OWC ThunderBay 4
RAID 5 Edition
24.0TB 4-bay external drive
Dual Thunderbolt 2 | RAID 5 | 4 Drive Bays | Mac
Performance + Redundancy
- Four 3.5" drive bays
- User configurable in RAID 0, 1, 4, 5 & 1+0
- Up to 407MB/s read / 342MB/s write RAID 5 performance.
- Up to 878MB/s read / 924MB/s write RAID 0 performance.
- Exponentially faster rebuild times than hardware RAID.
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 5 for ThunderBay for OS X.
Conventional wisdom turned on its head.
Hardware RAID has long been thought to be superior to software RAID, but we'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 we're now seeing that dream become a reality. SoftRAID 5 for ThunderBay 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 and the SoftRAID engine 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 5 for ThunderBay 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 5 for ThunderBay software.
Empower your workflow with RAID 5 performance and up to 40TB 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 Thunderbolt Cable
ThunderBay comes with an OWC one-meter certified Thunderbolt cable.
Includes
- OWC ThunderBay 4 High-performance 4-bay Thunderbolt 2 interface drive
- SoftRAID 5 for ThunderBay
- High-Quality, Certified, Double-Shielded 1-Meter Thunderbolt cable
- External UL listed 3-prong power cable
- 2 keys for front panel lock
- OWC ThunderBay 4 Assembly Manual & User Guide (1.3MB PDF)
- SoftRAID Quick Start Guide (1.4 MB)
- Utility software bundle for Mac
- OWC 3-Year Solution Limited Warranty with 48-Hour Turnaround Time
- Complimentary 1-Year, Level-1 Data Recovery
Reviews
"... the ThunderBay 4 mini can drive multi-stream compressed 4K video and other workflows requiring a high amount of available bandwidth."— Chris Rauschnot, MacTrast
" ... great for performance and space. My internal Mac Pro 2013's 512 GB drive has been feeling tight for the past year, and a faster external drive has been something that I have been searching for."— Paul Solt, iPhoneDev.tv
"OWC unlocks the incredible performance and flexibility of ThunderBay by pairing the drives with a robust software RAID solution."— Tom Piper, appleJAC
"I turned to my friends at OWC, for solutions ... to efficiently and securely backup, transport, and archive all the data ... ( the ThunderBay 4 RAID) is a lot of storage packed into an eight and a half pound box with dimensions of less than 10"x7"x6"."— James Mathers, Digital Cinema Society
" ... one of the more affordable four-bay Thunderbolt drives out there. ...performance over a Thunderbolt 2 connection is fantastic."— Eric Reagan, Photography Bay
"Does great with lots of footage, handles 4K footage with ease ... copying over data is lightning fast, and its's whisper silent ... a terrific Thunderbolt solution"— Shane Ross, Little Frog in High Def
"The performance is outstanding ... speeds are exceptional ... the Thunderbay itself is an efficient unit that does not get in the way of performance."— Lloyd Chambers, DigLloyd - Mac Performance Guide
"With four bays and configurations in 4TB to 16TB capacities, this should give any prosumer the amount of storage they need with ample performance to get the job done."— Tyler Bernath, TweakTown
"OWC's ThunderBay IV delivers impressive performance at a much lower price point than much of the competition ... a great choice for professionals who want large storage capacities without having to forfeit speed."— Albert Filice, Macworld
4.5/5 rating
"... an amazing product that can meet the needs of the professional who needs high-performance storage, as well as anyone who is looking for a versatile method of storage and backup."— Tom Nelson, About.com
"OWC's ThunderBay 4 brings to the market capacities that have yet to be seen in such a compact medium, as well as the performance and data security that only RAID 5 can provide!"— Les Tokar, The SSD Review
"Performance and pricing are both excellent, which makes the ThunderBay 4 a great solution for any Mac owner looking to add external storage to any modern Mac."— Jordan Golson, Tech republic.com
"I remember when I spent $20,000 to buy 20 GB of storage. Now, we can get far more storage, with far better performance, for about $100 per terabyte ... I like what I see ... Congratulations, OWC."— Larry Jordan, Larry Jordan.Biz
" ... a perfect companion for the serious video editor ... quite the workhorse for me as it churns through editorial without missing a beat ..."— Scott Simmons, Pro Video Coalition
"It's affordable, fast, reliable, and gives any modern Mac access to fast, huge storage ... recommended for video editors"— Iain Anderson, macProVideo
"Now we can do RAID5 via software and save substantially."— Allan Tepper, Pro Video Coalition
"... come(s) with a quiet cooling fan and locking front panel for easy access to the drive mounting brackets."— Rob-Art Morgan, Bare Feats
"With power, price and performance on its side, the ThunderBay 4 is a beast of a desktop hard disk. Rating: 4/5"— Stuart Andrews, PC Pro UK
"The ThunderBay 4 RAID storage isn't just fast, it's superior in performance to everything else in its class."— Dan East, Layers
Benchmarks
Click any of the benchmarks below to view the results.
RAID 5 (Stripe with Parity) Test Results
RAID 0 (Stripe) Test Results
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