OWC Mercury Helios 3 Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Expansion Chassis

Thee OWC Mercury Helios 3 Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Expansion Chassis allows users connect PCIe expansion cards to their host system using Thunderbolt 3. Thunderbolt 3 provides bi-direction data transfer speeds of up to 40 Gb/s, which can drive peripherals made for video production, transcoding, audio processing, data storage, and more.

This enclosure has one PCIe 3.0 slot which runs at x4 but can accept cards up to x16. Supported form factors include half-height cards up to 7.75", as well as full-height and double-width cards. It interfaces with your host system using one Thunderbolt 3 port, while a second Thunderbolt 3 port can be used to daisy-chain an additional five compatible Thunderbolt 3 peripherals and deliver a minimum of 25W of power. Also supported is a dual-display configuration via Thunderbolt 3 and separate mini DisplayPort output. The Mercury Helios 3 can drive one display up to 4K at 60 Hz or two 1080p displays at 60 Hz.

Compatible systems include the Mac mini, MacBook Pro, iMac Pro, iMac, and MacBook Air running macOS 10.12.1 or later, as well as Intel/AMD-based systems running Windows 10 or later. Windows 10 is also supported under Boot Camp. Included is a 1.6' Thunderbolt 3 cable, an auto-switching power supply, and a power cable.

Highlights

• Daisy-chain support for up to five additional Thunderbolt peripherals
• Near-silent operation
• Plug-and-play - no drivers needed

Support for Most PCIe Cards

• Fibre Channel
• 10GbE Network Interface Controller
• Video capture
• Digital audio
• Solid-state drives
• SAS controllers, such as the OWC Jupiter
• FireWire, USB 3.1 Gen (USB 3.0), or eSATA host adapter cards

Compatibility