OWC / Other World Computing ThunderBay 4 Four-Bay Thunderbolt 2 RAID Array
UPC's:
MPN's:
Solid Buy. Does what it says.
This is not the fanciest RAID enclosure out there. And that is exactly why I like it. Plus, it looks simple / elegant. This thing stores data with great reads / writes over Thunderbolt 2. This enclosure does exactly what it advertises and it works well out of the box. The software was easy to set up and the machine has been reliable. I am certain that I will eventually get another one. SoftRAID takes no noticeable processing power from your host machine. I am really happy with this solution.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Working fine with Mac Pro
I got the empty ThunderBay 4 with SoftRAID and used it as JBOD as the version with SoftRAID was out of stock. So far, working fine with my Mac Pro (2013). It worked with my Western Digital Gold 8TB Datacenter drive and Western Digital Blue 4TB drives. Installation was easy.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
I love it
Love this 4 bay. I have it configured to 16TB and it's super fast and very quiet. Highly recommend
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great product BUT possible MAJOR software issue
Seems like excellent build quality, great enclosure, good drive mounts, etc. My biggest issue right now is with SoftRAID, the included RAID management software. Setup was easy. I purchased the empty Thunderbay so I could add my own drives. Budget was an issue, so I only created the RAID5 array with 3 drives, planning on expanding to a 4th. Then I discovered that it is impossible to add drives like that. You have to completely back up everything, ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Nice piece of mind.
I purchased this raid tower about a year ago. I filled it with 4 6tb Western Digital Red Pro 7200rpm drives. I purchased it with the intent of creating a 1+0 array (this gives me 12tb of space), and allows everything I have on the first 2 hard drives to be copied to the other 2. While this may not be the ideal back-up solution because it doesn't save versions of each file, it's perfect for me since I'm mostly only putting finished files on these ... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
We just picked up our 2nd unit!
These units are great and the one of the best values when it comes to hard drive storage. We have now brought a second one so that we can bring one onsite to our productions for transfers and leave our primary at our edit suite. Easy to install and use. There is a little bit of noise, but it's quieter than your portable space heater. In about a year we'll upgrade the harddrives as space gets cheaper and larger, and this will be an easy task
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Does What it Does
So far so good. For the money I wish it had a few more basic features: USB support; easier access to hard drives (each drive has to be screwed into place); a way to turn individual hard drives on/off in JBOD mode. Otherwise, it feels solid, no issues.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Does what's expected
I installed two of these drive housings and disk drives to store and backup my photo archives. Setup was easy, though the Softraid instructions took a bit of head-scratching. Their help desk quickly solved the confusion. Data went on to the drives from my legacy system rapidly and accurately and I was back up and running in shorter time than I anticipated. The drives are reasonable quiet and very fast.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Top-notch product
Installation rapid, SoftRaid instructions were a bit fuzzy, but the help desk rapidly solved my question. With just one week of operation, everything is running as expected. Data transfers are very rapid.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Where all of your storage dreams come true
4K video production with multiple cameras, audio, animation etc. I already had most of the hard drives so I just purchased the enclosure with the software. So far it is proving to be very fast and reliable.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
So far so good!
I've only had this for a few weeks but installation was super easy as well as installing software and start the backup. Took a while to transfer 6TB (about 11 hours) but so far no complaints. I actually ended up buying the enclosure and 4 separate disks (WD) since it was impossible to find out what kind of discs that was included in the version that came with storage. I also saved a hundred dollars by doing so...
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Great Product!
I use this for editing 4k video. Fast and reliable. Fan isn't loud but the Hard drives do make a little noise. (coffee maker sound) Fairly quiet if you ask me. Also shuts down when you put your computer to sleep.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Better than Drobo! So far anyway....
If you don't already own Software Raid make sure you buy this enclosure with the software included. The box is built like a tank, metal instead of the plastic Drobo. The Drobo I had failed before any of the drives it was protecting so out the window it went! I've had this unit for over a year now and it's still going strong with no issues. The only noise it makes is a low hush from the built it fan no loader than any other computer fan (oh and it... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Cheapest way to make bulk storage
Cloud storage is all very well and good but if I need fast bulk storage for my 2015 Macbook Pro only a local store will do. The MBP's Thunderbolt 2 ports make a Thunderbolt RAID attractive and the OWC empty 4 drive box is about as cheap a solution as one can find. I had four 2 terabyte drives pulled from old systems. I consolidated these in the OWC box and uses Softraid to generate a RAID5 array with 6 TB of storage. Although the Softraid startup is a bit clunky, once configured the storage is quick, compact, and easy to use. I keep it unpowered and offline most of the time.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
I own two now.
If you owned the previous generation Mac Pro 5.1 Cheese Grater and filled all four regular drive bays and the spare optical drive bay with hard drives (I did), you had it as good as it ever got for user friendliness on the Mac as far as drive configurability goes. Then comes the Mac Pro 6.1 Trashcan, a triumph of form over function, drive-wise. You get one hard-wired SSD on the motherboard, and that's all. Fortunately, there's the ThunderBay 4. I... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Better with Round 2...
After using my first unit for approximately a week and half, and moving almost 10TB of data to it, I had rebooted my machine and came up with an error that Mac OSX was unable to repair the ThunderBay. After the message I started digging a little deeper and realized that the ThunderBay was corrupting all the data I had transferred to it. PDF's had huge chunks of white or pink block data in them. Virtually every video file was corrupt with huge ban... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
So far, so good
I have been using this drive bay for over 2 months now set up as RAID 5 and it's performed quite well. It's fast enough for my needs (graphic design, front end web development, photography and vector illustration) and works well to archive files to once I am done working on my SSD. Keeps my SSD 'light' and I have more than enough storage for the type of work I do. I can rest easy knowing that the drive is expandable and can be daisy-chained if ne... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Works great
I use this as a RAID 5 setup for a working hard drive for photo files. Easy to load hard drives (I went with Toshiba). Needed some help loading SoftRAID but OWC tech help was quick and thorough and had me running right away. Unit is not dead quiet, but less noisy than the Lacie tough drives it replaced. Hardly notice it.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Never worked correctly
I ordered the Thunderbay MINI ssd 2TB set up for Raid 0. They will charge you and xtra $100+ for their Raid Software sold separately. after all that. It regularly made my 2 week old late 2015 iMac Crash when doing transfers, and the drive would randomly eject itself for no reason. OWC Customer service didnt seem very interested in helping, and presumed it was an issue with El Capitan OSX. It and took multiple times contacting them before I got an... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Fast, works well
When I got my iMac with Thunderbolt connection, I wandered what to do with all my hard drives. This is the solution I found: put them in this case. Easy to set up, runs really fast, quiet and doesn't run hot. So far, very satisfied. One important piece of info that is hard to get: each disk can be a separate icon on your desktop. In other words, this is the equivalent of 4 hard drives. There might be other ways to configure it , but that's what I wanted.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Good addition to an iMac
I've only had it a few days now, but the construction is very robust and it is reasonably quiet in operation. It seems to be a perfect solution for adding additional drives to my new iMac. It is initially a little confusing when ordering as to whether or not it includes RAID support. It does't, the more expensive model does. However, software RAID support can be added or it can be used as a JBOD enclosure -- which is what I am doing at the moment.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
BEST EXTERNAL STORAGE I'VE USED, AND I'VE USED ALOT.
I'm a wedding photographer who captures over 80GB of RAW images in one event, need something FAST, and durable. I use a Canon 5D MKII. I've always had external hard drives, hard to count how many I do have at this point. I was looking at DROBO, and other external storage devices and this one came by in an ad from B&H on another site I was visiting for external storage, and glad it did. I was close to buying a DROBO, but I read the reviews for thi... Show More
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Easy setup - no issues
I am using this as a primary raid for video editing on a Mac Pro system. Installation of the drives and setup using Mac disk utility was a breeze. Its been working flawlessly for weeks now. Its pretty quiet too.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
Awesome
It came beautifully packaged, was easy to assemble and has been working flawlessly since I plugged it in.
Reviewed on B&H Photo Video
