OWC

Name: OWC Express 4M2 4-Slot M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure
Brand: OWC
SKU: OWCTB3EX4M2SL
Price: 279.75 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 3.50 (4 reviews)

Express 4M2
4-Slot M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure

Mac / PC / Thunderbolt 3

Infinitely configurable. Infinitely reconfigurable.

You like to explore your own independent path, and digital storage is where you have fun, push hard and spark the imagination. You explore, you refine, and when ready, you share your vision with the world. The OWC Express 4M2 is the external drive built for the journey before you and the path yet to be explored.

Customize your Express 4M2 with up to four NVMe SSDs, RAID them however you wish and connect it all with Thunderbolt 3 — the fastest and most flexible interface around. The sheer performance of the Express 4M2 helps you meet deadlines faster, giving you more time to explore your creativity and push your projects further.

Pint-Sized Powerhouse

Small in stature. Big on capability. The OWC Express 4M2 is ready to serve with four easy-to-access M.2 NVMe SSD slots customizable for any workflow with vibration damping feet that allow for vertical or horizontal orientation. Install up to 16TB of capacity and experience up to 2800MB/s of mind-bending performance via Thunderbolt 3. The Express 4M2 is an amazingly small digital workhorse with world-renowned OWC quality and award-winning support built in.

Ingest and duplicate dailies at breakneck speeds, work with higher resolutions, smoothly scrub through demanding timelines, and plow through thousands of photos with ease. The OWC Express 4M2 is one seriously fast drive to have by your side to take your digital capabilities to a new level.

Highlights

Up to 16TB
Up to 2800MB/s
Four M.2 NVMe SSD bays
Compact design
Includes SoftRAID: robust software for creating, monitoring, and managing advanced RAID sets
Thunderbolt Certified for Mac and Windows
Thunderbolt 3 cable
1 Year OWC Limited Warranty

Built Smaller and Faster from Input by Pros Like You

The OWC Express 4M2 is designed with superior ease-of-use in mind. We worked with award-winning creatives and listened to the kudos they heaped onto the OWC ThunderBay mini, and we put all that shared knowledge to good use when we set out to build the next-gen Thunderbolt 3 multi-bay drive. The result is the 57% smaller and 2.5x faster OWC Express 4M2.

It's smaller and easier to fit into your workflow, studio and on stage. It's faster with four easy-access M.2 slots so you can swap, upgrade or expand your Express 4M2 to configure and reconfigure it to serve any project need.

Game-Changing NVMe SSD Performance

NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a hyper-efficient communications interface protocol built from the ground up to properly take advantage of SSD technology and high-performance connection buses like PCIe. The result is exponentially faster and efficient SSD storage, and the OWC Express 4M2 has room for four NVMe SSDs.

DisplayPort

Display connection flexibility is yours with a convenient DisplayPort located right on the rear of the OWC Express 4M2. There's no need to worry about adapters or extra long cables. Just plug your display directly into the Express 4M2 and you're all set.

Multi-Drive

The OWC Express 4M2 comes equipped with OWC SoftRAID which provides the amazing capability to RAID across multiple drive enclosures. You can also add more Express 4M2 drives to your storage pool using Windows Storage Spaces. Configure and reconfigure your storage however you need by combining multiple OWC Express 4M2 drives together on Mac and Windows.

SoftRAID: Conventional Wisdom Turned on its Head

It's often thought that hardware RAID is better than software RAID, but we've proven that not to be true. We've combined the performance and capacity of the OWC Express 4M2 with our robust SoftRAID engine. Experience breathtaking performance, multi-enclosure capability, advanced drive monitoring, e-notifications and downloadable updates. Once you do, you'll see how hardware RAID doesn't even come close.

Includes SoftRAID: Easy and Complete Drive Management

Now you can quickly access and robustly protect your data with SoftRAID Lite XT. SoftRAID easy setup makes it a breeze to create RAID volumes by helping you through the entire process. With multiple RAID options, you decide what you’re using your RAID volume for and how much space to allocate to it. It's that simple to create your preference of speed and/or redundancy for your data volume.

SoftRAID Highlights

Flexible: create RAID 0 and 1 volumes with SoftRAID Lite XT (Windows and Mac)
Advanced: Create RAID 0, 1, 4, 5, 1+0 (10) volumes (RAID 6, 6+ coming in soon) and get email notifications for drive and RAID volume health with SoftRAID XT (Mac only)
Verify: volume validation ensures sectors can be read, parity is correct, and any potential volume failure is minimized
Certified: drives are validated before use to ensure they are safe for data storage
Vigilant: predictive warnings help protect against unexpected drive failure
Cross-platform ready: SoftRAID Lite includes built-in MacDrive technology that lets you read/write SoftRAID RAID 0 and RAID 1 arrays and use them interchangeably with Windows and macOS computers
Outperforms: up to 86% faster than AppleRAID
Thorough: full TRIM support improves internal and external SSD performance in all RAID levels
Risk-free: 30-day free trial of fully functional application

Connect to Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 Systems with Ease

The OWC Express 4M2 is fully backward compatible with Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2. Utilize Thunderbolt 3 performance to work at full speed, and step back to Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 whenever connectivity compatibility is needed for your workflow. Add a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter along with the appropriate Thunderbolt cable, and you're all set.

OWC Thunderbolt 3 Cable

OWC Express 4M2 comes with an OWC Thunderbolt 3 cable which is Thunderbolt certified for Mac and Windows, with additional 0.5 meter to 2.0 meter lengths available separately.

Quality You Can Trust

Like all OWC drives, the OWC Express 4M2 is built to the highest standards of reliability and performance and Thunderbolt Certified for Mac and Windows. Because 100% reliability is always the goal, Express 4M2 is rigorously quality tested and backed by our one-year limited warranty plus award-winning U.S. based Technical Support.

SPECIFICATIONS
GALLERY
INCLUDES
VIDEOS
RATINGS

Product Specifications

Specifications

Mechanisms Supported
- NVMe 2280 M.2 SSDs
Display Support
- Up to one 4K display @ 60Hz,
- or one 4K display @ 30Hz,
- or two 4K displays @ 60Hz
Display Support by Port
- Mini DisplayPort 1.2: Up to 4K @ 60Hz
Bootable
- All four drive bays are bootable on macOS. SSDs with 512 byte sectors require macOS 10.13 or later.
Hot Plug Support
- Yes
Chipset
- (1) Thunderbolt 3 - Alpine Ridge DSL6540
Certifications
- CE
- FCC
Data Transfer Rate (Maximum)
- Thunderbolt 3 : 40 Gb/s (or 5000 MB/s)
Reach Certification
- Yes

RAID

RAID Capable
- Yes
RAID Levels Supported
- RAID 0
- RAID 1
- RAID 4
- RAID 5
- RAID 10
- JBOD
- RAID 6
RAID Features
- Software RAID

Reliability

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)
- Varies depending on drive mechanism installed
Contact Start Stops
- Varies depending on drive mechanism installed

Compatibility

Mac OS Compatibility
- macOS 10.12 Sierra
- macOS 10.13 High Sierra
- macOS 10.14 Mojave
- macOS 10.15 Catalina
- macOS 11.0 Big Sur
- macOS 11.1 Big Sur
PC OS Compatibility
- Windows 10 32-bit Edition
- Windows 10 64-bit Edition
- Windows Server 2016
Other Requirements
- When using one or more SSDs with 512 byte sectors, macOS 10.13 or later is required.
Host Port Requirements
- Thunderbolt 3 or later
Driver Required
- No

Power

Power Supply
- External UL-listed universal auto-switching power supply
AC Input
- 100-240V, 50-60Hz, 1-2A
DC Output
- +12V, 6A
Wattage
- 72W Watts
External Power Adapter
- Yes
Power Delivery
- Two Thunderbolt 3 ports with 15W power delivery each.

Physical

Number of Bays
- 4
Device Ports
- (2) Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) Ports
- (1) DisplayPort Port
Cooling
- (1) 60mm 2,800RPM None cooling fan
Security Slot
- No
Power/Activity LED
- Yes
Housing Color
- Black
Housing Material
- Aluminum
Dimensions
- Height: 6.0 cm (2.4 in)
- Length: 11.3 cm (4.4 in)
- Width: 13.6 cm (5.4 in)
Weight
- 800.0 g (1.76 lbs)

Environmental

Ambient Temperature
- Operating: 32°F to 104°F (0°C to 40°C)
- Non-Operating: -4°F to 158°F (-20°C to 70°C)
Altitude
- Operating: -304.8 m to 3,048.0 m (-1,000 ft to 10,000 ft)
- Non-Operating: -304.8 m to 12,192.0 m (-1,000 ft to 40,000 ft)

Notes

Hynix Gold P31 SSD’s are only compatible with Windows 10 when installed in this enclosure.
Does not supoort Dual-Mode DisplayPort (DP++), however it does support Multi-Stream Transport (MST) in Windows 10.

Manufacturer provided specifications for OWC p/n OWCTB3EX4M2SL

Gallery

Includes

OWC Express 4M2 SSD enclosure
SoftRAID Lite XT (Mac and Windows)
Power supply and cable
Thunderbolt 3 cable
Quick Start Guide
SoftRAID Lite XT Quick Start Guide (download only)
1 Year OWC Limited Warranty

Videos

Customer Ratings

Write a Review 3.5 / 5 2 out of 4 (50%) reviewers would recommend this product

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: KL600 Location: Los Angeles Age: 25-34 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 4/5 Best option for remote or travel rig. August 20, 2020 Great enclosure. The only things I didn’t like were the locking screws on the back protrude farther than the actual enclosure, so storage is a pain. Also, my fan was wired incorrectly so I had to reroute the lines on my own. Beware.

I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) OWC Express 4M2 4-Slot M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure.

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: PhotoJoseph

Rating: 5/5 So fast. Scary fast. OMG fast. July 30, 2020 What part of the title isn't clear? ;-)

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: lahzu Location: LA, CA Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 3/5 fast but LOUD! December 9, 2019 I'm an audio engineer, and I bought this to be my primary work drive. Its fan is far too loud in my studio--if this is also your objective, you should look to the (fanless) Thunderblade drives for a more silent solution.

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: SoloRider Location: Swamps of Jersey Age: 45-54 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 3/5 Meh... not really everything M.2 NVME could be October 17, 2019 I purchased this unit to replace the 2.5 inch drive unit. I had that populated with 2 SSDs and a 2TB Spinning Drive RAID.

On that Thunderbolt 2 Unit I'm able to achieve 325-350 MB/s.

On this new unit, I'm only getting 625-765 MB/s R/W. Kind of a bummer.

I've populated this unit with a 2 TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus Series - 2TB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD. I was hoping for near internal drive like performance.

I contact OWC and they said, I need to run this in Raid 0 to get the advertised 2800 MB/s. I guess I should have read the fine print. It will work, but I hoped for better.

Reviewer: Vantage Location: New Jersey Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months

Rating: 5/5 Great system! December 18, 2018 I have two volumes running in this enclosure. One is a RAID 0 with two drives. Expect to see around 1400 MB/s with two drives in RAID 0. This runs flawlessly and quiet!

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Reviewer: ivarh Location: Sydney, NSW Age: 45-54 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 3/5 A great product but with one flaw July 25, 2018 I bought this unit (from a australian reseller) and the setup was easy as. I did however notice one thing that should be in the description for the product.

Each of the 4 m.2 pcnvme slots have only 1 pci express lane. This means that the drive in the slot is limited to 8Gbit transfer speeds.

If you populate all 4 slots and use the included softraid software you will be able to reach the announced speed of 2600Mbyte/sec speed but with fewer drives you will loose out on speed.

As long as you are aware of this individual limitation this is a great unit that gives you heaps of fast storage.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

OWC Express 4M2 4-Slot M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure Mfr P/N: TB3EX4M2SL OWC SKU: OWCTB3EX4M2SL Four easy-to-access M.2 NVMe SSD slots customizable for any workflow with up to 16TB of capacity and up to 2800MB/s performance 1 Year OWC Limited Warranty Ships: Same Day

Reviews (4)

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