Description

OWC

ThunderBay Flex 8
0TB Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure

The Industry's First Thunderbolt 3 All-In-Wonder

FLEXible 8-Bay Storage + 8-Port Connectivity + PCIe Expansion

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 2750MB/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

FLEXible Storage

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’s a groundbreaking 3-in-1 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/SAS and U.2/M.2 NVMe drives for virtually limitless storage capacity. Next, there’s a plethora of ports including (2) Thunderbolt 3, (1) USB-C, and (2) USB-A for device docking and charging.

See your work in greater detail by adding up to an 8K display 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 charging power.

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.

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.

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 2750MB/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 even 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:

Plug and play with no drivers needed and includes Thunderbolt 3 cable
Free lifetime US-based support
Worry-free ownership with up to 5 Year OWC Limited Warranty

Sample Configurations

FLEX Empty– 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 Open – 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 - All bays filled with SATA drives, one bay left as cold spare, the other seven preconfigured in RAID 0 or RAID 5 with SoftRAID

Includes Softraid: Easy and Complete Drive Management

Now you can quickly access and robustly protect your data with SoftRAID for Mac and Windows. SoftRAID 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.

Notes

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.

Specifications

Product Specifications:

OWC Part Number

TB3FX8T000

Mac OS Compatibility

macOS 10.14 Mojave
macOS 10.15 Catalina

Windows Compatibility

Limited support on compatible Windows systems. This device is not Thunderbolt certified for Windows. A Thunderbolt device may not function properly or at all if used with an operating system for which the device has not been certified.

Host Port Requirements

Thunderbolt 3

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.

Number of Bays

Drive Mechanisms Supported

3.5 inch SATA drives
2.5 inch SATA drives
2.5 inch U.2 drives (top 4 bays only)

Hot Swap Support

RAID Levels Supported

RAID 0
RAID 1
RAID 0+1
RAID 4
RAID 5
JBOD

Bootable

Dependent upon configuration. Independent Mac volumes should boot in most scenarios.

Chipset

Thunderbolt: Intel JHL7440
PCIe Switch: ASMedia ASM-2824
USB Controller: Genesys Logic GL-3590

Ports

(2) Thunderbolt 3 Ports
(1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Port
(2) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A Ports
(1) DisplayPort Port

Memory Card Slots

(1) Secure Digital (SD)
(1) CFexpress Slot

Hot Swap Support

Data Transfer Rate (Max)

Thunderbolt 3 : 40 Gb/s (or 5000 MB/s)

Display Support

Supports 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
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

PCIe Cards Supported

Supports one full-height, half-length, single-width card (driverless or with Thunderbolt-aware driver).
GPUs not supported.

Housing Color

Black

Certifications

CE
FCC
VCCI
RCM
BSMI

Cooling

(1) 120mm cooling fan

Security Slot

Power Button

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)

Varies depending on drive mechanism installed

Contact Start Stops

Varies depending on drive mechanism installed

Power Supply

Internal UL-listed universal auto-switching power supply

AC Input

100-240V, 47-63Hz, 4.0A-8.0A

DC Output

+12V, 42A

Wattage

504 Watts

Power Delivery

(2) Thunderbolt 3 Ports (15W, 85W)

Environment

Environmental (Operating)
- Temperature (°F) 50° — 95° (°C) 10° — 35°
- Altitude -304.8 m to 3,048.0 m (-1,000 ft to 10,000 ft)
- Humidity 8% to 90% non-condensing
Environmental (Non-Operating)
- Temperature (°F) −40° — 149° (°C) −40° — 65°
- Altitude -304.8 m to 12,192.0 m (-1,000 ft to 40,000 ft)
- Humidity 5% to 95% non-condensing

Dimensions

Height: 34.9 cm (13.7 in)
Width: 14.9 cm (5.9 in)
Length: 39.0 cm (15.4 in)

Weight

9.2 kg (20.26 lbs)

Acoustics

Varies depending on drive mechanism installed

Notes

GPUs are not supported.

Manufacturer provided specifications for Other World Computing p/n TB3FX8T000 UPC#: 810586035071

Compatibility

Note: Limited support on compatible Windows systems. This device is not Thunderbolt certified for Windows. A Thunderbolt device may not function properly or at all if used with an operating system for which the device has not been certified.

This product is compatible with... Learn how to find your Mac's model ID

Mac Pro Rack (Early 2020)

(January 2020)

Model ID: MacPro7,1

3.5GHz 8-Core

Description

OWC

ThunderBay Flex 8 0TB Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure

Notes

Specifications

Product Specifications:

OWC Part Number

Mac OS Compatibility

Windows Compatibility

Host Port Requirements

Driver Required

Number of Bays

Drive Mechanisms Supported

Hot Swap Support

RAID Levels Supported

Bootable

Chipset

Ports

Memory Card Slots

Hot Swap Support

Data Transfer Rate (Max)

Display Support

PCIe Cards Supported

Housing Color

Certifications

Cooling

Security Slot

Power Button

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)

Contact Start Stops

Power Supply

AC Input

DC Output

Wattage

Power Delivery

Environment

Dimensions

Weight

Acoustics

Notes

Compatibility

Includes

ThunderBay Flex 8
0TB Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure