INTRODUCTION

   We may all want the fastest storage devices available for the PC and MAC but at the end of the day only certain professionals have real need of them. When Intel first introduced the Thunderbolt standard (it was called Light Peak then and featured a data-rate of 10Gbps) back in late 2009 they did so exactly for that segment of the market so it was no surprise to see that the very first computers (released in 2011) featuring such connectivity were Apple MacBooks and iMacs (not surprising the faster - 20Gbps - Thunderbolt 2 interface was also featured in such computers). Due to its huge success the Thunderbolt standard has not only reached its 3rd version but the 4th version (both feature the same data-rate of 40Gbps) is just months away and so today I’ve decided to test yet another external TB3 enclosure, this time it's the dual-bay D2/TD2 by Terra Master.

   Founded in 2010, TerraMaster is a professional brand which focuses on storage products, including network attached storage and direct attached storage, which is sold in more than 40 countries and regions. Products of TerraMaster are mainly designed for customers such as small and medium businesses and home users. With its core competitiveness in excellent hardware design and strong software developing ability, TerraMaster aims to provide customers with excellent products that offer reliability and value. TerraMaster has focused on the development of storage technology for many years. TerraMaster continues to explore storage technology and applications, such as how to create more functionality and value to storage products and make storage application easier, more convenient, safer and faster to provide customers with a complete, reliable and trusted data storage solution.

   The D2/TD2 is an external enclosure made out of aluminum featuring two bays/trays capable of holding both 2.5" and 3.5" drives which can be hardware configured in single, JBOD (Large), RAID 0 and RAID 1 modes (hot-swap/plug are also supported) and smart active cooling (80mm fan). According to Terra Master when using two 2.5" SSDs in RAID 0 with the D2/TD2 it can reach read and write speeds of 760MB/s and 390MB/s respectively (4/5 bay models can go even higher). In terms of connectivity the D2/TD2 features two Thunderbolt 3 ports (backwards compatible with TB/TB2 via an USB-C to MiniDP adapter sold separately) and a DisplayPort v1.2 output which allow you to connect (daisy chain) up to two 4k displays (or a single 5k display) with it. Terra Master has also equipped the D2/TD2 with a top handle (also made out of aluminum) which makes it a lot easier to move/carry the enclosure.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The enclosure gets shipped inside a blue box which just has the company name on both the front and rear.

A large sticker located on the left side has the serial number, barcodes and product name on it.

Typically, the enclosure is wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed between two foam spacers (the rest of the bundle is located inside another cardboard box).

The D2/TD2 bundle includes the power adapter with two power cords (EU/UK), 1/2 meter long TB3 cable, large Philips screwdriver, small screwdriver (drive mode set), two small bags with mounting screws, drive content stickers and the quick start guide.

THE D2/TD2

The 1.4Kg heavy aluminum enclosure of the D2/TD2 measures 173mm in height, 119mm in width and 227mm in length.

It may not be the only external drive enclosure with a top handle but it is convenient so kudos to Terra Master for that.

At the front we find the two drive trays, HDD and power LEDs (in case you mount drives and they start blinking red just change the mode and press the reset button while the enclosure is turned on – after that they should turn to green) and the on/off power button.

Both trays are made out of plastic and have bottom screws for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives.

Turning the enclosure around we see the 80mm exhaust fan, DC in, DisplayPort v1.2 output, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, reset button and the drive mode selector.

From this selector you can choose between single, JBOD, RAID 0 and RAID 1 for the included drives (just set the selector to the desired mode and press the reset button for 10 seconds - while the enclosure is turned on).

The base of the enclosure is perforated and features 4 rubber feet.

For this test we used two Seagate IronWolf 12TB drives.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Complicating things is not really our way so once again our testing procedure will be almost identical to the one, we use with external docking stations. However, since we are talking about an multi-bay 3.5" external enclosures this time over we will be using one or more (depends on the mode) Seagate IronWolf 12TB SATA III hard disk drives since mechanical drives are obviously what people will use more with such devices (besides in quad+ enclosures these should pretty much max out the performance of the onboard controller). Our standard selection of benchmark suites is used here as well for single, RAID 0 and RAID 1 testing including the famous HD Tach RW (Long Bench 32mb Zones), HD Tune Pro (read/write -when possible- speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read/Write -also when possible- speeds), AIDA64 (Linear Read/Random Read), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB/1000MB read/write speeds) and finally the quite outdated yet highly reliable ATTO 2.47 (Max Read/Max Write speeds).

   Temps as usual were recorded using the latest version of Hard Disk Sentinel along with the sensors provided by AIDA64 while noise levels were recorded using our HD600 dBA meter placed just 10-15cm above each unit. Every test was repeated for a total of 6 times and after that the average (not peak) performance numbers were recorded into our graphs. As always, every test was performed in a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 10 Pro with every update installed up to the moment of this review.

* Since March 2017 we also started recording noise levels.
* Since May 2020 we started using IronWolf 12TB drives.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

TEST RESULTS – NOISE LEVELS / TEMPERATURES

CONCLUSION

   It's been 3 years since Terra Master send anything over so i have to admit that i had lost track of what they've been up to. Once however i learned that they started focusing on DAS (direct attach storage) models with TB3 i decided to get in touch with them so the D2/TD2 should be the first of many more Terra Master DAS reviews to come. Moving to performance as you can clearly see from our charts the D2/TD2 can surpass 500MB/s in RAID 0 even with two mechanical drives and that’s nothing I’ve seen to date from any of the external enclosures i’ve tested (do keep in mind two things however, first the D2/TD2 is the first TB3 DAS i’ve tested – to date only TB3 NAS models have made it here - and second that the IronWolf drives are slightly faster compared to the ES.3 i used for past reviews). The low noise levels are also very important for an external enclosure which you will have placed near you as is the build quality since aluminum looks great, is not easy to scratch and helps with interior temperatures.

   The D2/TD2 Thunderbolt 3 RAID DAS by TerraMaster currently retails for USD249.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 259.99Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which is normal for such a product. Of course, the 2 bays of the D2/TD2 might not be enough for many professionals so if you need more you can always check the 4/5/8 bay models offered by TerraMaster (I’ll try to get some of those here to also see what performance you can expect from them). Overall, the D2/TD2 has it all, it’s very fast (even with regular mechanical drives you can exceed 500MB/s), build quality is very good, noise levels are very low and the available connectors allow you to even connect two 4k (or a single 5k) monitors to it. So, because of all of the above the TerraMaster D2/TD2 Thunderbolt 3 RAID DAS is well worth our Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Build Quality (Aluminum Enclosure)
- Top Of The Charts Performance
- Hardware Drive Mode Selection (Single/JBOD/RAID 0/RAID 1)
- Thunderbolt 3 (Daisy Chain Feature)
- Low Noise Levels
- Top Handle

CONS

- Plastic Trays