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ThunderBay Flex 8 16TB SSD + 140TB HDD
Ships verified + pre-burned in 72 hours
OWC SKU: OWCTB3F81S156
Configure Your OWC Thunderbay Flex 8
- Storage Solution #1: 16TB OWC U2 SHUTTLE SSD change below
- Storage Solution #2: 140TB HDD RAID change below
- PCIe Expansion Slot
- 8 Port Dock
- OWC 5 Year Limited Warranty
- OWC SKU: OWCTB3F81S156
Visit the OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 page
OWC Special Offers Available
Tame your workflow with this highly configurable productivity platform for digital imaging, VFX, video production, and video editing professionals. With unrivaled FLEXibility, you can choose drive type(s), enjoy docking convenience, and expand your capabilities with PCIe cards.
FLEXible Storage
- Eight drive bays: use a mix of SATA/SAS1 and U.2/M.22 NVMe drives for for virtually limitless capacity and real world speeds up to 2600MB/s
- Future ready: top four bays can use U.2 SSDs…the emerging M&E industry storage standard
- Powerfully easy RAID: create, manage, and monitor advanced RAID sets with SoftRAID
Docking FLEXibility
- Do more: second Thunderbolt 3 port3 for daisy chaining devices or additional display(s)
- Connect more: (1) USB-C and (2) USB-A 10Gb/s ports for peripherals and mobile devices
- See more: DisplayPort 1.4 for connecting up to an 8K display4
- Fast media ingest: front-side SD 4.0 and CFexpress card readers with up to 985MB/s speed
FLEXpandable for Unique Needs
- Play your card: (1) PCIe slot for audio/video capture, networking, SSD storage, hardware RAID card, or I/O card
Flex Your Way Through Every Workflow
Whether you call it a workflow workhorse, a productivity platform, or a configurable command center, one description of the ThunderBay Flex 8 says it best. It is a groundbreaking workflow solution for digital imaging, VFX, video production, and video editing professionals from the world’s leading Thunderbolt accessory manufacturer.
ThunderBay Flex 8 offers eight drive bays that support a mix of SATA/SAS1 and U.2/M.22 NVMe drives for virtually limitless storage capacity. Next, there’s a plethora of ports including two Thunderbolt 33, one USB-C, and two USB-A for device docking and charging.
See your work in greater detail by adding up to an 8K display4 via a built-in DisplayPort 1.4 connection. Ingest hi-res images and video via front-side SD 4.0 and CFexpress card readers. And when you want to expand your desktop capabilities, there’s a PCIe slot waiting for your specific project needs.
ThunderBay Flex 8 is the one Thunderbolt 3 desktop device that rules them all. With an irresistible economy of scale, this consolidated solution is ideal for anyone waiting for the right moment to invest in Thunderbolt technology.
NVMe. PCIe. What’s It Mean to Me?
At the heart of the ThunderBay Flex 8 capabilities are two cutting-edge technology standards: NVMe and PCIe. Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) optimizes the performance of modern flash technology over the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) standard. It enables significantly faster SSD performance with a more direct and optimized path to a computer’s processor.
Tying both of these technologies together is the Thunderbolt 3 interface which uses the PCIe bus. This interface offers the fastest data transfers possible on a single cable between computers and peripherals like storage solutions, docks, and expansion devices while also supplying 85W of power to keep your laptop ready to go at a moment’s notice.
The Future Standard of Storage Available Today
Right out of the packaging, all eight bays can utilize SATA 6Gb/s 2.5-inch SSDs or 3.5-inch HDDs. To take advantage of 40Gb/s PCIe technology, the top four bays are NVMe U.2 SSD ready. These emerging super-fast SSDs enable ThunderBay Flex 8 to meet the future storage needs of content creators and video production pros.
Muscle-FLEXing Data Performance
Are you a video pro working with 4K/8K and even Phantom high-speed files? The ThunderBay Flex 8 offers a variety of drive configurations that deliver real-world read/write speeds of 2600MB/s that saturate the Thunderbolt 3 speed threshold. Try any of these options:
- A single U.2 NVMe SSD in Bay A
- Multiple U.2 SSDs installed in top four bays (A-D) in RAID 0
- Six or more SATA SSDs in any bays in RAID 0
- Swap out the built-in SATA drive controller card with a SATA/SAS hardware RAID card and configure 8 x SATA/SAS drives in hardware RAID 0
Done with the drives but need the docking connectivity?
Eject the ThunderBay Flex 8 drives and any external drives in a single click with the free OWC Dock Ejector app. It ensures all data has been written before any drive is unmounted to protect against data loss. It will even warn you from accidentally ejecting an in-use drive.
Docking FLEXibility
A virtual buffet of productivity-enhancing possibilities awaits you with the docking connections built into ThunderBay Flex 8. Power your notebook with up to 85W power delivery while capturing multi-stream hi-res footage at full frame rate. Connect audio and video mixers, digital camera, keyboards, and other peripherals and charge mobile devices via one USB-C and two USB-A 10Gb/s ports. Ingest and work with 4/8K RAW video and RAW photo files immediately at speeds up to 985MB/s with frontside SD 4.0 and CFexpress card readers. Add more viewing space with up to an 8K monitor via the DisplayPort 1.4 interface. And if all that’s not enough to satisfy your project needs, daisy-chain up to five additional Thunderbolt 3 devices!
FLEXpandable for Unique Needs
By removing the enclosure’s side panel, you can expand your capabilities by installing a half-length, full-height, single-width expansion card in the PCIe x16 connector/x4 lanes slot. 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.
Create a powerful file server with a high-speed networking card. By replacing the built-in SATA drive controller with a SATA or SAS RAID card, you can turn ThunderBay Flex 8 into a hardware RAID storage solution while keeping a PCIe slot open for other cards.
A FLEXtraordinary Platform
ThunderBay Flex 8 is a user-configurable platform that you can use to launch into projects with a new realm of time and money-saving results. To get you started, we suggest three sample configurations that make the most of the extraordinary highlights that have made OWC solutions the choice of performance enthusiasts and cinematographers around the world:
Sample Configurations
- FLEX Empty Enclosure: An empty enclosure that lets you add your choice of drives and PCIe cards. You can remove the SATA drive controller card to add a RAID or SAS drive controller card.
- FLEX Bottom Four: The bottom four bays populated with SATA drives and top four bays left empty for use with U.2 NVMe drives, M.2 NVMe drives with adapter, or SATA/SAS drives.
- FLEX Full: Achieve maximum capacity and performance with all the bays filled with SATA drives. One drive left as cold spare. The other seven preconfigured in RAID 0 or RAID 5 with SoftRAID.
The Most Powerful RAID Tool on the Planet.
SoftRAID is the world’s fastest and most flexible application to configure, maintain, and protect your RAID volumes on Mac and PC. OWC enclosures include 3 Years of SoftRAID Premium.
- High-Performance RAID 0/1/4/5/1+0 (10) volumes
- Predictive Health Monitoring proactively notifies of Volume and Disk issues well before failure — provided on your computer and remotely
- 35+ Years of Experience of Pro Support to provide peace-of-mind with setup help, ongoing questions, or urgent disk issues
- And many more unique features.
- Learn more about SoftRAID
SoftRAID works with macOS 10.14+, Windows 10+, and Windows Server 2019/2022. M1 Macs require macOS 11.3 or later. SoftRAID is licensed per computer.
A Protective, Economical Post-Production Solution
Sending a drive from set to post-production typically entails tedious and time-consuming drive enclosure disassembly to access the storage drive or costly shipping of the entire enclosure to the post lab. But ThunderBay Flex 8 offers yet another option.
By installing an OWC U.2 NVMe Interchange System carrier tray (sold separately) with a built-in U.2 connector into a ThunderBay Flex 8 drive tray, you can protect the U.2 SSD drive’s connector from repeated install/removal wear for improved drive longevity and investment. When done with your shoot, just ship the lightweight protective carrier and drive to the lab where the carrier can be installed into an OWC Helios 3S equipped with the OWC Interchange System. It’s a complete solution to safeguard your data while lowering shipping costs.
End-To-End Workflow Possibilities
FLEX On-Set
+ OWC Interchange System Carrier Tray with SSD
+ OWC ThunderBay Flex 8
Protects U.2 SSD drive connectors from install/ removal wear to improve drive longevity and extend your drive ROI.
Transit to Post
+ OWC Interchange System Carrier Tray with SSD
+ Small and economical. Ship only what you need.
Lightweight protective carrier safeguards data while lowering shipping costs vs shipping the entire enclosure.
Post-Production Lab
+ OWC Interchange System Carrier Tray with SSD
+ OWC Helios 3S (sold separately)
+ OWC Interchange System (sold separately)
Desktop U.2 NVMe SSD swappable storage for fast processing of footage.
OWC Thunderbolt Cable Included
OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 comes with a certified 0.7 meter OWC Thunderbolt cable, with other lengths from 0.5 meter to 2.0 meters available separately.
Innergize Your Workflow with Highest Performance and Reliability
OWC Innergize™ is the first stage of the Capture to Completion™ ecosystem of OWC products designed to seamlessly propel professional photographers, videographers, and content creators to the highest level of workflow performance and reliability. This OWC custom-designed app is a complete health, performance, and field upgrade management tool when using OWC Atlas memory cards with OWC Atlas readers and reader-equipped products.
- Health: Over time and use cycles, flash memory does wear out. Innergize verifies and reports the percentage of use life remaining. Now you can work with full confidence your OWC Atlas memory card will deliver the reliability you can trust.
- Sanitize: Writes, deletes, and formatting all take their toll on memory cards. Innergize cleans and restores the flash memory performance of your OWC Atlas memory card so you can get the best results on every use.
- Field Upgrade: When new cameras or firmware updates to existing cameras are introduced, they may not work properly with flash memory cards. Innergize gives OWC Atlas memory card users the ability to quickly upgrade their firmware in the field for full compatibility, additional performance enhancements, and bug fixes for optimal reliability.
Innergize is free to use with OWC Atlas memory cards, card readers, and card reader-equipped products. Download for OWC Innergize for Mac or OWC Innergize for Windows.
Includes
- (1) OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 External Storage Solution
- (1) 0.7M (28") Thunderbolt Cable
- (1) US Power Cable
- (2) Security Keys for Front Panel Lock
- (1) Hex Key
- (1) Quick Start Guide for OWC ThunderBay Flex 8
- (1) Quick Start Guide for OWC ThunderBay Flex 8
- (1) Assembly Manual & User Guide for OWC ThunderBay Flex 8
- (1) 3 Years of SoftRAID Premium Access (License located on device)
- (1) Quick Start Guide for OWC SoftRAID (Digital)
- 5 Year OWC Limited Warranty
Storage
- Drive Bays
- 4 bays supporting: 2.5-inch SATA drives, 3.5-inch SATA drives, 2.5-inch U.2 drives, M.2 drives (with M.2 to U.2 adapter), 2.5-inch SAS drives (with SAS drive controller card), 3.5-inch SAS drives (with SAS drive controller card)
- 4 bays supporting: 2.5-inch SATA drives, 3.5-inch SATA drives, 2.5-inch SAS drives (with SAS drive controller card), 3.5-inch SAS drives (with SAS drive controller card)
- Total Capacity
- 156TB
- Total Solution Cache Size
- 3584 MB
- Drive Mechanism
- (7) 20.0TB Toshiba MG10 Series 7,200RPM Enterprise Capacity Hard Disk Drive with 512 MB cache
- (1) 16.0TB OWC U2 Shuttle Four-Drive 3.5-inch NVMe U.2 Solid-State Drive
- *OWC reserves the right to replace or upgrade to equivalent or better components.
- Hot Swap Support
- Yes
- Hot Plug Support
- Yes
- Boot Support
- Dependent upon configuration. Independent Mac volumes should boot in most scenarios.. Boot Camp is not supported.
RAID
- RAID Capable
- Yes
- RAID Levels Supported
- RAID 0
- RAID 1
- RAID 0+1
- RAID 4
- RAID 5
- JBOD
- RAID Features
- Software RAID
Expansion
- Expansion Slots
- (1) PCIe 3.0 x16 physical, x4 electrical, full-height, half-length, single-width
Ports
- Device Ports
- (1) Host Port - Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) up to 40Gb/s (5000MB/s)
- (1) Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) Port
- (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Port up to 10Gb/s (1250MB/s) - USB 2.0/3.0 backwards compatible
- (2) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A Ports up to 10Gb/s (1250MB/s) - USB 2.0/3.0 backwards compatible
- (1) DisplayPort Port
- Memory Card Slots
- (1) CFexpress 2.0 Type B
- (1) SD
- Power Delivery
- Thunderbolt 3 host port provides up to 85W of power to the host computer.1
- Thunderbolt 3 device port (for external drives and other devices) provides 15W of power.
Display Support
- Display Support
- Up to one 8K display @ 60Hz,
- or one 4K display @ 120Hz,
- or one 5K display @ 60Hz,
- or one 4K display @ 60Hz and one 4K display @ 30Hz,
- or one 4K display @ 60Hz,
- or one 4K display @ 30Hz,
- or two 4K displays @ 60Hz
- Display Support by Port
- DisplayPort 1.4: Up to 8K @ 60Hz or 4K @ 120Hz
- Thunderbolt 3: Up to 5K @ 60Hz via a native Thunderbolt 3 display or 4K @ 60Hz via a Thunderbolt display or a USB-C display adapter
Performance
- Data Rate
- Thunderbolt 3: 40Gb/s (or 5000MB/s)
- Data Transfer Rate (Maximum)
- Thunderbolt 3 : Up to 40Gb/s (or 5000MB/s)
Chipset
- Chipset / Controller
- Thunderbolt: Intel JHL7440
- PCIe Switch: ASMedia ASM-2824
- USB Controller: Genesys Logic GL-3590
Reliability
- Contact Start Stops
- Varies depending on drive mechanism installed
Compatibility
- Host Interface Requirements
- Thunderbolt (USB-C) port (backward compatible with Thunderbolt 2/Thunderbolt1)
- Mac OS Compatibility
- macOS 10.15 Catalina
- macOS 11.x Big Sur
- macOS 12.x Monterey
- macOS 13.x Ventura
- macOS 14.x Sonoma
- macOS 15.x Sequoia
- OWC Innergize is currently supported on macOS version 12.x, macOS 13.7.2 and earlier, macOS 14.7.2 and earlier, and macOS 15.2.1 and earlier. We are aware of an issue in macOS 13.7.3, macOS 14.7.3, macOS 15.3.x, released 01/27/25 that makes OWC Innergize unable to be used with OWC Atlas USB4 and USB-C readers. The Thunderbolt interface equipped OWC Atlas FXR reader remains supported in macOS 15.3.x over USB. Apple has been informed of this issue and we are diligently pursuing a resolution.
- PC OS Compatibility
- Not compatible with Windows PCs
- Driver Required
- SoftRAID Only
- The SoftRAID driver is installed within the SoftRAID application.
- For PCIe cards that require a driver, please check the manufacturer web site. Drivers for PCIe cards must be Thunderbolt-aware to function.
- Supported PCIe Cards
- Supports one full-height, half-length, single-width card (driverless or with Thunderbolt-aware driver). GPUs not supported.
- Other Requirements
- macOS 10.15.1 or later required.
Power
- External Power Adapter
- No
- Power Supply
- Internal UL-listed universal auto-switching power supply
- AC Input
- 100-240V, 50-60Hz, 3.5A-7.0A
- DC Output
- +12V, 37A
- Wattage
- 450W
Physical
- Cooling
- (1) 120mm 1,600RPM cooling fan
- Security Slot
- Yes
- Power Button
- Yes
- Power/Activity LED
- Yes
- Housing Color
- Black
- Housing Material
- Aluminum
- Dimensions
- Height: 34.9 cm (13.7 in)
- Length: 39.0 cm (15.4 in)
- Width: 14.9 cm (5.9 in)
- Weight
- 14.7 kg (32.31 lbs)
Certifications
- Certifications
- BSMI
- CE
- FCC
- RCM
- VCCI
Environmental
- Ambient Temperature
- Operating: 50°F to 95°F (10°C to 35°C)
- Non-Operating: -40°F to 149°F (-40°C to 65°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)
- Humidity
- Operating: 8% to 90% non-condensing
- Non-Operating: 5% to 95% non-condensing
- Shock
- Operating: Varies depending on drive mechanism installed
- Non-Operating: Varies depending on drive mechanism installed
Acoustics
- Noise
- Varies depending on drive mechanism installed
Thunderbolt 2/Thunderbolt compatibility requires a certified Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 (mDP) adapter and a Thunderbolt 2 cable (not included). This configuration provides data transfer at up to 20Gb/s but does not support notebook charging.
SoftRAID works with macOS 10.14+, Windows 10+, and Windows Server 2019/2022. M1 Macs require macOS 11.3 or later.
SoftRAID is licensed per computer.
GPUs are not supported.
While we do not bundle or recommend specific RAID/SAS card setups at this time, we do provide an unofficial guide as a courtesy, to customers who wish to attempt this workflow.
Dual display support, including available resolution and refresh rates, is dependent on host hardware and drivers.
- Apple silicon M1/M2/M3 Pro, M1/M2/M3 Max, and M1/M2 Ultra Mac models, Apple Intel-based Mac models, and Thunderbolt 4 PCs can support up to two displays at up to 4K @ 60Hz via Thunderbolt.
- Apple silicon M1/M2/M3 Mac models can support one external display up to 4K @ 60Hz via Thunderbolt.
The following Apple silicon M1/M2/M3 Mac models support a single display over a Thunderbolt port:
- MacBook Pro (14-inch, M3, 2023)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) - MacBookPro17,1
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022) - Mac14,7
- MacBook Air (M1, 2020) - MacBookAir10,1
- MacBook Air (M2, 2022) - Mac14,2
- Mac mini (M1, 2020) - Macmini9,1
The following Mac models provide only partial support for DisplayPort 1.4, including limiting resolution to 5K or 6K at 60Hz. Please review Apple's display specifications for your specific Mac to determine the maximum supported resolution and color depth:
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018) - MacBookPro15,1
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) - MacBookPro15,2
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) - MacBookPro15,2
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019) - MacBookPro15,1 and MacBookPro15,3
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) - MacBookPro15,4
- MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) - MacBookPro16,1 and MacBookPro16,4
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) - MacBookPro16,2
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) - MacBookPro16,3
- MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018) - MacBookAir8,1
- MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019) - MacBookAir8,2
- MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020) - MacBookAir9,1
- iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019) - iMac19,1
- iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2019) - iMac19,2
- iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020) - iMac20,1 and iMac20,2
- Mac mini (2018) - Macmini8,1
- Mac Pro (2019) - MacPro7,1
- Mac Pro (Rack, 2019) - MacPro7,1
A firmware update is required to use OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 with OWC Innergize software. Please consult the "Innergize for PC: Firmware Update" or "Innergize for Mac: Firmware Update" guide for download and installation instructions.
OWC, Trusted by Pros & Enthusiasts the World Over
We build our hardware to the highest standards of reliability and performance. Because 100% reliability is always the goal, we rigorously quality test and back our hardware with up to a 5 Year OWC Limited Warranty and award-winning customer support.
Learn More- SAS drives are supported with SAS drive controller card (available separately).
- Up to four U.2 drives are supported. M.2 drives are also supported with M.2 to U.2 adapter (available separately).
- Apple Mac models with Thunderbolt 2/Thunderbolt ports can be connected using an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter (sold separately). This configuration provides data transfer at up to 20Gb/s but does not support notebook charging.
- Full DisplayPort 1.4 capabilities depends on host computer support of DisplayPort 1.4 specification through its Thunderbolt 3 connection, host computer GPU capabilities, and connecting cable capabilities.
- 5 Year OWC Limited Warranty for Enterprise Hard Drive and SSD solutions. 3 Year OWC Limited Warranty for enclosure only.
- The LED function of this product will be disabled and not function if used with a 4TB and/or 8TB OWC U2 Shuttle (OWCU2SHUTTLE04), (OWCU2SHUTTLE08).
FlexPreparation
Every custom-built OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 runs through a rigorous diagnostic and setup process. This multi-hour setup includes drive verification, pre-burn conditioning, and more to ensure your Flex 8 arrives in optimum condition and ready to serve.
FlexSupport + Notes
What’s not to love about the custom-built, pre-tuned, and optimized OWC ThunderBay Flex 8? If you have any questions or issues, our friendly customer support team is here to help.