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.