OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 Thunderbolt 3 32TB
OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 Thunderbolt 3 32TB
OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 Thunderbolt 3 32TB
OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 Thunderbolt 3 32TB
OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 Thunderbolt 3 32TB
OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 Thunderbolt 3 32TB

OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 Thunderbolt 3 32TB

Regular price$2,779.00
/
Free Shipping & Tech Support.
Videoguys Part # (SKU): OWCTB3F80D032
MFR Part # (MPN): OWCTB3F80D032

Short Description:
  • Free Shipping & Tech Support

32TB HDD RAID (8 x 4TB)

8 HDD W/ RAID OPTIONS - MAXIMUM CAPACITY CONFIGURATION

Ideal for taming the voracious drive space appetite of RAW, 4K, large format, and VR workflows. Arrives pre-set with RAID 5 speed and protection. Plus, select a recommended PCIe card or add your own.

  • Storage Solution #1: 32TB HDD RAID
  • RAID Management: OWC SoftRAID 
  • PCIe Expansion Slot
  • 8 Port Dock

8 ENTERPRISE-CLASS HARD DRIVES
Edit and store entire projects on this ultra-capacity HDD RAID array that arrives pre-certified in RAID 5 for the best balance of data integrity and performance. Or, setup the RAID of your choice with flexible user configurable RAID 0, 1, 4, 5, 1+0 (10) options.

OWC SoftRAID
Experience easy-to-use RAID flexiblity, access to new drive technologies such as M.2/U.2 NVMe solid-state drives, and upgrade your system in the future with ease. OWC SoftRAID offers cost-effective uncompromised performance with unparalleled flexiblity. Works interchangeably on your Mac and Windows PC.

Add Hardware RAID
For specialized needs such as using SAS drives or data encryption for security reasons.

8 HDD Maximum Capacity Configuration
Ideal for taming the voracious drive space appetite of RAW, 4K, large format, and VR workflows. Arrives pre-set with RAID 5 speed and protection. Plus, enjoy docking convenience and expand your capabilities by selecting a recommended PCIe card or add your own.

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.

Muscle-FLEXing Data Performance
Right out of the packaging, all eight bays are configured with SATA 6Gb/s 3.5-inch HDDs. With real-world read/write speeds of 2750MB/s that saturates the Thunderbolt 3 speed threshold, you’re ready to handle 4K/8K and even Phantom high-speed files.

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.

SoftRAID: RAID Made Easy
Harness the full capability of your OWC drive array with the included SoftRAID XT, the most powerful, intuitive RAID management software on the market for macOS and Windows. SoftRAID’s RAID creation and management technology has been finely tuned to perfection with over 20 years of development to provide rock solid protection of your data and optimize drive performance.

SoftRAID XT provides an unbeatable combination of speed, protection, and compatibility:

  • Advanced: Create RAID 0/1/4/5/1+0 (10) arrays
  • Protected: SoftRAID Monitor constantly watches your disks and alerts you if problems are detected
  • Validated: Volume validation ensures sectors can be read and parity is correct
  • Certified: Checks disks before use to ensure they are safe for data storage
  • Vigilant: Error prediction helps protect against unexpected failure
    Universal: Move SoftRAID arrays seamlessly between Mac and PC2 with built-in OWC MacDrive technology

Beyond Hardware RAID
SoftRAID provides a level of storage performance that you simply can’t get with hardware RAID. SoftRAID gives you increased power and control over your RAID drives and disks that hardware RAID can’t deliver and doesn’t lock you into technology that you can’t upgrade or expand.

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.

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.

Storage
Number of Bays
8
Total Capacity
32TB
Total Solution Cache Size
2048 MB
Standard Mechanism
(8) 4.0TB Toshiba MD08ADA Series 7,200RPM Hard Disk Drive with 256 MB cache
*OWC reserves the right to replace or upgrade to equivalent or better components.
Mechanisms Supported
3.5 inch SATA drives
2.5 inch SATA drives
2.5 inch U.2 drives (top 4 bays only)
NVMe M.2 drives (via U.2 adapter)
2.5 inch SAS drives (requires SAS card, not included)
3.5 inch SAS drives (requires SAS card, not included)
Hot Swap Support
Yes
Hot Plug Support
Yes
Boot Support
Dependent upon configuration. Independent Mac volumes should boot in most scenarios.
Drive Interface
SATA 6.0 Gb/s

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
Memory Card Slots
(1) CFexpress Type B
(1) SD
Power Delivery
(2) Thunderbolt 3 Ports (15W, 85W)
Device Ports
(1) Host Port - Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) up to 40 Gb/s (5000 MB/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

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 40 Gb/s (or 5000 MB/s)

Chipset
Chipset
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 Port 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
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
14.8 kg (32.61 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

  • (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) OWC SoftRAID XT Software Bundle
  • (1) Quick Start Guide for OWC SoftRAID XT
  • (1) Manual & User Guide for OWC SoftRAID XT


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