TerraMaster T6-423 evaluate: Six-bay NAS on a funds

No longer easy drives are able to storing lots of data, particularly those designed for exercise inside of servers and network-associated storage (NAS). Now we maintain seen drives birth with capacities of as a lot as 24TB, which makes some of the fundamental easiest NAS enclosures like the TerraMaster T6-423 rather the technique to data storage complications. Right here’s a six-bay NAS, which permits it to maintain as a lot as six 24TB drives installed for a complete skill of roughly 144TB, sooner than taking into story RAID position reservations.

That is a lot of position for busier households and SMBs. Whether you are planning to manufacture a central predicament for storing valuable recordsdata and backups, running a media server or surveillance NVR, net net hosting your bask in net sites, or all the above, the TerraMaster T6-423 has the skill to manufacture almost the rest the processor permits. With serve for as a lot as 32GB of DDR4 RAM, you must perchance perchance also configure this NAS to maintain better specs than many desktop PCs, with the exception of the foremost chip.

TerraMaster supplied Android Police with a T6-423 pattern and now we were using the NAS for around three weeks to effectively test now no longer most effective the hardware however also potentially the most popular birth of the TOS working blueprint.

Label and availability

The TerraMaster T6-423 is priced at $700. If that sounds like a high designate for a tag that prides itself in undercutting the competitors with extra inexpensive enclosures, that’s because of it’s. Potentially the most inexpensive TerraMaster NAS is accessible in at lower than $150 and that’s a two-bay enclosure. Unsurprisingly, the six-bay segment of the NAS market is now no longer as popular and competitive as two and four bays, and a few of what TerraMaster is going up against with the T6-423 can designate upwards of $1,000.

For $700, you get a diskless T6-423, that means you can must dangle and set up laborious drives individually. Inner is an Intel processor, 4GB of DDR4 RAM, two readily accessible M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs, and 2.5GbE networking.

Form and hardware

TerraMaster has a abnormal form in phrases of its NAS, wearing a steel enact and not using a sunless accents anyplace. The T sequence of NAS, in conjunction with the TerraMaster T6-423, differs from the identical old language with an all-sunless entrance panel. The perimeters, high, backside, and rear are the identical old steel enact affair. Up entrance are the six sizzling-swap force bays, a power button, popularity LED indicators, and refined branding. The force trays themselves are some distance extra top class than what’s stumbled on inside of other TerraMaster NAS.

Each and each force tray is fabricated from steel, has an integrated popularity LED indicator channel for the entrance, and an effortless locking mechanism that makes eliminating and putting in drives easy. Potentially the most exciting drawback is the requirement of two screws per force to serve them in space. TerraMaster does embody the complete fundamental screws and cabling with the T6-423, so this is now no longer a dealbreaker. In all, the T6-423 also can unruffled be honest appropriate to transfer with as a lot as 144TB of skill.

The rear of the NAS is populated by a DC power enter from the exterior supply, two 2.5GbE connections with fleshy serve for link aggregation, two USB-A ports, and an HDMI. That final level also will be safely unnoticed as it could perchance perchance most effective be worn for area of interest tasks, now no longer video out for running TOS or streaming media without extend to a show screen or TV. Right here is something that’s familiar with other TerraMaster NAS, honest like the TerraMaster F4-423, and a frequent criticism of ours.

In represent to invent get entry to to the two M.2 SSD and DIMM slots, two screws also can unruffled be eradicated so the aspect panel also will be extracted. Totally different manufacturers maintain labored with bay doors, though this is now no longer a criticism on account of how customarily one will discontinue up opening the aspect panel of the T6-423.

Gadget and performance

TerraMaster NAS is powered by the TerraMaster Working Machine (TOS). It is an analogous technique to other branded NAS working methods and the TOS acts very a lot like a former desktop platform honest like Windows. It is easy to make exercise of, affords diversified ways to configure the TerraMaster T6-423, and permits for diversified apps and products and companies to be installed with a single click from the utility storefront. The user journey is now no longer as sophisticated as other NAS working methods, however it absolutely has come a long manner in fresh years.

Organising the TerraMaster T6-423 takes just a few minutes. With at least one laborious force installed inside of the enclosure permits for TOS to be mechanically downloaded and installed. The set up wizard runs through this activity, to boot to surroundings up a foremost NAS story and configuring how the drives also can unruffled be assign up. After the OS set up has executed, it’s then doubtless to log into the TOS net interface or the TNAS Cell 3 app to govern the NAS remotely.

The Intel Celeron N5095 processor is higher than as a lot as the job with all six bays populated with the easiest NAS laborious drives. We were ready to completely saturate the two 2.5GbE linked LAN connections on the rear of the NAS with a lot of CPU power left to spare for other tasks. We had no space running Plex Media Server, streaming 4K protest, and transcoding on the cruise. Can maintain to you prefer to want to store lots of data, bustle some products and companies within the background, and maintain extra than one in every of us simultaneously connect to the server, you are going to be honest appropriate to transfer with the T6-423.

Competition

There could be now no longer too a lot competitors within the six-bay market, at least now no longer by manner of comparable specs to the TerraMaster T6-423. There could be the Synology DiskStation DS1621+, powered by an AMD Ryzen processor, four 1GbE connections, two M.2 slots, and serve for as a lot as 32GB of DDR4 RAM. The DS1621+ fees $800, a fleshy $100 bigger than the T6-423, however does serve additional growth with a complete of as a lot as 16 bays.

Asustor has the LOCKERSTOR 6 Gen2 (AS6706T), which fees $809 and comes with an Intel Celeron N5105 processor, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, four M.2 slots, serve for as a lot as 14 force bays through growth devices, two 2.5GbE networking ports, HDMI output, and the selection for 10GbE networking if wanted. It appears to be like like a honest appropriate deal for $109 bigger than the T6-423 with a lot of growth channels and the Asustor working blueprint is extraordinarily honest appropriate.

Eventually, we’ve the QNAP TS-673A. Right here is maybe the most costly six-bay we’re comparing here at $899, however it absolutely’s also the strongest with an AMD Ryzen processor, optional GPU serve with a PCIe slot, 8GB of DDR4 RAM supporting as a lot as 64GB, two M.2 slots, two 2.5GbE connections with serve for as a lot as 10GbE through growth playing cards. The two PCIe 3.0 slots also will be worn for networking and/or graphics processing, making it an absolute unit of a NAS.

Can maintain to unruffled you aquire it?

That you just too can unruffled serve in ideas procuring the TerraMaster T6-423 within the occasion you can maintain got ample data to store. Having six bays readily accessible for drives does pave the device in which for future skill upgrades, however we could perchance indicate entirely populating the NAS with drives from the get-depart and starting up new. Right here is essentially overkill for most home customers however media streaming platforms, surveillance photos, and fashioned storage can all add up, making the 144TB an beautiful choice.

Costing $700, the TerraMaster T6-423 is now no longer a payment-effective NAS, however the inner specs make certain there is no space with performance when making an try to transfer data to and from the enclosure while running other apps and products and companies. The Intel Celeron N5095 processor with its four physical cores and enhance bustle of two.9GHz makes easy work of most tasks. Efficiency also will be improved during the growth of blueprint memory (as a lot as 32GB) and M.2 NVMe SSDs for NAS caching.

The T6-423 appears and feels dearer than other TerraMaster NAS, though we could perchance prefer to gape TerraMaster work laborious on getting as many first-occasion apps as doubtless to match the competitors, to boot to form out the HDMI ports on its NAS enclosures to permit them for media consumption. General, it’s miles a right NAS with just a few minor complaints, making it effectively price the asking designate.