OWC ThunderBay IV
RAID 5 Edition
12.0TB 4-bay external drive
Dual Thunderbolt | RAID 5 | 4 Drive Bays | Mac
Performance + Redundancy
Experience the first and only software RAID 5 technology developed for the Mac with the ThunderBay IV RAID 5 Edition. Empower your workflow with up to 35% faster RAID 5 performance and exponentially faster rebuild times than comparable hardware based RAID arrays.
- Up to 675MB/s read and 618MB/s write RAID 5 performance.
- Up to 895MB/s read and 862MB/s write RAID 0 performance.
- Exponentially faster rebuild times than hardware RAID.
Activate advanced features, such as drive monitoring, e-mail notifications, and more when you install the included SoftRAID for OS X.
Conventional wisdom turned on its head.
Hardware RAID has long been thought to be superior to software RAID, but we've now combined the massive performance and capacity of ThunderBay IV with a robust, proven software RAID engine to provide breathtaking performance, flexibility, and reliability.
Software RAID + ThunderBay = WHOA!
Over a year ago, OWC partnered with SoftRAID to bring enhanced storage capabilities to the Mac, and we're now seeing that dream become a reality. SoftRAID combines advanced RAID modes, fast performance, monitoring, e-mail notification, and fast rebuild capabilities that only software RAID can deliver.
Monitoring + Notifications
Software RAID easily lets you setup drive monitoring and e-mail notifications to keep you informed about your ThunderBay's performance and drive health. Helping you to maintain mission critical workflows.
Better than Hardware RAID Performance
ThunderBay IV with SoftRAID offers faster performance than many competing 4 or even 5-bay hardware RAID external drives – benefiting from modern processors that are both fast and designed for exceptionally high-performance RAID management with no real-world impact on apps or tasks.
Flexible + Robust
SoftRAID is extremely flexible and can easily be updated, reconfigured and used across multiple enclosures to provide an amazing amount of robust options to empower you to make the most of your ThunderBay workflow.
Backed by OWC
Should you ever have a question or troubleshooting need, you can rely on OWC's award-winning U.S. based support for both the ThunderBay IV drive and SoftRAID software.
Empower your workflow with RAID 5 performance and up to 20TB capacity.
Edit, view, stream, and produce more with ThunderBay in your 2K, 4K, and audio production workflow.
The RAID 5 Advantage
RAID 5 merges the four drives inside ThunderBay together for exponential performance gains over a single drive, the combined capacity of three of the drives, and data redundancy that allows the array to still work even if one drive were to fail!
Edit, Experiment, Create, Design
With ThunderBay's performance capabilities you can complete projects faster, have more time to experiment, and push your creations to the next level.
Enhance editing capabilities in video apps like Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, and Avid Media Composer. Empower greater audio production capabilities in audio apps like Avid Pro Tools and Logic Pro X. Edit large photos in apps like Adobe Photoshop, and browse large photo libraries in apps like Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom. Simply put, you can do more with a ThunderBay IV enhanced workflow, and with a RAID 5 array you get data redundancy on top of great performance!
4 drive bays plus so much more.
Time-Tested Cooling
Built on OWC's time-tested enclosure cooling technology, ThunderBay utilizes an open "flow-thru" vented design with an oversized 92 mm, low-turbulence, noise-quieting fan to keep the drives running cool and reliably.
Multi-Drive
Daisy-chain up to six ThunderBays for massive storage capabilities and increased performance, or connect multiple ThunderBays to multiple Thunderbolt ports to achieve exponential speed capabilities.
Vibration Dampened
ThunderBay's drive isolating design reduces sonic resonance, and is aided by over-sized, rugged, vibration-absorbing, non-skid feet.
DisplayPort 1.2 Support
Dual Thunderbolt ports let you connect the display of your choice that your computer can support, including 4K displays.
OWC Thunderbolt Cable
ThunderBay comes with an OWC one-meter certified Thunderbolt cable, with other lengths from 0.5 meter to 30 meters available separately.
Includes
- OWC ThunderBay IV High-performance 4-bay Thunderbolt drive
- SoftRAID 5
- High-Quality, Certified, Double-Shielded 1 Meter Thunderbolt cable
- External UL listed 3 prong power cable
- 2 keys for front panel lock
- User guide
- Utility software bundle for Mac
- OWC 3 Year Solution Warranty with 48-Hour Turnaround Time
- Complimentary 1 Year Level 1 Data Recovery
Product Specifications
Chipset
Interfaces Supported
JBOD / RAID Support
- JBOD: Utilize each of the four drives independently
- RAID: Use the included software RAID or one of your choice to setup the ThunderBay IV for multi-drive performance or data redundancy.
Standard Mechanism
- **
-
*1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending upon operating environment (typically 5-10% less).
The actual total capacity will depend on your own defined file settings/preferences.
**OWC reserves the right to replace or upgrade to equivalent or better components.
Drive Rotation Speed
Drive Cache Size
- 32MB per drive, 128MB total for the solution
Port Configuration
- Thunderbolt – (2) Thunderbolt ports
Format
- Comes pre-formatted for SoftRAID and configured as a RAID 5 volume.*
- *If utilizing on a Mac with OS X 10.8.5 or earlier, the SoftRAID software must be installed prior.
Max Data Transfer Rate
Port/Interface Bootability
- It can be used as an external startup drive using Thunderbolt port.
System Requirements
- Works with any Mac that supports a Thunderbolt drive.
Software Included
Power Supply
- Internal UL Listed U.S./International Auto Switching 100 ~ 240v, 50/60Hz input, 12 Volt 16.66 Amp output Power Supply (power cords for International use sold separately).
External Case Dimensions
- 9.65″(D) x 5.31″(W) x 6.96″(H)
- 245.11mm x 134.87mm x 176.78mm
Enclosure Weight (no accessories)
- Approximately 8.6 pounds (3.9kg)
Product Manual
Operating Environment:
Temperature
- (operating) 5°C – 42°C (41°F – 107°F)
- (non-operating) -40°C – 65°C (-40°F – 149°F)
Relative Humidity
- (operating) 8% – 90% RH (Non-condensing)
- (non-operating) 5% – 95% RH (Non-condensing)
Shock
- 65G 2mS; (non-operating) 175G 2mS
Vibration
- (operating) 1.0G (5 – 300Hz)
- (non-operating) 5.0G (5 – 500Hz)
Support
Includes OWC's award-winning U.S. based support for both the ThunderBay IV drive and SoftRAID software.
Warranty
3 Year OWC Solution Limited Warranty
The best warranty is one you never have to use, but should the need occur – OWC is proud to provide a superior level of support and
warranty coverage to our customers. Even when not used, we understand the peace of mind afforded by a longer warranty period. OWC's industry
leading coverage is a testament to our confidence in the reliability of the solutions that we offer. OWC solutions are engineered to demanding
quality standards in order to deliver the most reliable, highest performance available on the market in each storage category.
View more information about the 3 Year OWC Solution Limited Warranty
Note: Do not disassemble or otherwise open your OWC solution prior to the conclusion of the 3 Year OWC Solution Limited Warranty period. Doing so will void the
remainder of the OWC warranty.
Manufacturer provided specifications for Other World Computing p/n TBSRT12.0S UPC#: 812437020380
Software
SoftRAID 5 for ThunderBay
OWC has partnered with SoftRAID to bring software RAID 5 to the Mac. SoftRAID combines advanced RAID modes,
fast performance, monitoring, e-mail notification, and fast rebuild capabilities that only software RAID can
deliver. ThunderBay 4 models with drives come preconfigured in RAID 5, and are plug and play ready with OS X 10.9 or later.
Advanced features such as drive notification and monitoring require SoftRAID installation.
Benchmarks
Click any of the benchmarks below to view the results.
RAID 5 (Stripe with Parity) Test Results
Customer Ratings
Write a Review
4.7 / 5
60 out of 63 (95%) reviewers would recommend this product
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: TrinityProductions
Location: Tracy, CA
Age: 55-65
Experience Level: IT Professional
Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5
OMG ! Faaaasssttt !
October 24, 2018
This thing even though only Thunderbot 2 I can edit and render video in final cut X as fast as my SSD (almost) but I was blown away by how fluid the video is bringing it on on a TB2 connection. The drive sits right behind my computer as is quiet no issues there at all. software to set up was a breeze. Makes me wish I had TB3 ! I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 32TB OWC ThunderBay 4, four-drive HDD with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: tonyL
Location: AZ
Age: Over 65
Experience Level: Home User
Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 4/5
Nice unit Pricey
December 15, 2017
Ordered with out drives. Easy to set up, loaded four 5tb drives in raid5 working great for the last 3 weeks of heavy use. Will add a second one but will wait for a sale. I think the fan could be quitter I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC ThunderBay 4, four-bay drive enclosure with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Chasman
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Age: 55-65
Experience Level: IT Professional
Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5
Powerful & deceptively easy to setup
November 27, 2017
Need storage? This is the unit for your Mac. You know GOOD & WELL you are not using your Thunderbolt ports to their full advantage. [Yes, I'm talking to you!] Securely packaged, the setup was quick and simple. Connected to the iMac popped in drives (I'm using 4 6Tb Seagate drives) and read the SoftRaid number off of the unit, installed and let it do its thing. You basically have 18TB of storage and a hot spare to work with (in user language, not techspeak) It is fast, comprehensive and quiet. I operate this unit in my bedroom and I can't hear it at night. A heavy durable metal unit that looks and feels like it will last you for more than the life of your computer. Next upgrade will be to 12Tb units to triple my storage. I had a mini-cluster of WD drives I had been storing data on that I moved to this unit after one flaked on me. Now I have open USB ports and my data is much more secure. And best of all, the price of the software was included in the drive, saving my $172 on getting it separately. Nicely done, MacSales. Nicely Done. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC ThunderBay 4, four-bay drive enclosure with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: RAR35
Rating: 4/5
Product working great, but...
October 31, 2017
Getting there was a little difficult. I purchased this (along with one HDD) to set up immediately as a JBOD, (using 3 existing HDD's), with the idea that I would put it into service down the line as a RAID. Plans changed, I needed a RAID right away, and I ordered three more 4TB HDD's from MacSales. I used Softraid to set up the RAID, but 3 of the (all new) failed to certification. I sent an email to OWD support to figure out what to do. After nearly a week of no response, I sent another email complaining, and I finally got a response, although by then I had tried again on the certification and all drives passed. Now I'm noticing that my trial on Softraid is running out. It seems like if you buy a RAID, that management software shouldn't cost an extra $150.00. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC ThunderBay 4, four-bay drive enclosure with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Response from MacSales.com, Call Center
November 9, 2017
Hello! With the RAID 5 Solution ThunderBay, SoftRAID for ThunderBay is included with the purchase price. The serial number for activation should be listed on the underside of the ThunderBay itself. If you do need assistance locating or activating SoftRAID, please contact us at 1-800-275-4576 and we will be happy to help!
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Idontwantanickname
Location: WA
Age: 45-54
Experience Level: Home User
Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5
Exactly what I needed
October 25, 2017
My old pair of 2TB drives in a RAID1 setup was full but I wanted to get something faster. SSDs would have been prohibitively expensive for the volume I wanted and this drive was/is an excellent compromise. In use it feels at least 2-3 times quicker than my old RAID1 pair, which is plenty good enough for my home uses. Setup was very simple and completed within minutes. The thing that took me the longest was locating the sticker with the key for the Soft Raid software (on the bottom of the drive case - duh!). Only other thing to mention is that for my 2017 iMac I needed to get a Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 converter - $50 from Apple. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 8TB OWC ThunderBay 4, four-drive HDD with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: DesertNomad
Rating: 5/5
Very impressed. Feels like a solid product.
May 8, 2017
I am a software developer working with video. I have two older 8TB (4TBx2) Guardian Maximus drives which are on a FW800 connection. I also have another Guardian Maximum that is 4TB (2TBx2). I replaced the 4TB drive with a ThunderBay 16TB.
It came with the drives already installed (unlike some earlier reports here). It was setup as a RAID 5 but I was easily able to reformat it as a RAID 10 (1+0). It is super fast and the SoftRAID software is very easy to use and work with.
I will likely end up buying another one of these as my storage systems are modernized.
I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 16TB OWC ThunderBay 4, four-drive HDD with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Wedge
Age: 45-54
Experience Level: Home User
Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 4/5
Nice to have a lot of storage for everything
March 27, 2017
I used to have 11TB of internal storage in my old Mac Pro. Since Apple doesn't like to support that kind of thing anymore I felt this Thunderbay 4 was my best option. Has great features for protecting data and is relatively fast. My only reason for not giving it 5 stars is that the fans are a bit louder than I expected. So this ThunderBay makes more fan noise than my 2008 Mac Pro. I am very happy with the product. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 12TB OWC ThunderBay 4, four-drive HDD with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: RicM
Location: Providence, RI
Age: 55-65
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 4/5
Big, Powerful, and Fast
February 5, 2017
Easy to setup with SoftRaid, and although I was reluctant at first to use a software RAID instead of a hardware controller, so far this device has functioned very well. I am using it for the edit of a feature film (8.5 TB of data) as a (12TB) RAID 0 for speed, backing it up nightly to a slower 9TB OWC RAID5 over USB3 for security using the included Data Backup 3, also a very good product. I like the internal power supply (no wall wart). It would have been nice to have at least one alternative bus connection, like a USB3. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 12TB OWC ThunderBay 4, four-drive HDD with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: EE1979
Location: Brookline, MA
Age: 55-65
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5
Simple and reliable
January 2, 2017
I've owned this drive for 1 1/2 years, populated with 4 x 4TB. Upon receiving the enclosure, I installed my 4 drives, installed Soft Raid, configured RAID 5, and haven't thought about it since (other than a Soft Raid update). Thunderbolt performance is very good, as expected. In my opinion, this is how storage should work; set it up and forget it, until the RAID systems starts complaining about a drive. It's so nice when things just work. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC ThunderBay 4, four-bay drive enclosure with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: ranchero
Location: California
Age: 45-54
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5
Great Value!
November 27, 2016
Professional Level equipment. Easy installation of drives, simple connections of cables, and great performance with no special software. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) OWC ThunderBay 4, four-bay drive enclosure with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: SuperBeard
Location: Southwest Florida
Age: 45-54
Experience Level: IT Professional
Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 4/5
For the Price, You Can't Go Far Wrong
November 18, 2016
This unit could not have been easier to setup and to use.
It is truly a plug and play unit, if you want a RAID 5 setup.
However I wanted to use the RAID 1+0 configuration. It came all setup as a RAID 5. There was a bit of setup to download the software and reconfigure the RAID.
So far it have been quiet and reliable.
I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 8TB OWC ThunderBay 4, four-drive HDD with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: daver
Location: Plano, Texas
Age: Over 65
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: less than a month
Rating: 5/5
Just about perfect
November 17, 2016
I set this up as a 12TB RAID 5 system connected to my OWC Thunderbolt 2 Dock. This allows me to put two 24" monitors on my MacBook Pro. Extremely quiet and super fast using the supplied SoftRaid software. An excellent solution for using my MBP as a desktop but with the ability to pull out two Thunderbolt cables and the power cable and be on my way. I love this thing. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC ThunderBay 4, four-bay drive enclosure with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Apple4Work
Location: Austin TX
Age: 55-65
Experience Level: IT Professional
Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5
Lightning fast, trivial set-up
October 27, 2016
This thing totally flies with its Thunderbolt 2 connection. Unit is shipped preconfigured for RAID-5, but of course to actually use it the SoftRaid driver has to be installed onto the connected host Mac. Software installation was effortless, with the minor exception of having to install an update that was released by SoftRaid subsequent to OWC's preloading of the bundled installer onto the volume prior to shipment. Using the SoftRaid driver to work with the 4 drives as a single RAID-5 volume seems to add very little CPU overhead. I love this thing. I hate being locked into a particular vendor's chassis to support the RAID-5 as would be the case with any hardware RAID. But I do like this chassis, since it is ruggedly built and doesn't need an unwieldy external power brick. Fault tolerance would be even more awesome if I used this together with a second chassis with the same drive configuration so that I could configure it as a RAID-10 volume. Then if a drive failed (or even if multiple drives failed -- as long as the failures aren't on the "wrong" drives), or an entire chassis failed, my data would still be protected. Unfortunately, I can't afford another chassis yet. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 20TB OWC ThunderBay 4, four-drive HDD with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: TimFrazier69
Location: Nashville, NC
Age: 45-54
Experience Level: IT Professional
Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5
Best price for a super fast drive.
October 24, 2016
I have been using this item for the past few months now and it has worked flawlessly and been super fast with RAID 5 configuration. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 20TB OWC ThunderBay 4, four-drive HDD with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: CurtD
Location: Washington, Missouri
Age: 55-65
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5
Even Better
September 29, 2016
Even better than this enclosure, is this enclosure pre-loaded with drives! Even better than that is the RAID 5 performance. I now have two of these attached to my late 2013 Mac Pro (trash can mac), via Lightning cable. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 20TB OWC ThunderBay 4, four-drive HDD with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Damian
Rating: 5/5
Excellent piece of hardware! Fast!
August 11, 2016
I've had this for about a month now and it is super fast and an excellently made piece of hardware. In RAID5 config it is almost as fast as my internal SSD drive. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 16TB OWC ThunderBay 4, four-drive HDD with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Customer Videos:
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Anonymous
Location: Ontario NY
Age: 55-65
Experience Level: IT Professional
Owned Product: 5-6 months
Rating: 5/5
Fast and reliable
August 1, 2016
It was time to retire my Windows Home Sever and build a proper MAC home server. I purchased a well equipped Mac mini and a 20TB raid thunderbolt unit for storage. Great combination, installation was very simple, reliability and speed have been great. Recommend A+++ I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 20TB OWC ThunderBay 4, four-drive HDD with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Anonymous
Location: Wisconsin
Age: 55-65
Experience Level: Home User
Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5
Looking for RAID 5 solution? Look no further
July 31, 2016
I've been using this 4 bay raid enclosure for about 6 weeks now. I bought the enclosure without drives as I already had four 2TB Hitachi hard drives. Installation was quick and easy. Being it was the RAID 5 Solution, it came with SoftRAID software which is very easy to use. If you are looking for a RAID 5 solution look no furture as this is inexpensive and works splendidly. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) OWC ThunderBay 4, four-bay drive enclosure with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Reviewer: Anonymous
Location: Los Angeles
Age: 35-44
Experience Level: IT Professional
Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5
Great Solution
July 10, 2016
So far, this has been the best solution to my data storage needs. I bought this unit, then found 4 5TB Drives on sale...and now have an awesome 15TB Raid 5 External Drive for about half the cost of buying a similar unit pre-configured. The RAID5 configuration slows the read and write times down a bit...but it's fast enough for my needs. In fact, I've already filled it up and need to get another one soon. :-) I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC ThunderBay 4, four-bay drive enclosure with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Anonymous
Location: Evanston, IL
Age: 35-44
Experience Level: Home User
Owned Product: 1-3 months
Rating: 5/5
Great Storage Solution
May 26, 2016
After 2 months the ThunderBay 4 works flawlessly. It has a beautiful design and contrary to other reviews I do not find it to be to loud. I purchased the enclosure and then added 4 5TB WD Black drives. Could not me happier I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC ThunderBay 4, four-bay drive enclosure with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Verified Buyer
Reviewer: Anonymous
Location: New Jersey/Philadelphia
Age: 45-54
Experience Level: Power User
Owned Product: over 6 months
Rating: 5/5
Working Great!
May 1, 2016
As a Photo and Video Professional, this is my second ThunderBay 4. I use it for storage and have had zero problems and support when I had questions was great also. I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC ThunderBay 4, four-bay drive enclosure with dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, RAID 5 Solution.
Time-Tested Cooling
Multi-Drive
Vibration Dampened
DisplayPort 1.2 Support
OWC Thunderbolt Cable
"The performance is outstanding ... speeds are exceptional ... the Thunderbay itself is an efficient unit that does not get in the way of performance."
— Lloyd Chambers, DigLloyd - Mac Performance Guide
"With four bays and configurations in 4TB to 16TB capacities, this should give any prosumer the amount of storage they need with ample performance to get the job done."
— Tyler Bernath, TweakTown
"OWC's ThunderBay IV delivers impressive performance at a much lower price point than much of the competition ... a great choice for professionals who want large storage capacities without having to forfeit speed."
— Albert Filice, Macworld
" ... a perfect companion for the serious video editor ... quite the workhorse for me as it churns through editorial without missing a beat ..."
— Scott Simmons, Pro Video Coalition
"It's affordable, fast, reliable, and gives any modern Mac access to fast, huge storage ... recommended for video editors"
— Iain Anderson, macProVideo
