With the ThunderBay 8, OWC expands its huge vary of professional-grade Thunderbolt equipment, providing an extremely high-capacity storage resolution with eight hot-swappable common bays for 3.5- or 2.5-inch arduous drives or SSDs.
The ThunderBay 8 can function a high-performance private knowledge heart with a number of configuration choices to go well with ever-growing storage necessities. It will probably accommodate the wants of people with data-intensive video modifying, high-resolution picture, and VR workflows, who want plentiful drive house to retailer massive format information, in addition to quick knowledge switch speeds to make sure that they continue to be workable.
The ThunderBay 8 presents as much as 160TB of storage relying on the configuration you select, with further choices for traditional and enterprise drives, pushing past the bounds of extra frequent four-bay storage options.
Having eight drive bays permits for higher flexibility and customization by way of drive configuration and RAID choices. Customers can select to rearrange the drives in numerous RAID modes to optimize efficiency, knowledge redundancy, or a stability of each. For instance, customers can select RAID 0 for optimum efficiency, RAID 5 for knowledge redundancy, or RAID 10 for a stability of each.
An enclosure with eight drive bays additionally cuts down on pointless cables and energy wastage in comparison with single or twin drive options, and presents huge, extremely versatile storage potential that customers can scale over time.
The ThunderBay 8 arrived very effectively packed for transit, generously utilizing high-density foam buffers, air luggage, and thick cardboard – a key consideration for transporting numerous pretty delicate drives. The enclosure itself got here in a blue woven nylon bag to assist carry it out of the field, which was a a lot welcome assist contemplating it weighs virtually 20 kilos. That is comparatively heavy in comparison with another exterior storage options, which can imply it is not ideally suited for customers who want good portability, even for a drive array of this measurement. The sturdy bag is price undoubtedly preserving round to assist transfer the ThunderBay round sooner or later.
Design
The ThunderBay 8’s enclosure is fabricated from thick aluminium with a matte black anodized end. The machine may be very effectively constructed and clearly designed for sturdiness and warmth dissipation, with loads of alternative to final by means of adjustments to your setup and a number of drives.
The ThunderBay comes with two keys to unlock the perforated panel on the entrance that results in the arduous drives. As soon as unlocked, you merely pull the quilt up and off to get entry inside.
Every drive is saved in a tray, labeled A to H, that may be simply launched with a thumb screw. The drives are slightly troublesome to take away even after they’ve been launched, requiring fairly a little bit of pressure to come back unfastened. Since OWC presents further drive trays, it is doable to maintain some additional drives close by so they’re able to swap in if mandatory. This could possibly be notably helpful for repairing a RAID-5 array with minimal inconvenience.
The rear of the enclosure contains a Kensington lock, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and a DisplayPort 1.2 port for connecting a show with a decision as much as 4K. Every drive has an indicator mild, as do the rear ports, clearly exhibiting when a drive or wired connection is in use. A single massive fan on the again pulls in cool air.
The underside of the ThunderBay has 4 rubber ft to maintain it safe on a floor, but in addition presents the chance to stack a number of ThunderBay enclosures on high of one another in the event you require. The ability provide is built-in and there’s no want for an exterior transformer on the ability cable, which cuts down on cable mess in comparison with another gadgets on this class.
Noise
Whereas the OWC ThunderBay 8 is designed to be comparatively quiet, some customers could discover that the noise degree is noticeable, particularly in the event that they work in a quiet surroundings. It primarily comes from the fan that helps cool the drives contained in the enclosure.
The fan is massive and spins at a low pace, which helps scale back high-frequency noise, however it will possibly nonetheless produce a low-frequency hum that could be noticeable in quiet environments. The fan additionally appears to take fairly a while to show off when the ThunderBay is idle, which some customers could discover slightly bit annoying.
That being stated, it’s inevitable that eight high-capacity drives and the cooling they require will produce a specific amount of noise. The sound degree can be extremely depending on the kind of drives which were put in, with sooner and higher-capacity drives usually producing extra noise than slower and lower-capacity drives.
Whereas OWC has achieved a comparatively good job at minimizing the noise the ThunderBay 8 makes, I nonetheless thought the ThunderBay was fairly loud in comparison with different related gadgets. It’s simply loud sufficient to fill a room and even be heard in adjoining rooms – which could possibly be an issue in the event you work with audio or sleep close to your workstation. For that reason, some customers could discover it unsuitable as a desktop storage resolution, particularly in the event you suppose the fixed clicking of the drives might irrirate you or impede your work. OWC provides a 0.5 meter Thunderbolt 3 cable with the ThunderBay 8, which requires inserting the unit fairly near the pc. It could be higher to make the most of a 2m Thunderbolt cable and tuck the enclosure extra out of the best way, if doable.
Set Up
The ThunderBay 8 just isn’t a {hardware} RAID system, so it depends on SoftRAID to create, monitor, and handle RAID units. The software program permits customers to configure and handle RAID arrays with ease, offering superior options and efficiency enhancements over Apple’s Disk Utility.
SoftRAID is theoretically not a necessity for utilizing the ThunderBay until you need to use the drives individually, however you’ll need to make use of it if you wish to use RAID.
One of many key benefits of SoftRAID is efficiency. In accordance with OWC, it makes use of superior algorithms to optimize disk efficiency and supplies sooner knowledge switch charges in comparison with conventional {hardware} RAID options. That is notably necessary for customers who work with massive information and high-resolution media content material, as it will possibly considerably scale back the time required to switch and course of knowledge.
One other benefit is its ease of use. The software program supplies a comparatively easy interface for configuring and managing RAID arrays, permitting customers to create, delete, and modify arrays, with a minimal degree of expertise. SoftRAID additionally consists of options like disk well being monitoring, electronic mail notifications, and SMART knowledge evaluation to detect potential drive failures earlier than they happen.
The enclosure accommodates a printed license quantity for SoftRaid XT, and it was pretty straightforward to put in and get operating, however you’ll need to restart and enter restoration mode to allow full disk entry. My expertise with SoftRAID was pretty strong, however I assumed the printed directions might have been slightly extra detailed and I feel a newcomer might battle slightly bit with the method.
Upon connecting the ThunderBay 8 to a Mac through Thunderbolt and with SoftRAID XT put in, a RAID 5 array formatted in HFS+ seems on the desktop and is able to use. You may then cut up the disks up into new RAID 0, 1, 4, 5, and 10 arrays nevertheless you see match, and reformat as you want.
It is price noting that the drives should not clearly labeled in SoftRAID, that means that the one option to establish a specific drive is through the LED indicator. SoftRAID’s design additionally feels slightly bit outdated, however this might, after all, be improved through future software program updates. Crucial factor is that it really works very reliably.
Efficiency
With eight bays, the ThunderBay 8 can attain as much as 2,586 MB/s, in response to OWC. In my sequence of exams, the ThunderBay 8 carried out extraordinarily effectively – surpassing SSD speeds through USB. With solely HDDs, I achieved speeds of round 1,460 MB/s write and 1,900 MB/s learn in RAID 0, which must be greater than enough for even essentially the most demanding skilled workflows.
In RAID 5, this barely slowed to learn and write speeds of round 1,200 MB/s and 1,150 MB/s, respectively, which remains to be spectacular contemplating the added knowledge redundancy supplied by this configuration. Its quick switch speeds and high-capacity additionally make it a perfect machine for Time Machine backups, though SoftRAID doesn’t assist encryption of APFS formatted arrays presently.
Total, this degree of efficiency is right for customers who work with high-resolution media content material, similar to 4K and 8K video, permitting for clean playback and modifying of huge information. The ThunderBay 8’s efficiency ends in Blackmagic pace exams are on par with different high-performance storage options in the marketplace, making it a dependable alternative for skilled content material creators and energy customers who demand top-tier efficiency from their storage gadgets.
For the reason that ThunderBay 8 has two Thunderbolt ports, it is doable to daisy-chain different USB and Thunderbolt gadgets from it. I attempted this with a Thunderbolt 3 SSD in addition to customary USB arduous drives and it labored extraordinarily effectively, although I did have to recollect to eject these drives earlier than turning the ThunderBay off.
Backside Line
Total, the OWC ThunderBay 8 is a superb professional-grade storage resolution that works very effectively with the Mac, providing high-volume, high-performance storage to satisfy a broad vary of intense calls for. Throughout a number of RAID arrays, the machine manages massive libraries of video and audio manufacturing information, in addition to concurrent backups, oustandingly effectively after months of fixed use.
The ThunderBay 8 is a premium storage resolution that comes at a premium worth, however its options and efficiency justify its price, particularly for professionals who require dependable storage for his or her workflows. Furthermore, its modular design permits for simple upgrades and upkeep, making it a long-term funding that may scale along with your storage wants.
The ThunderBay 8 additionally comes with OWC’s five-year restricted guarantee and buyer assist. For those who do not want as a lot house because the ThunderBay 8 can present, OWC additionally presents a four-bay model with the ThunderBay 4.
The right way to Purchase
The ThunderBay 8 is offered from OWC’s web site for a beginning worth of $779.00. The 16TB ThunderBay 8, which incorporates SoftRAID XT, begins at $1,479.00.
Be aware: OWC supplied MacRumors with a 64TB ThunderBay 8 with SoftRAID XT for the aim of this assessment. No different compensation was obtained.
