The TerraMaster D8 Hybrid 2 combines four SATA bays and four NVMe SSD slots in one USB enclosure. With plenty of video footage, photos, and old game files to keep, that flexibility is appealing. After three weeks of testing, here is my review.
Room to grow
The main attraction is having different types of storage together. Hard drives can hold larger archives, while SSDs provide quicker access to files you’re actively using.
In my household, we recently downsized three larger PCs into smaller cases, sacrificing support for multiple internal drives. That left us with several perfectly usable drives that were no longer installed, making the D8 Hybrid 2 an ideal way to put them back to use.
TerraMaster advertises up to 152 TB of raw capacity, though reaching that would require an expensive collection of drives. For me, the appeal is more practical: keeping footage and photos locally while making use of drives I already own.
Keep it simple
This is direct-attached storage, connecting to a computer, server, or supported NAS over USB rather than offering the network features of a full NAS.
The front trays give access to the SATA bays, while a removable side panel reveals the NVMe slots. Installing drives is straightforward, especially if you’re moving storage over from an older system.
The enclosure has been easy to live with. The fan hasn’t been particularly noticeable, and with HDDs installed, the drives themselves are often more obvious. I didn’t run into heat issues or instability during longer video transfers either.
Know the limits
TerraMaster claims read speeds of up to 1,020 MB/s with a single NVMe SSD. However, the 10 Gb/s USB connection is shared across the enclosure, so several fast SSDs won’t multiply the available bandwidth.
There’s also no built-in RAID functionality. Anyone wanting mirrored drives will need a suitable software or host-managed setup. For the photos and memories I want to protect, that deserves consideration. Mirroring also doesn’t replace a separate backup.
Disclosure: Review sample provided by TerraMaster.
Final Verdict
At $299.99 without drives, the TerraMaster D8 Hybrid 2 isn’t cheap, but the mix of SATA and NVMe storage gives it flexibility that more conventional enclosures lack. It makes particular sense if you already have compatible drives sitting unused. The shared 10 Gbps connection and lack of built-in RAID are limitations, but for bringing HDDs and SSDs together in one compact enclosure, it does its job well.
Positives and Negatives
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Four SATA bays and four NVMe slots
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Flexible mix of capacity and speed
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Easy drive access
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Useful for repurposing compatible drives
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Expensive at $299.99 without drives
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Multiple SSDs share the 10Gbps bandwidth
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No built-in RAID functionality