The HighPoint RocketStor 6414AS 4-Bay Mini-SAS RAID Enclosurefeatures four hot-swappable bays to deliver data quickly and reliably using your hard drives and SSDs. These bays support 2.5" and 3.5" drives that come with a SATA or SAS interface. You can mount NAS or Enterprise drives up to 8TB in capacity. Once drives are installed, the hardware RAID PCIe 2.0 x8 host adapter lets you configure these drives into a RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, or JBOD mode. To support the fast reads and writes, the enclosure utilizes a Mini-SAS connector that provides a single SAS 6 Gb/s lane for each drive and offers a total bandwidth of 24 Gb/s. Furthermore, the PCIe-based adapter card comes with a second SFF-8088 port that can connect to another RocketStor 6414AS or a LTO drive.

To manage the fast data, Highpoint has equipped the RocketStor 6414AS with ARM-based processors along with 512MB of DDR3 cache memory. This set of hardware features helps minimize the impact on your Windows, Mac, or Linux-based system. For cooling the enclosure and drives, two 80mm fans are onboard. A user-friendly web-based management interface is available to configure, monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot RAID configurations and individual storage devices. Advanced Management features are also included so you can configure email alerts and manage the data in the 6414AS remotely, via an Ethernet connection on your computer, while outside the work environment.

4 x 2.5"/3.5" Hot-Swap Drive Bays    Supports SAS/SATA Hard Drives and SSDs    1 x Mini-SAS (SFF-8088) Port    RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, and JBOD    Includes Hardware RAID PCIe 2.0 Adapter    Two 80mm Cooling Fans    SFF-8088 Cable Included    Supports SAS LTO Drives    Windows, Mac, and Linux Compatible

The RocketStor 6414AS utilizes high-performance Mini-SAS connectivity to directly support up to 4 SAS/SATA hard drives or SSDs in a RAID storage configuration. The Mini-SAS connector delivers four 6 Gb/s SAS lanes to provide a maximum data transfer bandwidth of 2400 MB/s, which is a suitable solution for business or mission critical Workstations that require highly sustained storage performance.

The RocketStor 6414AS is suitable for RAID 5 /6 storage applications that require maximum sustained performance. Built-in hardware RAID, dedicated ARM-based processors, and 512MB of DDR3 onboard cache memory allow the RocketStor 6414AS to work independently and minimize the RAID operation's impact on the host system or system loads. DV Mode Technology intelligently manages the flow of large data blocks and write-back caching to minimize latency and ensure consistent, sustained high-performance transfers for media-rich applications.

The RocketStor 6414AS has integrated a series of preemptive security measures to maximize storage uptime whenever data is needed. Redundant RAID 5 and 6 protections shield storage configurations from 1 or 2 disk failures, respectively. The RocketStor Storage Health Inspector (SHI) proactively maintains the health of arrays by examining each drive for failed sectors and dynamically repairs and remaps on the fly to keep data available.

HighPoint's Hardware RAID solutions come with built-in NVRAM that constantly tracks in-progress writes to preserve the integrity of data in the event of a drive failure or system crash. These solutions also include streamlined recovery procedures while minimizing downtime. Administrators can initialize or schedule RAID verification sessions that check each disk member of an array for parity consistency. If any parity related problems are found, the interface will immediately rebuild the array to ensure the integrity of your data.

The RocketStor 6414AS features an "open-box" approach to storage, which grants users the freedom to use their choice of SAS or SATA drive from all major drive brands. Users can add drives as needed to meet the evolving performance or capacity requirements of the storage application.

The four removable hot-swap bays support 2.5" or 3.5" SATA / SAS hard drives. Enterprise and NAS drives are recommended for the RocketStor 6414AS, allowing users to tailor storage configurations to meet each application's performance and budget requirements.

Users can use the second Mini-SAS device port to add an additional RocketStor 6414S Tower enclosure for RAID expansion or a LTO Tape/Library device for archiving purposes.

The RocketStor 6414AS provides many storage expansion options; users can upgrade sub-terabyte single drive configurations to RAID arrays comprised of multiple 8TB hard disks, up to maximum capacity of 32TB. The RocketStor's configurable Online Capacity Expansion (OCE) and RAID Migration allow users to modify RAID configurations or expand existing storage while avoiding complicated and time-consuming backup and restoration procedures.

The RocketStor 6414AS includes a user-friendly web-based management interface available for Windows and Mac OSX operating systems. Novices and experts alike, can quickly and easily configure, monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot RAID configurations and individual storage devices—all from a single, unified software suite. Advanced Management Features allow users to configure email notification to inform one or more users of changing storage conditions while outside of the work environment and manage storage remotely via a local network connection.

Related Questions and Answers

Q: 1. Can each thunderbolt be used to connect a different host computer so each can access drives at the same time?

A: The two ports are for daisy chaining devices but only one computer can be attached to a DAS at once.

Q: 2. Does this product work fine with Macbook M1max?

A: Yes, the OWC ThunderBay 4 mini 4-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array and Drive Enclosure would be compatible with the MacBook M1.

Q: 3. Can I use Windows Storage Spaces to create a raid0 (simple) array on this?

A: Yes, the OWC ThunderBay 4 mini 4-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array and Drive Enclosure can be setup as a RAID 0 using Windows Storage Spaces.

Q: 4. can this support (4x8tb = 32tb) or more?

A: Yes. This device support 32TB of storage capacity.

Q: 5. Does anyone know if Big Sur will allow TRIM with this enclosure and a Samsung 870 QVO drive?

A: According to OWC, the OWC ThunderBay 4 mini has full TRIM support.

Q: 6. Is the second thunderbolt 3 port for daisy chaining another device ? I assume you can't connect it to two computers at the same time.

A: The Thunderbolt port on the OWC ThunderBay 4 mini is for daisy chaining devices only, because the storage volumes cannot be mounted on two host machines at once

Q: 7. Can I use drives that have eSATA interfaces with this, like the Western Digital 2.5" SSDs?

A: The OWC ThunderBay 4 mini cannot support eSATA drives. However, if your drives are just SATA, then they will be compatible.

Q: 8. Can I use this enclosure with a computer that only has USB 3(5 gbps), not Thunderbolt? I know I won't get all the speed advantages of Thunderbolt, just curious about backward compatibility with older machines.

A: The OWC ThunderBay 4 requires Thunderbolt 3 speeds to operate properly. Any type of port that is less capable can produce unexpected results.

Q: 9. Does this case comes with the HighPoint SSD7101A-1 M.2 NVMe RAID Controller. Is that the card model inside?

A: Yes, the RAID controller is inside the unit.

Q: 10. Does this support encryption?

A: Yes, you can use encryption software with the Highpoint RocketStor Enclosure.