In this article, we’re going to look at the TerraMaster T6-423 review of the device.
The TerraMaster T6-423 is one of the most powerful NAS devices that you can purchase in 2022 and is the larger version of the TerraMaster F4-423. We’re first going to look at the hardware, then take a look at the software and some of the applications that you can run to fully utilize this powerful device.
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TerraMaster T6-423 Review
We will look at the TerraMaster T6-423 below from a hardware and software perspective.
TerraMaster T6-423 Hardware
The TerraMaster T6-423 comes standard with six drive-bays, an Intel Celeron N5105 Processor, and 4GB of DDR4 memory that is upgradable to a total of 32GB. From my personal experience, this is one of the most powerful consumer NAS devices that you can purchase and it shows when you’re using the device. If you compare this hardware to the most recent NAS devices from other reputable brands, you’ll see that the TerraMaster T6-423 has the most powerful hardware at this price point and it’s blazing fast.
Another point that’s important to make is that the T6-423 comes with two, 2.5GbE network interfaces. In my opinion, 2.5GbE should be the minimum in 2023, but when comparing it to other reputable NAS manufacturers, you’ll see that a lot of devices will still come with 1GbE. I want to be clear that your other devices must support 2.5GbE as well to see the full benefit of the increased throughput, but it doesn’t hurt you in any way, it can only help, so I’m happy to see that both NICs are 2.5GbE.
The TerraMaster T6-423 also has an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD slot built-in that can be used for SSD cache. The maximum internal capacity is 120TB (20TB x 6 hard drives) but also depends on the type of RAID you’re using. The only thing missing is a PCIe expansion slot which would allow for 10GbE, but with SMB multi-channel, you should be able to see very fast transfer speeds with the stock hardware.
TerraMaster T6-423 Software
The TerraMaster T6-423 runs the TOS 5.0 operating system which was recently released and is incredibly powerful (especially compared to TOS 4.0). If you’re running TOS 4.0, I highly suggest that you upgrade to TOS 5.0.
I’d also suggest that you check out my guide on how to set up a TerraMaster NAS to ensure you’re configuring your new NAS device properly, using best practices.
Depending on how you set up your T6-423, you can use RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, or 10. More importantly, the TerraMaster T6-423 supports the BTRFS filesystem (Ext4 as well). There are many benefits of BTRFS, but the main two are that the filesystem is self-healing (protects against bit-rot) and that it has the ability to take snapshots. Setting up a storage pool and volume is very user-friendly as it’s part of the initial setup process in TOS 5.0.
Snapshots must be configured, but after they are, will allow you to roll back to a point in time and can be configured for the entire file system or individual shared folders. Snapshots can protect against data loss and even cybersecurity threats like ransomware. While snapshots are not backups, they are another tool that you can use to protect against potential data loss.
I’d highly suggest configuring individual folder snapshots as well so that you can roll back an individual shared folder without having to roll back the entire filesystem.
The TOS 5.0 operating system has had a bunch of updates recently that have made it rock solid. I’ve been extremely happy with the OS and can truly say that it’s a great NAS operating system and I expect it to get better and better.
Final Thoughts: TerraMaster T6-423
As mentioned above, the TerraMaster T6-423 is one of the most powerful consumer NAS devices I have ever used. That’s not to say that hardware is the only important part of a NAS because to be very clear, it’s not. However, I can’t let this point go because I’ve always hated how underpowered certain NAS devices are, but fortunately, the T6-423 isn’t one of them.
When you spend money on a TerraMaster T6-423, you should be comfortable knowing you’re getting some of the best consumer NAS hardware you can buy. It’s also important to note that other NAS manufacturers have been putting out NAS devices with questionable hardware choices, and the T6-423 can do everything, including hardware transcoding.
From a software perspective, TOS 5.0 is evolving and has gotten better and better with every update I’ve received. From a pure NAS perspective, it offers all of the features you’d want. It also has the ability to run first-party applications from TerraMaster, and third-party tools like NextCloud and Docker which really help unleash the power of the hardware.
Overall, this is a great NAS device and I’m excited to see TerraMaster continue to grow and refine its product offerings and operating system. If you’ve already purchased your TerraMaster T6-423, please check out our TOS 5.0 setup guide!
