Bring flexible storage to your setup with with the OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 56TB Thunderbolt 3 RAID Arrayfrom OWC. Designed to streamline production workflows, this RAID array features eight 2.5/3.5" drive bays preinstalled with four 2TB U.2 NVMe SSDs and four 12TB HDDs. Preconfigured in RAID 5, the ThunderBay Flex 8 also supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1 (10), 4, and JBOD modes, allowing you to choose between speed or data redundancy. Thunderbolt 3 and SATA III interfaces as well as 7200 rpm HDD speeds ensure fast data access to make short work of video editing, VFX, digital imaging, and more. The 120mm cooling fan prevents overheating, and a lockable bay door and Kensington Lock slot ensure security.

Use the CFexpress and UHS-II SD card reader slots to import 4K or 8K video or hi-res photos with ease. A USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and two Thunderbolt 3 ports accommodate a range of accessories and a host connection, with the Thunderbolt 3 ports delivering 15W and 85W of power. Connect a display with a resolution up to 8K using the DisplayPort 1.4 output. When you're ready to expand, a PCIe 3.0 x16/x4 slot can be used to host a hardware raid controller or other adapter card. The ThunderBay Flex 8 56TB 8-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array is compatible with macOS 10.15 and later.

56TB (4 x 2TB U.2 SSDs, 4 x 12TB HDDs)    8 x 2.5/3.5" Drive Bays    NVMe and SATA III Drive Interfaces    Supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 4, 5, and JBOD    Software RAID Controller    1 x 120mm Cooling Fan    CFexpress & UHS-II SD Card Reader Slots    2 x Thunderbolt 3, USB-C & A 3.2 Gen 2    DisplayPort 1.4 Output    Compatible with macOS 10.15 or Later

Use SATA/SAS and U.2/M.2 NVMe drives for up to 172TB of capacity and real-world speeds up to 2750 MB/s.

Please note that SAS drives are supported with a SAS drive controller card (available separately) and up to four U.2 drives are supported. M.2 drives are also supported with an M.2 to U.2 adapter (available separately).

The top four bays can utilize U.2 SSDs, the emerging M&E industry storage standard.

Create, manage, and monitor advanced RAID sets with SoftRAID, the advanced RAID management solution with easy setup, e-notifications, and drive integrity monitoring.

Related Questions and Answers

Q: 1. Does the Raid Software License come with the system?

A: The OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 128TB 8-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array uses a hardware RAID controller, so software is not provided.

Q: 2. Will this work with new M1 Mac Processors?

A: Yes, thee OWC Thunderbay Flex 8 will work with M1 Mac computers.

Q: 3. What brand and model of SSDs and HDDs are used in this pre-configured version?

A: As per the manufacturer the OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 56TB 8-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array (4 x 2TB U.2 SSDs, 4 x 12TB HDDs) uses Toshiba MG03ACA Series 7,200RPM Enterprise Class Hard Disk Drives with 64 MB cache and OWC Aura P12 Pro NVMe M.2 SSD (via a U.2 adapter)*OWC reserves the right to replace or upgrade to equivalent or better components.

Q: 4. Will this work on windows 10?

A: This array is designed for use with Mac OS 10.15 or later.

Q: 5. Can we purchase extra drives (same model) for hot swappable spares? Link?

A: Sure, you could get spare drives to swap into the OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 144TB 8-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array (8 x 18TB HDDs), but depending on your RAID setup you may have issues swapping in a fresh drive with a drive that has critical data on it, so it really depends on how you manage your data.

Q: 6. What are people putting in the PCIe slot?

A: The OWC ThunderBay Flex can add a 4K video capture card for direct ingest of multi-stream high-res footage. Record high-quality tracks with an audio card and then edit and archive tracks via the PCIe x16 slot.

Q: 7. Can two separate RAID Arrays be created within this device, ie one Array using the SSD's and a separate RAID array using the HDD's for backing up the first?

A: Yes, it is possible to run multiple RAID volumes on the OWC Thunderbay. However, these volumes would be spread out between multiple parts of all disks, and not confined to certain disks only - all disks would be part of all volumes present on the array.

Q: 8. What brand and model of SSDs and HDDs are used in this pre-configured version for OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 100TB 8-Bay 7x14TB HDDs?

A: Unfortunately we do not know which drives any given OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 100TB 8-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array (1 x 2TB SSD, 7 x 14TB HDDs) will ship with, as they use different drives throughout the lifetime of the RAID Array.

Q: 9. Are the drives in the Flex 8 enterprise drives?

A: Spindle Speed: 7200 revolutions per minute - Features: Enterprise, RAID 5 - factory configured

Q: 10. What's the rebuild time if you lose an 18TB disk in the 144TB RAID-5?

A: There is not an official spec on rebuild time under these circumstances, but it should be possible to complete the rebuild of a single 18TB disk overnight.