This utility provides better performance, better system monitoring, and better configuration controls over the RAID. However, I recommend you spend the additional dollars (between $120 – $150, depending upon configuration) and purchase SoftRAID, the RAID controller OWC recommends for the system. The software is already installed on your system and it works well. For Windows, they suggest either Disk Management or Storage Spaces. OWC also offers the ability configure the system using your own software RAID controller. And picking the amount of storage you need is fairly simple - buy as much as you can afford. The system offers five levels of storage: 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 TB as well as a bare bones box where you can add your own drives. (Prices range from $499.99 empty to $1,849.99 for 20 TB of storage.) MSRP: $1129.99 (as tested with SoftRAID and 12 TB of storage) My recommendation is to spend the extra money and get the configuration with SoftRAID. The system ships in two basic configurations: one without a software RAID controller and one with. Plus, the ability to use RAID 5 to protect your data makes this a superior choice to any RAID 0 system. The OWC ThunderBay 4 delivers solid performance from a 4-drive RAID 5 system at a very reasonable price. For this reason, getting high-performance, high-capacity storage for any media work is essential. Additionally, the performance of your editing system is far more dependent upon your storage than the speed of your computer. (As a note, the four drives I used for testing were spinning media, not SSD.)Īs sexy as computers are, media creators will spend far more money for storage than they will ever spend on a computer. OWC gave me the opportunity to test a finished unit a few days before the release and here are my thoughts. And whether it is with a ThunderBay IV or ThunderBay 4, SoftRAID 5’s drive health monitoring and email notification are also huge benefits, no matter what machine is connected.” “Consistent, high throughput and amazing flexibility is the status quo, regardless. And you also get a benefit on 20Gb/s systems in terms of how the bandwidth is shared on a Thunderbolt chain with multiple 20Gb/s devices. “You won’t see a real peak performance difference via 10Gb/s or 20Gb/s Thunderbolt, unless you RAID across two units. It’s truly the tip of the iceberg for what these solutions offer and are capable of, and going this route offers an extremely competitive price point with advanced RAID monitoring features + up to 35% higher performance compared to other comparable RAID 5 HW solutions that typically cost twice as much. While the ThunderBay 4 offers exceptional performance and configuration flexibility as a JBOD solution, we wanted to address those with needs of high performance and redundancy in a plug-and-play solution, something our SoftRAID 5-enabled ThunderBays now provide. “Customers have been requesting RAID 5 support with our ThunderBay since we first began shipping it. I asked Larry O’Conner, the president of OWC, why they created this system: Using four SATA drives supplying up to 24 TB of combined storage, this system joins the ranks of actual shipping product. Now, OWC has released the ThunderBay 4 a high-performance, 4-drive, Thunderbolt 2 RAID. NOTE: Part of what makes Thunderbolt 2 so challenging to many storage developers is that the spec includes both storage protocols, which they are used to, and monitor display protocols, which require a significant amount of technical expertise well outside normal storage systems. This was partially due to hardware manufacturers retooling their Thunderbolt 1 devices after Thunderbolt 2 was announced and the rigorous testing necessary to certify Thunderbolt 2 devices. Still, getting actual products shipping seemed to take forever. Promise Technology was first to ship, with many new announcements made by a variety of manufacturers at the 2014 NAB Show. However, as you’ll learn, actual speeds are based on more than just the protocol connecting the storage to the computer. NOTE: The big benefit to Thunderbolt 2 is that it has twice the potential speed of Thunderbolt 1. Since, then, while RAID 0 configurations of Thunderbolt 1 were reasonably plentiful, finding a Thunderbolt 2 RAID 5 system took some looking. Apple started shipping Thunderbolt 2 MacBook Pro computers in October, 2013. Thunderbolt 2 was announced by Intel in June, 2013.
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