the F2-425?
In the F2-425, 2 × 8 TB in TRAID gives about 7.28 TiB usable and survives 1 drive failing; the balance is parity.
Can the F2-425 run Plex with hardware transcoding?
Yes. The F2-425's Intel N5095 (4 cores, 2.0 GHz) includes Intel Quick Sync, which hardware-transcodes Plex including 4K HEVC, so it handles several streams at once without loading the CPU.
Is a Pro drive worth it in the F2-425?
Marginal. The F2-425's 1 × 2.5GbE sits right where a standard CMR drive already saturates the link, so a Pro drive mainly buys warranty, not speed.
Devin Chua works out which drives, RAM and NVMe cache fit which NAS model at nasdrives.ca, and what the RAID choice means for usable capacity, checked against what is in stock on Amazon.ca.
Data checked by Owen Nakamura, Technical editor (data checking)