OWC Express 4M2 Thunderbolt 3 4-Slot M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, No SSD
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OWC / Other World Computing Express 4M2 Thunderbolt 3 4-Slot M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure, No SSD

SKU: OWCB3EX4M2SL

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Questions & Answers

Collin R : Can i have 2 computers plugged into it? Using it? (One dropping stuff on, one manipulating and editing)
Shopper : Why Did You Choose This?CODY J : Small size for on location data management.

Reviews about this item

Review Summary

2019-11-17T07:08:45

Rated 5 out of 5

OWC / Other World Computing Express 4M2 Thunderbolt 3 4-Slot M.2 NVMe

OWC / Other World Computing Express 4M2 Thunderbolt 3 4-Slot M.2 NVMe

Joseph S.

2018-12-13T21:06:36

Rated 3 out of 5

No competition, beefy, but flawed

So let’s say you want really fast external storage. You’ve got the TB3 ports, you want to connect multiple ultra-fast M.2 SSDs to it, and you’d like to pick the SSDs yourself or be able to upgrade when TBs are cheaper down the line. Currently, this thing is basically your only option on the market, which puts it in a league of its own. Plusses: - It holds up to four PCIe M.2 SSDs of your choice - You can address the drives however you want (RAID, JBOD) - Speeds rated to 2800MB/s - Chainable TB3 ports - There’s a big fan pointed right at the drives, reducing throttling - Pretty compact - Built like a tank (you could seriously probably stand on top of it) - Includes a DisplayPort connection, so you can use it to chain a monitor - Comes with the fantastic SoftRAID The fan is particularly great, as M.2 drives are known for thermal throttling if you push them hard, and this is blowing a lot of air right at the top of all four drives. There’s even enough room there to squeeze in a heat sink for each, if you were so inclined and worried ti was still going to throttle. That’s a pretty awesome list of plusses. It’s a little disappointing that rather than one 10Gbit channel per drive (on paper, 1.25GB/s, realistically somewhat less) you only really get 5.6Gbit per drive (700MB/s), but that could be protocol overhead or how M.2 drives work rather than the fault of the case (actually not sure about this), so I won’t count it against it. It’s quite a ways from perfect, though: - The fan is surprisingly loud. It’s FAR louder than the 2.5” 4-drive OWC case fan, and has an annoying sort of buzzing sound in addition to the hum or whoosh you’d expect. Honestly, for $I would expect a much quieter fan. - The bandwidth is split up equally per-drive, which is not made clear on the documentation and I didn’t think through enough to realize would probably be expected. What this means is that if you’ve got less than 4 drives in it you will get much less than the rated 2800MB/s regardless of the individual drive speed. Mine clocked pretty solidly at 700MB/s/drive. - It’s actually kind of large given what’s in it. The drives themselves are microscopic, and while I get that it needs room for electronics and the fan, it seems like there’s a lot of wasted space. - Regardless of whose fault it is, it maxes out at 2800MB/s instead of the 5000MB/s you’d theoretically hope to get from a 40Gbit TB3 port. Additional nitpicks: - While you can easily open the case without any tools using the knurled knobs on the back, to actually install a drive you need to remove two screws and lift the fan out of the way. With that much empty space it seems like there was plenty of room to make it completely tool-less. - It ships with a short 1’ TB3 cable, which feels kinda skimpy. - The external power brick is quite large. For as bit as the case is already, I’d probably rather it was a little bigger and had an internal power supply; it doesn’t matter on the desktop, but as a portable drive lugging the big brick and cord around is messy and unwieldy. Bottom line: Does it do what it says it does? Yes. Do you actually want what it says it does over the alternatives? Depends. If you’re all about speed, you’re probably better off getting multiple “single” TB3 SSDs. With a high-end SSD a single one can probably approach the sequential throughput of this thing fully populated, and with multiple RAIDed together and you’ll get WAY faster speeds even with just two. If you’re all about compactness or portability, again probably better off with multiple non-multi-drive externals, since they don’t have all the empty space and the big brick to lug around. They’re more likely to thermally throttle, I suppose, if the case isn’t a good heatsink. If you’re noise sensitive, this thing is not even an option unless you replace the fan with something better. Get a different external. Which is all to say that it’s a good device, but not nearly as good as I was expecting given my past experience with OWC, and is probably not the best option for a lot of demanding professionals. It’s main plus is future expandability when prices come down.

MARC M.

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OWC / Other World Computing Express 4M2 Specifications

  • Software Requirements

    macOS 10.12 or later
    Windows 10 or later

  • Hardware Requirements

    Mac or PC featuring Thunderbolt 3 interface
    Mac or PC featuring Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 interface

  • Interface (Chipset)

    1x Thunderbolt 3 (Alpine Ridge DSL6540)
    2x USB-C and Power Delivery (Texas Instruments TPS65983)
    1x DisplayPort

  • Max Transfer Rate

    Thunderbolt 3: 40 Gb/s (5000 MB/s)

  • Display Support

    4K at 60Hz

  • Drives Bays

    4x M.2 - 2280 "M Key" (PCIe 3.0 x1 per slot)

  • Drives Supported

    4x M.2 NVMe or 4x M.2 AHCl (PCIe only)

  • Fan Quantity

    1

  • Kensington Security Slot

    No

  • LED

    Yes (Power and Activity)

  • Housing Material

    Aluminum

  • Plug and Play

    No

  • Certifications

    CE
    FCC

  • Power Supply

    Internal UL-listed universal auto-switching
    AC input: 100 to 240V, 50/60Hz
    DC output: 12V, 7.5A

  • Operating Temperature

    32 to 104 deg. F (0 to 40 deg. C)

  • Non-Operating Temperature

    -4 to 158 deg. F (-20 to 70 deg. C)

  • Dimensions (HxLxW)

    2.4 x 4.4 x 5.4" (6.10 x 11.18 x 13.72cm)

  • Weight

    1.76 lbs (0.80kg)

  • UPC Code

    810586030090

About OWC / Other World Computing Express 4M2

FEATURED REVIEWS

OWC / Other World Computing Express 4M2 Thunderbolt 3 4-Slot M.2 NVMe

By Joseph S.

OWC / Other World Computing Express 4M2 Thunderbolt 3 4-Slot M.2 NVMe

Infinitely configurable. Infinitely reconfigurable
You like to explore your own independent path and digital storage is where you have fun, push hard and spark the imagination. You explore, you refine and when ready, you share your vision with the world. The OWC Express 4M2 is the external drive built for the journey before you and the path yet to be explored.

Customize your Express 4M2 with up to four NVMe SSDs, RAID them however you wish and connect it all with Thunderbolt 3 - the fastest and most flexible interface around. The sheer performance of the Express 4M2 helps you meet deadlines faster, giving you more time to explore your creativity and push your projects further.

• Up to 8TB (Not Included)
• Up to 2800MB/s
• Four M.2 NVMe SSD bays
• Compact design
• Advanced SoftRAID engine
• Thunderbolt Certified for Mac and Windows
• Thunderbolt 3 cable

Pint-Sized Powerhouse
Small in stature. Big on capability. The OWC Express 4M2 is ready to serve with four easy-to-access M.2 NVMe SSD slots customizable for any workflow with vibration damping feet that allow for vertical or horizontal orientation. Install up to 8TB of capacity and experience up to 2800MB/s of mind-bending performance via Thunderbolt 3. The Express 4M2 is an amazingly small digital workhorse with world-renowned OWC quality and award-winning support built in.

Ingest and duplicate dailies at breakneck speeds, work with higher resolutions, smoothly scrub through demanding timelines and plow through thousands of photos with ease. The OWC Express 4M2 is one seriously fast drive to have by your side to take your digital capabilities to a new level.

Built Smaller and Faster from Input by Pros Like You
The OWC Express 4M2 is designed with superior ease-of-use in mind. We worked with award-winning creatives and listened to the kudos they heaped onto the OWC ThunderBay mini and we put all that shared knowledge to good use when we set out to build the next-gen Thunderbolt 3 multi-bay drive. The result is the 57% smaller and 2.5x faster OWC Express 4M2.

It's smaller and easier to fit into your workflow, studio and on stage. It's faster with four easy-access M.2 slots so you can swap, upgrade or expand your Express 4M2 to configure and reconfigure it to serve any project need.

Game-Changing NVMe SSD Performance
NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a hyper-efficient communications interface protocol built from the ground up to properly take advantage of SSD technology and high-performance connection buses like PCIe. The result is exponentially faster and efficient SSD storage and the OWC Express 4M2 has room for four NVMe SSDs.

DisplayPort
Display connection flexibility is yours with a convenient DisplayPort located right on the rear of the OWC Express 4M2. There's no need to worry about adapters or extra long cables. Just plug your display directly into the Express 4M2 and you're all set.

Multi-Drive
The OWC Express 4M2 comes equipped with OWC SoftRAID which provides the amazing capability to RAID across multiple drive enclosures. You can also add more Express 4M2 drives to your storage pool using Windows Storage Spaces. Configure and reconfigure your storage however you need by combining multiple OWC Express 4M2 drives together on Mac and Windows.

SoftRAID: Conventional Wisdom Turned on its Head
It's often thought that hardware RAID is better than software RAID, but we've proven that not to be true. We've combined the performance and capacity of the OWC Express 4M2 with our robust SoftRAID engine. Experience breathtaking performance, multi-enclosure capability, advanced drive monitoring, e-notifications and downloadable updates. Once you do, you'll see how hardware RAID doesn't even come close.

The Better and Simpler Way to RAID
We created SoftRAID to make it easier to maintain mission-critical workflows to save you time and money. With SoftRAID you no longer need to be locked into expensive hardware RAID technology that's not upgradeable or expandable. SoftRAID future-proofs your data and storage with software updates that provide cutting edge capabilities and robust stability.

SoftRAID takes advantage of your computer's processor versus the slow processors found in most hardware RAID enclosures. The result is a fast and flexible RAID array with no discernible impact to your favorite apps. SoftRAID drive certification tells you whether or not a drive is up to the task before creating a RAID array. Advanced monitoring tools work behind the scenes to keep your RAID running in tip-top shape.

SoftRAID protects your data by alerting you to issues before anything happens, ensuring you're protected when you're on a critical deadline. SoftRAID rebuilds your RAID in a fraction of the time it would take a hardware RAID to complete the same task, sparing you from significant downtime when you're ready to upgrade or replace a drive.

RAID and Storage Spaces
The OWC Express 4M2 comes with SoftRAID Lite XT ready to be set up in RAID 0 performance or RAID 1 mirrored drive mode. So you can customize your Express 4M2 for speed or data redundancy. If you need more options, you can easily upgrade to add extra capabilities and RAID modes to meet any workflow demand.

The OWC Express 4M2 fully supports Windows workflows as well. Using Windows Storage Spaces you can pool the four M.2 NVMe SSDs together with support for all the Storage Spaces configuration options including the ability to add another OWC Express 4M2 to expand your storage pool on the fly.

Connect to Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 Systems with Ease
The OWC Express 4M2 is fully backward compatible with Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2. Utilize Thunderbolt 3 performance to work at full speed and step back to Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 whenever connectivity compatibility is needed for your workflow. Add a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter along with the appropriate Thunderbolt cable and you're all set.

OWC Thunderbolt 3 Cable
OWC Express 4M2 comes with an OWC Thunderbolt 3 cable which is Thunderbolt certified for Mac and Windows, with additional 0.5 meter to 2.0 meter lengths available separately.

Quality You Can Trust
Like all OWC drives, the OWC Express 4M2 is built to the highest standards of reliability and performance and Thunderbolt Certified for Mac and Windows. Because 100% reliability is always the goal, Express 4M2 is rigorously quality tested and backed by our one-year limited warranty plus award-winning, 24/7 customer support.

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What's in the box:

  • OWC Express 4M2 Thunderbolt 3 4-Slot M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure
  • SoftRAID Lite XT Software
  • Power Supply and Cable
  • Thunderbolt 3 Cable
  • Quick Start Guide
  • OWC 1 Year Limited Warranty