OWC Launches ThunderBay 4 Mini DAS: 4 SATA Bays With SoftRAID, Up to 1.5 GB/s
by Anton Shilov on December 16, 2019 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- SSDs
- HDDs
- OWC
- DAS
- Thunderbolt 3
- ThunderBay
OWC has introduced a new small form factor high performance, high redundancy DAS for the professional market. The ThunderBay 4 Mini incorporates 4 2.5-inch storage bays, allowing it to store up to 16 TB of data, and with OWC touting transfer speeds of up to 1.5 GB/s. The device is aimed at various creative professionals who need an ample amount of reliable storage space, but in a relatively small package.
The OWC ThunderBay 4 Mini DAS can accommodate four 2.5-inch/15.5 mm storage devices and is based on Intel’s JHL6540 (dual-port TB3) and ASMedia’s ASM1062 (PCIe 2.0 x2 => two SATA 6 Gbps bridge) controllers. Given constraints imposed by a SATA 6 Gbps interface and the ASM1062 chip, the ThunderBay 4 Mini can offer up to 1556 MB/s read/write performance when equipped with four SATA SSDs, or around 560 MB/s when populated with four Seagate’s 2.5-inch 4 TB hard drives. To ensure stable operation and consistent performance, the DAS comes equipped with a fan.
| OWC's SoftRAID | ||||
| SoftRAID XT | SoftRAID XT Lite | |||
| RAID Levels | RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 4 RAID 5 RAID 0+1 |
RAID 0 RAID 1 |
||
| Disk Certification | + | + | ||
| Disk Monitoring | + | + | ||
| Email Alerts | + | - | ||
| Command Line Interface | + | - | ||
| Tech Support | Free | Online Forum | ||
Layered on top of the hardware to provide both multi-disk performance and redundancy is OWC's SoftRAID software. OWC will offer the ThunderBay 4 Mini with either its SoftRAID XT or SoftRAID XT Lite software, depending on the model and required RAID level. The applications support both Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows operating systems, so the DAS is compatible with a wide variety of computers available today.
| OWC Thunderbay 4 Mini | ||||
| HDD Models SoftRAID XT |
HDD Models SoftRAID XT Lite |
|||
| 4 TB | $669.99 | $599.99 | ||
| 8 TB | $719.99 | $649.99 | ||
| 16 TB | $1,019.99 | $949.99 | ||
| SSD Models SoftRAID XT |
SSD Models SoftRAID XT Lite |
|||
| 2 TB | $819.99 | $749.99 | ||
| 4 TB | $1,149.99 | $1,079.99 | ||
| 8 TB | $2,069.99 | $1,999.99 | ||
| Enclosure Only SoftRAID XT |
Enclosure Only SoftRAID XT Lite |
|||
| 0 TB | $379.99 | $299.99 | ||
The barebones OWC ThunderBay 4 Mini with SoftRAID Lite XT costs $299.99, whereas a version with SoftRAID XT is priced at $379.99. Enclosures populated with SSDs or HDDs are priced depending on capacity and type of software that comes with them.
Related Reading:
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dock / DAS Combo: TB3, up to 28 TB, USB 3.0, DP, GbE, SD
- OWC Unveils Second-Gen ThunderBlade External SSDs: 2800 MB/s Starting at $799
- OWC Ships ThunderBlade External SSDs, Touts SoftRAID Tech for 3800 MB/s Speeds
- HighPoint RocketStor 6618 Thunderbolt 3 DAS: 8-Bays, Up to 96 TB, 2.7 GB/s, $999
- Promise Launches Pegasus3 External Storage via TB3: Up to 48 TB, 1.6 GBps
Source: OWC
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close - Thursday, December 19, 2019 - link
@crimsonson: Great, thanks!Santoval - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - link
TB would be the bottleneck in such a setup, which I don't think would make sense.Dug - Sunday, December 22, 2019 - link
You don't necessarily run them raid 0Eliadbu - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - link
WiGigMrEcho - Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - link
RS-232ronm6667 - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link
So, what you want is a NAS instead?arashi - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link
Over WiFi?Over network?
Not directly?
r/lostcommentors
Dug - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link
That would be called a NASTomatotech - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link
I have several 4TB 2.5" drives in various mini-ITX computers, so I acknowledge they are useful little things. However if I wanted more than 4TB, a single 8TB 3.5" would seem smaller and more portable than this 4-bay box with 2 x 4tb 2.5" or even 3x 2tb 2.5". It seems rather niche and rather expensive.Also the prices.... My 4TB 2.5" drives cost around £80-100 each new. OK they're not RAID versions but the markup shouldnt be that much. Ditto a 2TB m.2 should be around £220-250.
Actually if someone was able to create a m.2 box that gave 4 m.2 slots in the space of a fag packet, that would be pretty popular.
crimsonson - Monday, December 16, 2019 - link
The point of the box is that you have a RAID box you can move from system to system. Yes, you can add up a bunch of drives inside your computer that is cheaper and maybe faster but not quite easy to transport.