SilverStone TS231U-C Dual-Bay USB-C RAID Enclosure Review

Bohs Hansen / 7 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The SilverStone TS231U-C USB 3.1 Gen.2 external 2-bay hard drive RAID enclosure can be yours for £129.83 or $137.73 at the time of writing.

Conclusion

The TS231U-C will be a great choice for those who need more storage than their internal offerings and also need that storage to support hot-swapping and RAID.

I quite like the design of this unit. It isn’t spectacular and blends well with any kind of setup. The simple design is important for a storage device, at least in my opinion. It needs to work and not be seen. Still, the SilverStone TS231U-C looks great with its aluminium finish and clean design. Connectors are on the rear side while the power button is hidden behind the front panel door.

With USB 3.1 Gen.2, we have up to 10Gbps bandwidth. That’s more than enough for HDD usage, as we’ve just seen in all the benchmarks. It’s also enough for two SSDs to perform awesomely with up to 954MB/s. With the Type-C style connector, the unit is suited for all the future generation of systems. The reversible connector type is a joy to use and it’s one that we’ll see on more and more devices in the future. Still, the TS231U-C retains its backwards compatibility thanks to the included Type-A USB cable.

While the unit only supports 3.5-inch drives, 2.5inch drives can be used with the help of the right adapters. These aren’t included and they’ll have to match the 3.5-inch SATA size and connector specifications completely to work. But when you have that, then it’ll work.

Pros

Good looking and small footprint
USB 3.1 Gen.2 10Gbps and USB Type-C port
Support for any capacity 3.5-inch HDD
Built-in power supply
Hardware RAID

Cons

No native 2.5-inch drive support

“SilverStone’s TS231U-C is a great way to add extra storage to any USB capable system, and that includes RAID setups and a performance up to 954MB/s.”