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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