OWC / Other World Computing 32TB(4x8TB)ThunderBay 4 Hard Drive Array, RAID 5 Ed.
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OWC / Other World Computing 32TB (4 x 8TB) ThunderBay 4 Hard Drive Array (RAID 5 Edition)

SKU: OWCTB2SRT320

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Reviews about this item

Review Summary

2019-09-10T10:12:37

Rated 5 out of 5

OWC ThunderBay 4-Bay Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure

I was replacing an old Mac Pro tower with a new computer that is all display, but no room for storage. I had 4 hard drives inside the old tower, so I put them all into the new OWC enclosure. The build of the enclosure is excellent. Very solid with lots of vibration dampening. I migrated my old data from my old bootable hard disk to the new SSD via the Thunderbolt 3 connection. It took about 5 hrs. to transfer 1 TB of data. The Thunderbolt 3 is rated at 40Gb/s. The migration assistant displayed the speed of flow which ran between 35 Gb and 59 Gb. It produced all it was advertised to do. Noise?. The fan does make some noise. It's not bad. The hard drives themselves make most of the noise as they read or write. The enclosure sits on a desk about two feet from either myself or the computer, so there is going to be some sound. I'm really happy with it and definitely say it's worth a look.

DON M.

2017-05-14T04:31:14

Rated 5 out of 5

PEACE OF MIND

After two data recoveries from my external hard drive for my pics nearly lost as a result of crashes/ accidental drops . I needed a better system. I was able to recover my images, but at a cost. I now have comfort and confidence my images will be safe. Though costly, but as I have said- it's cheaper than a data recovery ( I was lucky to get them back. ) I no longer worry about losing my pics. Peace of mind is priceless.

GARY M.

2016-10-24T08:43:35

Rated 5 out of 5

Super fast!

This thing is amazing! I mainly shoot photos but I'm moving into video and my single disk USB 3.0 external (Lacie porche 4tb) was not fast enough for my needs. I first tried out a Mediasonic proraid 4, loading it with four Toshiba 3tb 7200rpm drives in raid 5 and I just wasn't happy with the speeds I was getting in Black magic's speed test. I sent it back and bought this OWC Thunderbay. The Proraid 4 is fine for photos and backup but for speed, the Thunderbay is 2 or 3 times faster. Yes, this is way 2 or 3 times more expensive but you are paying for speed and getting a bonus in the quality of the product. The thunderbay is a very solid build. I raid 5 with the the same drives I got around 200mbps read and write in the Proraid4, in the OWC Thunderbay 4, I'm getting about 520-530mbps.The software was easy to use as well. Only took about 10mins to install the drives and set up the raid 5 once I figured out where the softraid app was. I definitely recommend this enclosure to anyone working with photos and video. Excellent storage solution.

CHRISTOPHER S.

2016-01-21T14:34:48

Rated 5 out of 5

Best video editing drive

This is really the best option for those editing on a Mac. No only do you get speeds that are slightly faster than the average SSD, you also get MUCH more storage capacity AND data protection. In my tests with the 20TB version I get about 505MB/s write and 580MB/s read. It's setup from the factory in Raid5 so you don't have to initialize the drives which saves time. In Raid 5 mode (best mode) you get 15TB of usable space as 5TB is setup for data protection. If one of the drives ever dies you slide it out and replace with a new one and you won't loose any data. I've been suggesting these to people for over a year now and I'm going to keep doing so. I have a video review of this drive on YouTube if you want to see it in action, speed tests, unboxing, and daisy chaining to a display just do a search for Max Yuryev Thunderbay and you'll find it. The 1.5 to 2.5 times as much. I would recommend it to anyone who needs a fast and reliable drive.

MAKSIM Y.

OWC / Other World Computing ThunderBay 4 Specifications

  • Chipset

    Thunderbolt

  • Interfaces Supported

    Thunderbolt 2

  • RAID / JBOD Support

    RAID: Use the included software RAID or one of your choice to setup the ThunderBay 4 for multi-drive performance or data redundancy
    JBOD: Utilize each of the four drives independently

  • Standard Mechanism

    4 x 8 TB Hard Disk Drives

  • Port Configuration

    2 x Thunderbolt 2

  • Read/Write Speed

    RAID 5 Performance
    Read: 417 MB/s
    Write: 409 MB/s
    RAID 0 Performance
    Read: 567 MB/s
    Write: 553 MB/s

  • Drive Rotation Speed

    7200 rpm

  • Drive Cache Size

    128 MB per drive; 512 MB total for the solution

  • Format

    Comes pre-formatted for SoftRAID and configured as a RAID 5 volume.
    Please be aware that if this array is being used on a Mac with OS x 10.8.5 or earlier, the SoftRAID software must be installed prior

  • Port/Interface Bootability

    It can be used as an external startup drive using Thunderbolt port

  • System Requirements

    Any Mac with a Thunderbolt port running OS x 10.9 or later.
    Boot Camp is not supported. The Thunderbolt certification process does not include Macs running Windows through Boot Camp

  • Software Included

    SoftRAID 5
    Intech Hard Disk SpeedTools Utilities OEM (For Mac OS 8.6 - x only)
    ProSoft Engineering Data Backup for Mac OS x v10.2.8 or later
    Over 1.5 GB of Freeware, Shareware, and Public domain software installed

  • Power Supply

    Internal UL Listed U.S./International Auto Switching 100 ~ 240v, 50/60Hz input, 12 Volt 16.66 Amp output Power Supply (power cords for International use sold separately).

  • Temperature

    Operating: 41 to 107 Degree F / 5 to 42 Degree C
    Non-Operating: -40 to 149 Degree F / -40 to 65 Degree C

  • Relative Humidity

    Operating: 8 to 90% (Non-condensing)
    Non-Operating: 5 to 95% (Non-condensing)

  • Shock

    Operating: 65 G at 2 ms
    Non-Operating: 175 G at 2 ms

  • Vibration

    Operating: 1.0 G (5 to 300 Hz)
    Non-Operating: 5.0 G (5 - 500 Hz)

  • Dimensions

    9.65 x 5.31 x 6.96" (245.11 x 134.87 x 176.78 mm)

  • Weight

    Approximately 8.6 lb (3.9 kg)

  • UPC Code

    812437022056

About OWC / Other World Computing ThunderBay 4

FEATURED REVIEWS

Best video editing drive

By MAKSIM Y.

This is really the best option for those editing on a Mac. No only do you get speeds that are slightly faster than the average SSD, you also get MUCH more storage capacity AND data protection. In my tests with the 20TB version I get about 505MB/s write and 580MB/s read. It's setup from the factory in Raid5 so you don't have to initialize the drives which saves time. In Raid 5 mode (best mode) you get 15TB of usable space as 5TB is setup for data protection. If one of the drives ever dies you ...

View full Review

OWC ThunderBay 4-Bay Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure

By DON M.

I was replacing an old Mac Pro tower with a new computer that is all display, but no room for storage. I had 4 hard drives inside the old tower, so I put them all into the new OWC enclosure. The build of the enclosure is excellent. Very solid with lots of vibration dampening. I migrated my old data from my old bootable hard disk to the new SSD via the Thunderbolt 3 connection. It took about 5 hrs. to transfer 1 TB of data. The Thunderbolt 3 is rated at 40Gb/s. The migration assistant displa...

View full Review

Experience the first and only software RAID 5 technology developed for the Mac with the ThunderBay 4 RAID 5 Edition. Empower your workflow with up to 35% faster RAID 5 performance and exponentially faster rebuild times than comparable hardware based RAID arrays. Activate advanced features, such as drive monitoring, e-mail notifications, and more when you install the included SoftRAID for OS X.

Conventional wisdom turned on its head.
Hardware RAID has long been thought to be superior to software RAID, but they've now combined the massive performance and capacity of ThunderBay 4 with a robust, proven software RAID engine to provide breathtaking performance, flexibility, and reliability.

Software RAID + ThunderBay = WHOA!
Over a year ago, OWC partnered with SoftRAID to bring enhanced storage capabilities to the Mac, and they're now seeing that dream become a reality. SoftRAID combines advanced RAID modes, fast performance, monitoring, e-mail notification, and fast rebuild capabilities that only software RAID can deliver.

Monitoring + Notifications
Software RAID easily lets you setup drive monitoring and e-mail notifications to keep you informed about your ThunderBay's performance and drive health. Helping you to maintain mission critical workflows.

Better than Hardware RAID Performance
ThunderBay 4 with SoftRAID offers faster performance than many competing 4 or even 5-bay hardware RAID external drives benefiting from modern processors that are both fast and designed for exceptionally high-performance RAID management with no real-world impact on apps or tasks.

Flexible + Robust
SoftRAID is extremely flexible and can easily be updated, reconfigured and used across multiple enclosures to provide an amazing amount of robust options to empower you to make the most of your ThunderBay workflow.

Backed by OWC
Should you ever have a question or troubleshooting need, you can rely on OWC's award-winning U.S. based support for both the ThunderBay 4 drive and SoftRAID software.

Empower your workflow with RAID 5 performance and up to 32TB capacity
Edit, view, stream, and produce more with ThunderBay in your 2K, 4K, and audio production workflow.

The RAID 5 Advantage
RAID 5 merges the four drives inside ThunderBay together for exponential performance gains over a single drive, the combined capacity of three of the drives, and data redundancy that allows the array to still work even if one drive were to fail!

Edit, Experiment, Create, Design
With ThunderBay's performance capabilities you can complete projects faster, have more time to experiment, and push your creations to the next level.

Enhance editing capabilities in video apps like Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, and Avid Media Composer. Empower greater audio production capabilities in audio apps like Avid Pro Tools and Logic Pro X. Edit large photos in apps like Adobe Photoshop, and browse large photo libraries in apps like Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom. Simply put, you can do more with a ThunderBay 4 enhanced workflow, and with a RAID 5 array you get data redundancy on top of great performance!

Certified and Tested
Each ThunderBay undergoes OWC's multi-hour drive "burn-in" performance certification procedure prior to shipping. This ensures your ThunderBay arrives operating properly and ready for demanding use.

4 Drive Bays Plus so Much More
• Time-Tested Cooling: Built on OWC's time-tested enclosure cooling technology, ThunderBay utilizes an open "flow-thru" vented design with an oversized 92 mm, low-turbulence, noise-quieting fan to keep the drives running cool and reliably.
• Multi-Drive: Daisy-chain up to six ThunderBays for massive storage capabilities and increased performance, or connect multiple ThunderBays to multiple Thunderbolt 2 ports to achieve exponential speed capabilities.
• Vibration Dampened: ThunderBay's drive isolating design reduces sonic resonance, and is aided by over-sized, rugged, vibration-absorbing, non-skid feet.
• DisplayPort 1.2 Support: Dual Thunderbolt ports let you connect the display of your choice that your computer can support, including 4K displays.

OWC / Other World Computing ThunderBay 4 Features

  • Four 3.5" drive bays for up to 32TB
  • User configurable in RAID 0, 1, 4, 5 & 1+0
  • Up to 332MB/s read / 315MB/s write RAID 5 performance
  • Up to 506MB/s read / 520MB/s write RAID 0 performance
  • Exponentially faster rebuild times than hardware RAID
  • Mac Compatible

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Key Features

  • Four 3.5" drive bays for up to 32TB
  • User configurable in RAID 0, 1, 4, 5 & 1+0
  • Up to 332MB/s read / 315MB/s write RAID 5 performance
  • Up to 506MB/s read / 520MB/s write RAID 0 performance
  • Exponentially faster rebuild times than hardware RAID

What's in the box:

  • OWC / Other World Computing 32TB (4x 8TB) ThunderBay 4 Hard Drive Array
  • SoftRAID 5
  • 3.3' (1.0m) Thunderbolt Cable
  • External UL Listed 3-Prong Power Cable
  • 2 Keys for the Front Panel Lock
  • Mac Utility Software Bundle
  • Free 1 Year Level-1 Data Recovery
  • OWC / Other World Computing Limited 3 Year Warranty