INTRODUCTION

   People with huge media collections such as myself always find themselves against a single issue, not having enough space to store them. Yes, we now have 24TB HDDs (28TB already in production) which are plenty for most people but if you happen to have a few older models lying around chances are you'd like to put them to good use as well. The problem with that however is that there aren't many multi-bay enclosures in the market, especially USB ones and with more than 4-5 bays. From time to time some manufacturers have introduced 8-10 bay USB enclosures but worldwide availability has always been limited at best and so I’ve always looked out for something more accessible to people. A few months ago, TerraMaster released D6-320 6-bay USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) DAS enclosure which arrived in the lab shortly after.

   Established in 2010, TerraMaster’s focus has been on digital storage products. In line with the evolving technological landscape, TerraMaster has developed a distinctive product line, which includes both direct and network attached storage devices. TerraMaster’s products are designed with home users in mind, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. Given its core competitiveness in hardware and software development, TerraMaster’s commitment is to ensure value and reliability for customers through high-quality products. TerraMaster has more than a decade’s experience in developing storage technologies, and the company has never stopped innovating, exploring storage technology, and devising novel applications for its growing customer base. TerraMaster brings substantial value to the design and use of storage products, increases the convenience and ease of storage applications, and allows customers to benefit from reliable, complete, safe, fast, and trusted data storage solutions.

   The latest D6-320 DAS is compatible with six 3.5/2.5" drives and supports capacities of up to 22TB (132TB total - pretty certain it supports 24/28TB drives as well, probably even higher capacities) in single mode (RAID/LARGE modes supported only via 3rd party software). Since the D6-320 is a USB 3.2 Gen2 DAS it's also compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4 and as for extra features it fully supports hot-swapping and sleep function (low power) and as for cooling it uses not one but two 80mm temperature controlled intake fans. Also, for consumers and professionals alike looking to use the D6-320 DAS for backup purposes TerraMaster also makes available their user-friendly PC backup tool called TPC Backupper. So, without further delay let's see what the latest D6-320 DAS by TerraMaster brings to the table.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

A product drawing along with a sticker with the serial number, barcode and product name is what's at the front of the box.

On the left side you'll find a sticker with what seems to be the distributor in charge of your region.

Packaging is good with the enclosure wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed between two pieces of foam (the rest of the bundle is placed inside another cardboard box).

So, inside the box aside the D6-320 enclosure with its power adapter and cord you'll also find a USB-C cable, screwdriver, two small bags with 3.5" and 2.5" drive mounting screws, warranty information paper, compensation agreement paper and the quick start guide.

THE D6-320

Measuring 226mm in height, 218mm in length and 130mm in width the 3.4Kg heavy D6-320 is a rather compact 6-bay enclosure.

The enclosure is almost entirely made out of aluminum (the fascia is made out of plastic) and as you can see the left side is mostly perforated.

As mentioned already the fascia is also made out of plastic and as for the 6 trays each of them has 2 activity LEDS at the front.

These trays are not tool-less but they are very sturdy.

Turning the enclosure around we find the two exhaust fans, USB-C port and the DC in.

Strangely enough even though in the specifications sheet it clearly states that the D6-320 has two 80mm intake fans they are actually 70mm ones.

The enclosure sits on top 4 round rubber feet as seen above.

Instead of using 12TB HDDs for my external enclosure tests i decided to update my methodology and use Crucial 2.5" MX500 SSDs instead (this however means that my charts have started from scratch, almost).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   My testing methodology may have changed but i am not about to complicate things for no reason at all so once again aside using 2.5" MX500 SATA III SSDs by Crucial to push enclosures to their limit I’ll also be using some of the most well-established benchmark suites around for tests in single, LARGE, RAID 0 and RAID 1 tests. These suites include AIDA64 (linear & random reads & writes), ATTO (maximum reads & writes - 2GB total length), Crystal Disk Mark (2GB read/write speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Titanium (Read/Write - when possible), 3DMARK (storage benchmark) and Passmark Performance Test.

   For my new charts i decided on skipping temperature testing (with SSDs it just didn't feel important enough) and as for noise levels once again I’ll be using the 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.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - CRYSTAL DISK MARK / SISOFTWARE SANDRA TITANIUM

TEST RESULTS - 3DMARK / PASSMARK

TEST RESULTS – NOISE LEVELS

CONCLUSION

   When TerraMaster send their D6-320 to the lab a while ago the initial plan was to test it using the usual IronWolf 12TB drives like other past models. Still since it seems that my new AM5 test rig is here to stay I decided to use that instead with MX500 2.5” SATA III drives by Crucial. This however presented a new issue namely empty charts and since i don’t like that i decided to retest every HDD enclosure i still have here. Unfortunately, i don’t have them all but i do have quite a few of them and even though this actually took more time than expected i think the end result is better than just having the D6-320 in the charts. With that out of the way i was a bit surprised to see that TerraMaster doesn’t support RAID & LARGE modes with their D6-320 (for me single mode is better since i like to categorize my media collection but for others different modes are probably more convenient) but even single performance is actually very good and let’s face it, 6 hot-swap drive trays is more than you can ask from most HDD enclosures currently in the market. Build quality is also very good but i have to admit that the somewhat industrial design of the enclosure might not sit well with some consumers. As for noise levels nothing new really, the D6-320 produces roughly the same results as with most enclosures in the charts.

   While i type these lines the D6-320 DAS by TerraMaster retails for USD299.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 362.38Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which is quite balanced, at least on the other side of the Atlantic. Overall, there’s nothing i can find that i don’t like about the D6-320 DAS by TerraMaster (aside the lack of modes that is). If i was to nitpick like i sometimes, do I’d probably go with a different design since this does look a bit too industrial. At the same time however, almost the entire enclosure is made out of aluminum which is great both in terms of quality and reducing interior temperatures. Yes, EU pricing could had been better but that aside the D6-320 delivers on almost everything I’d like it to and for that it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Build Quality (Aluminum)
- Excellent Performance (USB 3.2 Gen2)
- 6x3.5”/2.5" Drive Bays
- USB 3.2 Gen2 Type C (USB & Thunderbolt Compatible)
- Hot Swap Trays
- Dual 80mm Silent Exhaust Fans
- TPC Backupper Software
- Price (USA)

CONS

- Price (EU)
- Single Mode Only