TerraMaster Forum

I'm comparing the D4-320 and D5-300C for use on a desk in a quiet room and need real-world input on two specific areas.

Noise performance

The D4-320 uses a single larger fan while the D5-300C uses dual smaller fans. Which one runs quieter in practice? Do the fans adjust speed based on temperature or run at a fixed speed? At idle with standard 3.5 inch drives, do either get close to silent?

Drive sleep and power management

I'm interested in how JBOD works on these units. When you run drives in JBOD, do they spin down individually when idle, or do all drives spin together? I want to avoid a setup where every drive runs 24/7 just because one gets accessed.

I noticed a TerraMaster FAQ suggesting you disable drive sleep in Windows or macOS to avoid slow access and wake failures. This confused me. Does the enclosure itself manage drive sleep, or is it entirely controlled by the OS? Does the controller or firmware put drives to sleep properly, or are they effectively always spinning regardless?

Next steps

If drive power management works well and the dual-fan model is quiet, I'd consider RAID on one of these units. If not, I'll stick with JBOD.

Has anyone used either enclosure in a quiet space? Your actual experience with noise levels and drive behaviour would help a lot.

The fan speed is intelligently adjusted based on the internal temperature sensors. JBOD combines all hard disks into a single large disk, so the status of the hard disks is synchronized. Hard disk sleep is controlled by the connected operating system.