Fallout 4

By +Frank B.
in Gamers' Hangout

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Grand Master

techbeck

Posted
Posted
42 minutes ago, Louisifer said:

Yeh that was awesome,  Bethesda did a good job seeding the world with random quests that you could miss if you weren't paying any attention. The physics engine adds to the fun too, Dogmeat jumped at a Molerat that was jumping and for the next 10 seconds I watched them fly away till Dogmeat killed it. :laugh:

I have not used Dogmeat much since I picked up Piper.  Tho Dogmeat is fitted with some heavy dog armor.  I also bought a dog off a random person so now dogmeat has a friend.  The other dog does not count towards the settlement population either.

 

I still enjoy the Witcher 3 quest line/story better.  On my 2nd play thru on NG+ on W3 and have not done the expansions yet.  Heard they were pretty good.

Grand Master

techbeck

Posted
Posted

Probably mentioned before, but best way to make $ is purified water.  100 purified water will net you 1600 caps at basic perk levels.  You can build a lot of purification pumps at sanctuary.    I will also bring a bunch of purfied water with me when I buy something.   Will pay like 300 caps for ammo and then sell purified water to make up for it.  So really no cost to me.   Have over 100k and no cheats used.

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Louisifer

Posted
Posted

Nice, will help with buying all the shipments from vendors if you ever go crazy with base building. :p 

 

305 hours in and I never knew you got a power armour paint job for helping the institute :o

3Q8XnSo.png

 

I gave myself all the faction paint jobs this playthrough so I can spice up my armour collection. :D Just need to find an x-01 so I can try out the white.

 

I've decided to make enemies of BoS and the Institute this run, bunker hill mission was just awkward last time, same with the RR's courser missions - "pew pew" *synth relay* "umm, hi guys.. he was like this when I got here?" *loots corpse and leaves*

 

I've also decided to use the setownership command this run, If a guy steps out of his power armour and happens to die.. it shouldn't be owned anymore, I used my own power core and lost companion points for taking it out at base. >.<

Grand Master

techbeck

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Louisifer said:

Nice, will help with buying all the shipments from vendors if you ever go crazy with base building. :p 

 

305 hours in and I never knew you got a power armour paint job for helping the institute :o

 

I gave myself all the faction paint jobs this playthrough so I can spice up my armour collection. :D Just need to find an x-01 so I can try out the white.

 

I've decided to make enemies of BoS and the Institute this run, bunker hill mission was just awkward last time, same with the RR's courser missions - "pew pew" *synth relay* "umm, hi guys.. he was like this when I got here?" *loots corpse and leaves*

 

I've also decided to use the setownership command this run, If a guy steps out of his power armour and happens to die.. it shouldn't be owned anymore, I used my own power core and lost companion points for taking it out at base. >.<

Check out this ling for armor locations.  I have like 4 x-01 suits.

http://www.vg247.com/2015/11/23/someone-made-a-map-with-the-locations-of-all-of-the-power-armour-suits-in-fallout-4/
 

Spoiler


Also, if you save danse and he becomes an ally, he is wearing a x-01 suit.  I also got his BOS Paladin armor.

 

 

Cant see myself siding with the institute myself.  I also have a display of all the diff model power armors and a lot of the paint jobs.  I have over 30 suits so I have enough for a display...haha.  I knew you get a custom paintjob for the institute

 

And purified water pays for everything...even shipments.  Everything is profit and all I do is gain caps.

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Louisifer

Posted
Posted

I avoided everywhere that wrote about F4 in the beginning due to my tv breaking and the launcher had issues with my old 1024x768 monitor, all I knew was the existence of x-01 :p

 

My survival character is only lvl 20 so I don't see any natural spawns yet, I may visit 35 Court and try my luck, I think lvl 28 is a guaranteed spawn.

 

I kinda wish the original Institute armour made it in to the game but I guess the Enclave's X-01 won over with its coolness factor.

 

I didn't get round to making a fancy place for them last playthrough so I just lined them up.

ydd8ojf.png

 

And I didn't really factor in storing suits this playthrough when I got carried away with this:

T6yyVzT.png 

Mentor

dragontology

Posted
Posted

Got trolled last night... I found a video on YouTube with "Deathclaw Dungeon" in the name. I started the video, and it said that you could go in where the first Deathclaw comes out, in Concord — did anyone know this? So I stopped the video, rushed the submarine quest, and made it to Concord double quick. Sure enough, you can indeed go down there. But, it's just another way into the Concord sewers. There's absolutely nothing in there but a few mole rats and junk. Maybe a medkit. Ugh. I was so excited to go in there, too.

 

My main guy is so close to getting the RobCo's Worst Nightmare (hack 50 terminals). I've had hacking maxed since forever and I never turned down an opportunity to hack a terminal. I have the main quest and I think most of the side quests done. DLC will make short work of that achievement for sure, but with the base game alone, it's a pain in the neck! I must have picked over 500 locks. So it seems to me the achievement maybe should have been set lower... or more terminals should be in the game. As it is I'm feeling like at least one of those perk points was wasted. Other than that, I just need Prankster's Return (reverse pickpocket a grenade) and the 100% happiness one. Any shortcuts on that one? No cheats, just legit shortcuts I'm looking for.

 

I started a new character, but immediately stopped her. I screwed up when I first got the game (no coffee, not half a day's sleep, and I was sick) and activated the game on my wife's Steam account. It's the only game her account owns. LOL. I've been playing on her account. So once I have all the achievements, I'll sign in as myself and get them all, all over again.

Grand Master

techbeck

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, dragontology said:

Got trolled last night... I found a video on YouTube with "Deathclaw Dungeon" in the name. I started the video, and it said that you could go in where the first Deathclaw comes out, in Concord — did anyone know this? So I stopped the video, rushed the submarine quest, and made it to Concord double quick. Sure enough, you can indeed go down there. But, it's just another way into the Concord sewers. There's absolutely nothing in there but a few mole rats and junk. Maybe a medkit. Ugh. I was so excited to go in there, too.

 

 

There is a fusion core, couple of lunch boxes, and a tattoo magazine in there.  I just revisited that area.

Veteran

Louisifer

Posted
Posted

I think I was at 7 irl days playtime before I noticed there was a door down there. :laugh: I must have ran past that open grate 100 times and just never gave it a 2nd thought, I also missed the other sewer entrances too.

 

Re-visit places that have safe/protectron/turret terminals as areas reset over time. you'll get it soon enough.

 

Settlement and pranksters revenge were my last 2 to get, I went with the 1 man (woman)  settlement option, I think you need 1 bed, 1 general store to assign them too and enough food and water to keep them fed for 10 days. then you send someone to that settlement and it should start at 80% and over the next 10 days it will change to 100%.

 

You will want some automated defences as you cant just sleep through it, you can be afk or exploring the world during the long wait though. if I remember rightly, you can sleep when they sleep to save time but I just let it be and visited occasionally to defend. (you can keep tabs on the progress from the map too)

 

Once I saw that achievement pop up I fast traveled and gave her a live grenade to celebrate :D giving me the last achievement.

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dragontology

Posted
Posted

Oh yeah, I remember one lunch box. Rolled a Quantum. Kind of a nice surprise. Missed the tattoo mag. Anyway, I had cleared that area out before (and gotten the fusion core).

 

Speaking of fusion cores, I predict in the next year or two, a topic for discussion will be based around where people got their first one. Most of us, myself included, got it in the Museum of History basement, where Preston said it was. Some others will get it from the cave under Red Rocket, or that place to the north. Or under Concord in the sewers. Should be interesting.

 

Appreciate the tips. I'll have to try the one settler thing. I actually have 24 settlements and I've discovered the last one. It's the marina in the southwest. And I don't think I have any settlers at Red Rocket. So I can use that as well.

 

Man, I don't get the love for power armor. I just don't. Hate the HUD, hate having to get fusion cores (even though I now have over 70... not sure why I get them now), and I hate how you can't swim in them, and they're no longer suits of armor like in 3/NV, but more like vehicles. I like to be light and agile. Oh well. I've left a lot of suits of armor lying around, only taking the core. But even in 3, once you get the ranger combat armor from Reilly, that stuff was just amazing. Always took that over the custom minigun. In O:A I only took the Winterized T-51 if I could carry it. I was more interested in the stealth suit.

Veteran

Louisifer

Posted
Posted

Is it just me or are the power armour stands not that intuitive, 1st time you see one you turn around and stand like the one in main menu only to be told you cant exit, not enough room,  then you do it without turning only to trigger the "you cant use this while in power armour" every time you exit it. >.< then you realize it will grab the nearest suit within a certain radius.

 

Why cant you just walk up in a suit, press craft and you automatically exit the suit and start crafting. :|

Grand Master

soniqstylz

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, dragontology said:

Other than that, I just need Prankster's Return (reverse pickpocket a grenade) and the 100% happiness one. Any shortcuts on that one? No cheats, just legit shortcuts I'm looking for.

Go to Jamaica Plains.  Set up 7 beds, and attract 6 people (7th bed is for yourself).  Plant 6 mutfruit, and have one person cultivating that.  Set up defenses (somewhere around 100 defense), and 5 Surgical Centers (Lvl3 medics), and have the other 5 people manning those.  Make sure enough water as well.  Keep a suit of Power Armor in the frame, and use the back parking lot to create a two-story building (use that for beds, top floor for defense turrets, etc.)  Line all the walls you can with flags and paintings, add furniture, etc.  Basically, you have to make it look "nice" (increase happiness) and have a load of crap to get the meter into the yellow. 

 

Sleep in your bed 24 hours.  Buy something from the medics.  Get in and out of your power armor.  Rinse, repeat.

 

If you decide to leave, don't fast travel until you've "left town".  That tends to rest happiness.  I got the trophy when I was doing one of the missions for Bunker Hill, so you don't have to be in town.  But the town was at 96 when I left.  The reason I chose Jamaica Plains is because it's small.

Grand Master

techbeck

Posted
Posted

Only time I use power armor is in the glowing sea.

 

The Castle seems to be of of the only settlements that gets attacked in force.  But since I repaired the walls, only way way to enter and to attack.  But I got that pretty well fortified.

 

 

 

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dragontology

Posted
Posted

I guess no one can truly say until the CK is released, but do decorations really increase happiness? And surgical centers over bars?

 

Speaking of shops, anyone else having a problem getting settlers to use them? Seems like after assigning a settler to a shop, they never go there. They can barter wherever they're at, it's just finding them is sometimes an issue. (The new icons introduced in 1.3 help.) And sometimes (less common after 1.3), they won't offer to barter, only to trade (a few .38 rounds, a pipe pistol, and whatever outfit). Like at The Slog, I surround the whole place in concrete foundation three high (because of the Forged base nearby). On the side of the pool closer to the Forged base, I've got four shops. There's a really good amount of space above, on the sides, and between them. There shouldn't be any pathing issues keeping the settlers out from behind them. I'm wondering if I can confine them to the stalls somehow. Build little shacks with a bed and other amenities in there. And then assign them to the bed. So they just spend all the time in there and never leave. Then again, knowing my luck, they'll pace around in the back and not man the counter. Plus, I think settlers' positions reset when you leave the cell.

 

Reminds me — I saw a neat trick on YouTube where a guy made a hospital. He put his surgery center in one corner of a room. He'd assign one to a settler a good ways away. Then, while the settler was walking over there, he walled it off. You couldn't see it from any angle. This made the doctor walk around the room, which the YouTuber had set up as a waiting room. So this doctor was walking around, and I guess he was decked out in a lab coat and glasses or something, and he would provide medical services. Pretty cool setup that would pretty much only work with a surgery center. Or, I guess, you could set up a bar and a restaurant. Assign the restaurant and leave it be. Then assign the bar, and wall it off. So your bartender is just walking around trying to get in there, able to serve people around the room.

 

I'd ask if you've seen a volley of lasers and missiles fired at hostile targets (I've got my Slog so outfitted, again because of the Forged base) but the above video pretty much covers it. Not that I've ever climbed up there and sniped at the Forged, intentionally missing, to goad them into making a run at my base... nah, I wouldn't do that...

Grand Master

techbeck

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, dragontology said:

Speaking of shops, anyone else having a problem getting settlers to use them? Seems like after assigning a settler to a shop, they never go there.

 

I'd ask if you've seen a volley of lasers and missiles fired at hostile targets (I've got my Slog so outfitted, again because of the Forged base) but the above video pretty much covers it. Not that I've ever climbed up there and sniped at the Forged, intentionally missing, to goad them into making a run at my base... nah, I wouldn't do that...

Shops are funny sometimes.  Sometimes, settlers do not go there or the game does not say that they are assigned.  Normally quitting the game fixes it.  Just an annoying bug.

 

And yea, I seen a volley of lasers and missiles ..haha.  2 missile launchers are 3 lasers.

Mentor

dragontology

Posted
Posted

So, not to get off-topic, but I've been binge watching this ABC show called Revenge (great show by the way, pretty much non-stop thrills) when a strange looking woman with a familiar voice shows up about a third of the way through the final season (no spoilers). So I hit up IMDb. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Piper Wright's voice actress. (Here's her IMDb page.) And yeah, sounds just like her. And now I've learned that she was in 8 episodes of True Blood and 11 of Dexter.

Veteran

Louisifer

Posted
Posted

I immediately disliked her from the fo4 trailer but she grew on me as a companion, but that girl always walked in front of my perfectly lined up snipes. >.<

 

Guess who I saw today, Art and Art playing stormtroopers, I swear if I didn't keep killing one of them they would be at it all day.

Mentor

dragontology

Posted
Posted (edited)

I tried using that while I was playing the game, with the map open on either my phone, or the Nexus Player (which doesn't natively support web browsing, but you can get Chrome on it and it pretty much mostly works). Giant pain in the neck though. Still looking for an elegant solution.

Edited by dragontology
Grand Master

techbeck

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, dragontology said:

I tried using that while I was playing the game, with the map open on either my phone, or the Nexus Player (which doesn't natively support web browsing, but you can get Chrome on it and it pretty much mostly works). Giant pain in the neck though. If you have an Android device, you can get this, which is made by the same people and syncs with their site. Might have to throw that on my phone, or my wife's tablet.

nice....thanks

Mentor

dragontology

Posted
Posted

Ugh... the app is gutter trash. Doesn't actually have the integration (no way to log in), the search bar covers the top half and can't be moved/configured away, it's actually missing part of the top, and the app forces a wider resolution than my phone displays, leaving a white bar at the bottom. Recommended it before actually trying it. Sorry about that. Won't do that again...

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As I have said in previous reviews, TerraMaster support staff actually encourage installing whatever you want on their devices, and happily, the USB port for the bootloader is now easily accessible should you want to use it for your own flavor of NAS OS, such as TrueNAS, Unraid, or maybe Xpenology. Yes, because TerraMaster has now switched to a 256 GB NAND Flash card (3rd photo above) for the TOS bootloader. This is also replaceable, but you can also simply add a USB bootloader, access the BIOS, and tell the F4-425 Pro to boot from that instead of the Flash card. Unlike earlier iterations of TerraMaster NAS, you don't have to tear this down any further than the four screws on the outer shell in order to be able to access and manage the memory, NVMe slots, and USB bootloader. However, if you need to access the NAND Flash card or CMOS battery, then eight more screws (four on each side) need to be removed in order to take off the rear panel with the 120mm fan, and then the motherboard can be lifted off and removed from the SATA connector PCB. There's also no risk of threading the screw holes, because the four that hold the shell in place are metal on metal, while the screws that hold the rear panel on do screw into plastic. Either way, like last time when I reviewed the F4-425 plus, I was just happier to see larger screws being used. Overall, it follows some great improvements in build quality from the 2024 series and earlier. Setup BIOS The F4-425 Pro includes an Aptio BIOS from American Megatrends [1, 2], and you can setup pretty much everything here including the boot order, which is locked to the UEFI OS, however above that choice you can enable or disable booting to the USB bootloader so this would still allow you to switch to a USB stick with an alternative bootloader and boot from it, or disable it to instead always start from the first disk with an OS installed on it. Initial Setup Setup is roughly the same as the F4-425 Plus, along with the new TOS 7 setup dialogs, so there will be no surprises here. Upon connecting to the LAN and booting up, the F4-425 Pro can be reached by navigating to http://tnas.local. If that doesn't work, you can use the local address assigned via DHCP, which you can find using the TNAS PC desktop application, which is essentially a TerraMaster NAS finder. The setup process is pretty straightforward, through a wizard, and in full below: TOS 7 Initialization As you can see, TOS 7 received a new coat of paint, and the initialization requires fewer interactions. Happily, TOS no longer decides to throw all disks into the same Storage Pool; 2.5-inch HDDs are allocated into Storage Pool 1. This is because two of the HDDs are allocated to hold system files. Previously (with TOS 5 and 6), if you pre-installed HDDs and SSDs, they were all placed into Storage Pool 1, even if you did not select the SSDs for inclusion during the onboarding. TOS 7 Setup On first boot, there is a tutorial and some steps to take to harden the TNAS (or not), which includes an immediate update from TOS 7.0.0616 to 7.0.0706, of which the changelog screenshot is also included in the above gallery. It must be noted that the Security Advisor still contains (in my opinion) a pretty major bug in that if you enable SPC and then do the required rebooting, the Security Advisor still says that SPC is disabled. TerraMaster provided the following statement about it: It is disappointing that TOS 7 has been in beta since December, and this OOBE issue is still there. Shutdown option has moved Instead of a Taskbar option to manage the NAS, all of these options have been moved to a "Start panel", initially I didn't see it and my contact had to show me how to power off the F4-425 Pro. To logout, reboot or power off you can find those controls at the top right of the Panel. It is also possible to power off through the TNAS mobile app beta. Storage setup Above, you can see the steps I took to create the Storage Pools and Volumes. I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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