External enclosures have always been a popular choice for mass storage of all your digital media or backups. It allows you to join multiple drives together while keeping your computer case clean and free from added heat buildup. The only question users typically run into is which external solution to go with. With that, the TerraMaster D4-320 External HDD DAS Enclosure is one option that checks a lot of boxes.
As you can see from the image above, we are no strangers to these enclosures. We have multiple models running all over, both here at the office and at home. In the (above) image, you’ll see TerraMaster’s previous-gen model, the D4-300, sitting right under the one we get to talk about today (which we have had plenty of time experiencing for some of our basic needs). We have spent so much time with those enclosures, but the D4-320 does take a notable win, which is why we wanted to focus on it.
When it comes to Plex and other media server solutions, you typically find yourself piling up the storage as you continue to add to your collection. I know I do. I am constantly finding new DVDs or Blu-rays on sale, and the moment I get home with them, they get ripped right onto the server and the discs tossed in the closet.
What’s special about the TerraMaster D4-320, is the fact that it is USB-C 3.2 Gen-2, which allows for that 10Gbps of total throughput using a single USB-C to USB-C cable. This allows you to tap into the maximum potential of your spinning drives, especially when accessing multiple drives at the same time (which can really bottleneck some of the cheaper/slower options out there).
Personally, I prefer to collect faster models, like the Western Digital Black HDDs, due to their speed and durability. Which is why I really need something that can make use of those HDD speeds, else you’re just wasting cash on fancy drives and not actually using them for what they are built for.
The TerraMaster D4-320 does a fantastic job at keeping up with these drives and making sure that I can stream my content to myself, no matter where I am in the world (and no matter the resolution). For example, this Christmas, I was visiting with family five states away. We were watching one of my movies while an animated film was playing in the room next door for the younger crowd. It was just like bringing the discs with me. Each streaming at 4K/HDR, each from a different drive within the enclosure.
Of course, you risk hitting limitations when it comes to your ISP at home and how much you can upload at a time, but you never have to worry about any bottlenecks coming from the enclosure. I have a gigabit in both directions for my internet at home, so that never bothers me. There is just something to be said about something that works out every time you try to use it.
The TerraMaster enclosure is also great for a backup solution. Fill it with some extra HDDs you might have lying around and use it to back up all of the content on your PC via your favorite software. If you know how to share the drive from the computer to other computers on the network, you can use it to back up multiple computers. Keeping in mind, 10Gbps does add up to around 1,250GB/s total throughput, so eventually you will hit a limit if you go too crazy.
If you do find yourself pushing things to such a limit, that is what Thunderbolt solutions are for. But if you find yourself in the need of something like that, you’ll likely be switching everything out for NVMe drives as well. Thankfully, the average user looking for mass storage doesn’t need that level of speed and capacity just yet. Which is good, since TB enclosures and that kind of capacity in NVMe would be outrageously expensive.
So for the average user, the TerraMaster D4-320 External HDD DAS Enclosure makes for a great solution for media servers, backup solutions, or simply taking your internal drives external (or combining multiple external drives into one single enclosure by shucking them all into one of these). The performance is there, four bays make for a great number for most people, and all coming from a name you can trust.
This led us to want to talk about it, as Plex (or Jellyfin) users are always looking for new ways to expand their storage abilities. That, and computer cases shifted over the years from densely populated cases to cases that focus on open space for aesthetics and overall air flow.
