At a look
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Fastest USB4 enclosure to this point
- Solid, thermally wonderful design
- Good-looking
Our Verdict
I really like this sexy-in-an-oddball-fashion enclosure. It’s the quickest USB4 enclosure I’ve examined to this point, and with all of the fins, there’s no probability of thermal throttling.
Price When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
$109.99
Best Prices Today: TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus
$109.99
TerraMaster’s radiator-finned, all-aluminum D1 SSD Plus appears to be like cool, and runs cool. It’s efficiency lends a lot credence to the idea that thermal design is necessary in relation to high-speed exterior storage, or for that matter — high-speed storage generally.
An absence of thermal throttling might or might not be why the D1 SSD Plus outperformed the competitors, however given previous expertise with nice thermal designs, I reckon it simply would possibly’ve factored in.
Either manner, it’s a unbelievable, if expensive exterior USB4 enclosure.
Read on to study extra, then see our roundup of the best external drives for comparability.
What are the D1 SSD Plus’s options?
The D1 SSD Plus is a striking-looking, all-aluminum enclosure that includes the 40GBps USB4 protocol, with a single M.2 NVMe slot inside with thermal compound strips included. It measures roughly 4.4-inches lengthy, by 2.25-inches extensive, by 1.25-inches thick/excessive. Weight is simply shy of 9 ounces, which feels fairly hefty on the measurement.
A two-piece clamshell, the halves of the silver enclosure are held collectively by two tabs and a single captive screw — a fairly tiny screw, which makes it a superb factor that it’s captive.
On the opposite hand, the D1’s technique for holding the M.2 NVMe SSD within the enclosure is an old style non-captive screw. That stands out when the pattern in enclosures appears to favor captive plastic or rubber retention strategies.
The yin and yang? A screw is safer and fewer prone to break, nevertheless it’s additionally extra simply misplaced. I’ve despatched any variety of the little buggers scurrying throughout my hardwood flooring. Solution? I’ve realized to be rather more cautious and do the work on a delicate towel or blanket which can seize it earlier than it escapes.
How a lot does the D1 SSD Plus price?
Alas, you received’t discover the D1 SSD Plus in or wherever close to the cut price bin. At $110 it’s one of many pricier enclosures I’ve examined, actually costlier than the competing Ugreen CM850 proven within the charts.
But given the specs, the all-aluminum design, and the decidedly superior efficiency, I can’t assist however think about the additional moola worthwhile.
How quick is the D1 SSD Plus?
Short reply: very. Given that I populated the the Ugreen CM850 with the identical, extraordinarily quick Samsung 9100 Pro SSD, I wasn’t anticipating the D1 SSD Plus to spank it in our real-world copies because it did. I ran these exams greater than the standard variety of occasions to confirm the outcomes. Lack of thermal throttling? Again, may very well be.
The Adata SE920 comes pre-populated and is thrown into the combination to indicate that optimistic issues can occur whenever you roll your individual exterior storage with a really quick SSD.
The artificial benchmarks had been exceptionally shut between the TerraMaster and Ugreen, with the Adata very shut behind.
It’s the fins, child!
The CrystalDiskMark 8 4K outcomes had been almost equal between all three opponents. Indeed, NVMe expertise is a lot sooner than even 40Gbps, and even 80Gbps USB4/5 and Thunderbolt 4/5, that it tends to bump proper up in opposition to these switch protocols’ ceilings.
But the D1 SSD Plus sustained throughput so properly that it gained a decisive benefit in our real-world transfers. To the purpose that I’m starting to surprise precisely how a lot thermal throttling goes on together with your common vanilla enclosure. After all of the OWC 1M2 with its equally finned design can also be sooner than most generic enclosures.
Note that Windows 11 242H appears to have flatlined switch speeds, at the very least with our new testbed, so these switch exams are nearer than they was. As such, they’re not a real indication of potential efficiency.
Also, chances are you’ll discover that the Xcopy (Command immediate) exams are considerably sooner and much nearer to what the artificial benchmarks say are attainable. Microsoft appears to have optimized these for NVMe whereas leaving Explorer outdated.
Here’s the place the distinction between the D1 SSD Plus and the Ugreen CM850 actually confirmed up — the aforementioned spanking. Note that the SE920 was solely 2TB whereas the Samsung 9100 Pro used within the others was 4TB. This would possibly’ve labored in opposition to the Adata SE920 in such a protracted copy, however different 2TB SSDs have turned in far sooner occasions.
All instructed, the D1 SSD Plus outperformed the competitors. Sometimes marginally, generally considerably. If you need the fasted USB4 enclosure I’ve examined, that is it. It’s the fins, child!
Should you purchase the D1 SSD plus?
Personally, I discover the D1 SSD Plus engaging, however the look may not strike everybody the identical manner. That mentioned, it’s quick as all get-out and there’s completely zero probability that you’ll ever overheat the SSD inside. Worth the cash? I say yea.
How we check
Drive exams at present make the most of Windows 11 24H2, 64-bit working off of a PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro in an Asus Z890-Creator WiFi (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard. The CPU is a Core Ultra i5 225 feeding/fed by two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of reminiscence complete). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 5 are built-in and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. SSDs concerned within the check are mounted in a HighPoint 7604A 16x PCIe 5.0 adapter card.
We run the CrystalDiskMark 8, AS SSD 2, and ATTO 4 artificial benchmarks to search out the storage system’s potential efficiency, then a collection of 48GB and 450GB transfers exams utilizing Windows Explorer drag and drop to indicate what you’ll see below Window, in addition to the far sooner Xcopy to indicate what’s attainable.
The 48GB switch exams make the most of an USFMount RAM disk taking over 58GB of the 64GB of complete reminiscence. The 450GB file is transferred from one other SSD on the HighPoint card.
Each check is carried out on a newly NTFS-formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Note that in regular use, as a drive fills up, efficiency might lower as a consequence of much less NAND for secondary caching, in addition to different components. This will be much less of an element with the present crop of SSDs with far sooner late-generation NAND.
Caveat: The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we had been shipped and to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can and can differ by capability as a consequence of extra or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes throughout and the quantity of NAND out there for secondary caching. Vendors additionally sometimes swap elements. If you ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report, by all means, tell us.