Noontec TerraMaster D4-310 4-Bay USB Type-C DAS Review

Bohs Hansen / 8 years ago

Final Thoughts: Pricing and Conclusion

Pricing

At the time of writing, the Noontec-TerraMaster D4-310 USB 3.0 Type C external 4-bay RAID enclosure can be yours for just $199.95 or £169.99 from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Overview

This is the second Noontec TerraMaster device that I had the pleasure to test, and it truly was a pleasure. The TerraMaster D4-310 is a beautifully crafted DAS with attention to the details. The system is build inside an aluminium enclosure that passively aids the cooling abilities of the system. It further has two silent-mode fans when the passive cooling ability of the unit isn’t enough.

The four drive bays are divided into two categories that each can be set to RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD, or single-drive mode. I kind of like this setup and it is a great addition to Noontec’s other DAS devices. Should you want RAID 5, RAID6, or RAID 10, then Noontec has other DAS options that support this. There are also two and five bay models available.

We didn’t fully reach the advertised 400MB/s in our tests, but that was to be expected as those figures are for use with SSHDs. I used NAS drives in my setup, and while they are good, they aren’t as fast as those drives aided by flash memory. We still saw impressive results for a USB enclosure. Speaking of USB, the D4-310 comes with a nice extra feature which is two USB 3.0 ports. Even if your system hasn’t got a USB 3.0 port to spare, you can connect the D4-310 by removing another device and plugging it directly into the DAS.

The unit itself features a Type-C USB port for its connection and comes with a Type-A connector cable. That kind of setup allows for maximum compatibility with legacy systems while still offering the choice to get an aftermarket Type-C to Type-C cable.

Pros: