OWC 32TB ThunderBay 4 Thunderbolt 2 4-Bay RAID Array (RAID 5 Edition)

The OWC 32TB ThunderBay 4 Thunderbolt 2 4-Bay RAID Array (RAID 5 Edition) is a media storage device that adds 32 TB to your Mac. The drives have already been configured for RAID 5 via software. With this, you will have plenty of extra storage for music, photos, movies, and documents. Not only this, but this array also allows you to operate a production workflow with 2K video, 4K video, and audio.

Within the array are four bays that each house a single 8TB hard drive. Each included 3.5" drive connects to the array via the SATA III 6 Gb/s interface, has a rotational speed of 7200 rpm, and a 256MB cache, for a total system cache of 1024MB. Since the array ships with four drives, they can be software configured as RAID 0, 1, 4, 5, and 1+0, each of which offers performance, data redundancy, or a combination of both. However, please be aware this array comes pre-formatted and is software configured as a RAID 5 volume, which uses one of the 8TB drives for data redundancy, leaving users with 24TB of usable storage.

This volume will be recognized on systems running with OS X 10.9.3 and later, and requires the included SoftRAID 5 via download for Mac OS X 10.8.5 or earlier. RAID 5 allows read speeds of up to 332 MB/s and write speeds of up to 315 MB/s. If you do reconfigure the drives to run in a RAID 0 configuration, read speeds will go up to 506 MB/s and write speeds will go up to 520 MB/s.

The ThunderBay 4 comes with two Thunderbolt 2 ports which allow you to daisy-chain up to six devices such as additional ThunderBays, 4K displays, and more. Thunderbolt 2 offers a single 20 Gb/s bi-directional channel that allows you to stream and write 4K video at the same time. To help ensure a smooth operating environment, the array uses a 92mm noise-quieting fan.

Included with this ThunderBay 4 array is SoftRAID 5, a 3.3' Thunderbolt cable, a 3-prong power cable, 2 keys for the front panel lock, and a Mac compatible software bundle.

General Features

Cooling

ThunderBay utilizes an open "flow-thru" vented design with a 92mm, 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

The Thunderbolt ports also support DisplayPort 1.2 that allows daisy-chaining displays through the drive

Software

SoftRAID 5

SoftRAID combines advanced RAID modes, fast performance, monitoring, email notification, and fast rebuild capabilities that only software RAID can deliver. ThunderBay 4 models with drives come pre-configured in RAID 5, and are plug-and-play ready with OS X 10.9.3 or later. Advanced features such as drive notification and monitoring require SoftRAID installation

Prosoft Engineering Data Backup 3

Data Backup 3 is a software utility for Mac that allows you to backup, restore and synchronize your valuable data with minimal effort

Intech SpeedTools Utilities

SpeedTools Utilities is designed to offer fast, easy, and automated Mac disk repair and maintenance. This utility software has the ability to optimize and tune your Mac system for optimal performance in a matter of minutes