Best SSD for the TerraMaster F2-425
By Devin Chua · Data checked by Owen Nakamura · Updated The 2 bays of the TerraMaster F2-425 take 2.5-inch SATA SSDs as well as hard drives, but over 1 × 2.5GbE it rarely pays: the network caps throughput long before the drive does, and SSDs cost a multiple per TB. An all-SSD F2-425 makes sense for silence in a living space, or for the many small parallel reads of virtual-machine storage — not for a file-and-backup NAS.
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SATA SSDs for the F2-425, live from Amazon.ca
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.
When SSDs make sense in the F2-425
A SATA SSD reads about 550 MB/s, a good NAS drive 200 to 280 — but the F2-425's 1 × 2.5GbE only carries part of that anyway, and per terabyte the SSD costs several times more. For file storage, backups and media on the F2-425, hard drives are the sensible choice by every measure.
Two cases flip it. Silence: if the F2-425 lives in a living room or bedroom, an all-SSD build is the only thing that truly quiets it. And many small parallel reads — virtual- machine storage, a busy photo database — where the SSD's access times, not its data rate, are what you are buying. On a lighter box like the F2-425, that second case is rarer than it sounds.
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)