Best SSD for the TerraMaster F4-425
By Devin Chua · Data checked by Owen Nakamura · Updated The 4 bays of the TerraMaster F4-425 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 F4-425 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 F4-425, live from Amazon.ca
What sets the F4-425 apart
The only alternative to Synology with a genuine SHR counterpart: TRAID uses mixed drive sizes, TRAID+ matches SHR-2 with double fault tolerance. If you have a stack of mismatched drives, you lose less here than with UGREEN or QNAP.
When SSDs make sense in the F4-425
A SATA SSD reads about 550 MB/s, a good NAS drive 200 to 280 — but the F4-425'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 F4-425, hard drives are the sensible choice by every measure.
Two cases flip it. Silence: if the F4-425 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 F4-425, that second case is rarer than it sounds.
The TerraMaster drive policy on the F4-425
unrestrictedOpen, and TerraMaster advertises it: “TerraMaster restricts neither drive brands nor third-party SSDs.” The compatibility list is purely advisory.
The F4-425 at a glance
| Bays | 4 × 3.5-inch SATA and 2.5-inch SATA SSD |
|---|---|
| Maximum raw capacity | 120 TB 4 × 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. Note: NVMe, DDR5 and 5GbE only come with the F4-425 Plus, not this model. |
| Network | 1 × 2.5GbE |
| Operating system | TOS 6 |
| RAID types | TRAID, TRAID+, Single, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10 TRAID also makes use of mixed drive sizes. |
Keep calculating
To see how much capacity is left after parity, the F4-425 capacity calculator is preset to its 4 bays and RAID types. For the F4-425, 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 F4-425?
Yes. TerraMaster locks no drive brand on the F4-425 — its compatibility list is guidance, not a gate — so any CMR NAS drive works.
Which drives fit the F4-425?
The F4-425 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 F4-425.
How much capacity is usable in the F4-425?
In the F4-425, 4 × 8 TB in TRAID gives about 21.83 TiB usable and survives 1 drive failing; the balance is parity.
Can the F4-425 run Plex with hardware transcoding?
Yes. The F4-425'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 F4-425?
Marginal. The F4-425'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)