Review: TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus external enclosure

Review unit provided by TerraMaster

The TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus is a SSD storage enclosure with a huge external heat sink. This storage enclosure can hold one 2280 M.2 NVMe SSD and support transfer speed is up to USB 4 with backwards compatibility for USB 3.2, 3.1 and 3.0.

Price at the time of review is USD 109.99.

Things included

• TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus
• USB 4 cable
• Screw driver
• 1x thermal pad
• Carrying pouch
• User guide and warranty info

Design

Vs the Samsung T7 (right)

The main selling point for this storage enclosure is the extra heat sink that can help with heat dissipation. If you don't need or want that huge heat sink, you can go with other SSD storage enclosures that are much smaller.

This SSD enclosure is for users who run their SSDs under intensive workload for long periods of time. So it seems like this SSD enclosure is designed primarily for editing 4K videos or even more demanding workflows.

The build quality is extremely solid as you can tell from the full metal body, with two rubber padding stripes for grip on the table. The metal is aluminium alloy and the heat sink is said to have three times the usual heat dissipation area.

The screwdriver provided can be used to open the SSD enclosure. A captive screw is used so the screw will not fall out and disappear.

The SSD I've used for testing is the WD Black SN750 gen 3 M.2 NVMe SSD with advertised 3.4GB/s and 2.9GB/s sequential read and write speeds.

I tested the SSD enclosure with my Macbook Pro (2023) with Thunderbolt 4 ports. I measured transfer speeds of 1.1GB/s write and 2.7GB/s read. The read speed is fast enough for 12K DCI 60 BlackMagic RAW and ProRes 422 HQ, and write speed fast enough for 12K DCI 60 BlackMagic RAW and 12K DCI 24 ProRes 422 HQ.

The transfer speed you can expect will be more than sufficient for editing 8K videos.

By the way, TerraMaster advertised tested read speeds of 3853MB/s, and write speeds of 3707MB/s when tested with Samsung 990 PRO 4TB, Apple M4 Pro Mac mini (MacOS version 15.3.2), AJA System Test software.

The enclosure still feel scaldingly hot to touch. I suppose the many big extra metal fins does help with heat dissipation but unfortunately I don't have the equipment to test the exact temperature, or the heat dissipation efficiency.

Conclusion

From what I can see, the TerraMaster D1 SSD Plus works as advertised. It's able to get you fast transfer speeds while providing decent heat dissipation. Pricing of USD 109.99 seems quite reasonable considering this will last for as long as you don't physically damage it.

Availability

This SSD enclosure is available from TerraMaster online store.