OWC ThunderBay 4 4-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID 5 Enclosure

8 reviews for OWC ThunderBay 4 4-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID 5 Enclosure

1. Rated 5 out of 5

   Doris Kertzmann (verified owner) – December 28, 2022

   I’ve owned quite a few OWC drive enclosures over the years, frankly I’ve had some bad experiences with more than one product. The 4 Bay Thunderbay Thunderbolt 2 has been stellar. I suspec the same will be the case with this Thunderbay 4 / Thunderbolt 3 version. They have been solid and dependable and have become the backbone of my data storage. The Thunderbolt 2 version is still rocking on for heavy video file storage. This Thunderbolt 3 version will become primary and the TB2 version will become a backup storage unit. While I have had a great experience with these drive enclosures, I have given up on Softraid software. It has been a bag of hurt that is no longer worth my time or hassle. User authentication and updates were typically a big pain in the a@#, causing me un-needed time and stress. Also, the liccense only covers one OWC product, requring a separate license for each OWC unit. I have two Thunderbays, one Thnderbay mini and a Express 4M2- I’m not paying a for a license for each. Likewise, switching the drive to a backup computer becomes prohibitive and burdensome. My Thunderbays are now used primarily as non-raid enclosures fwiw. That said, my primary editing drives are NvME’s in a OWC Express 4M2 unit, striped in a RAID 0 config, using Apples RAID assistant rather than Softraid. Although ultimate performance capability is not achieved, it is more than good enough and I don’t have to deal with Softraid. it’s more than worth it. Long story short, the Thunderbays are great, the Softraid software… not so much.

2. Rated 3 out of 5

   Marguerite Lueilwitz (verified owner) – December 10, 2022

   Good airflow. The front cover is perforated and uses a larger 92mm sized fan which is welcomed. Drive vibration nicely dampened. Though in the era of Apple silicon Macs with silent or quiet idle noise, the stock Sunon fan is unacceptable. It has an annoying and noticeable whining noise from the fan motor. Spec sheet on the OWC website states it’s a temperature controlled fan, I don’t believe this to be true since the fan speed is at constant max from the moment it’s turned on. I did what a previous reviewer did and bought a 3rd-party fan (Noctua NF-A9 FLX). However, I went one step further and also bought the Noctua NA-SRC10 low noise adapters which are pre-made voltage resistor cables. The NF-A9 FLX comes with one ultra low noise and one low noise adapter. You just need two screwdriver sizes and some steady hands to change out the fan. Unscrew the two, top most screws first. Connect 3 low noise and 1 ‘ultra’ low noise cables between the fan and enclosure connection for 500RPM fan speed which will be nearly silent or use 4 low noise cables for 600RPM. If you are constantly writing to the hard drives than I probably wouldn’t want to go lower than 1,000RPM which you can get by using just the ‘ultra’ low noise cable included with the fan purchase. I can hear the rushing air at 1,000RPM but this would be okay under a desk or photoshoot noise environment. Oh, and I would recommend velcro or plastic zip ties to tidy up the long cable connection for 500-600RPM to prevent the plastic adapter ends from touching the metal enclosure so it doesn’t amplify vibration noise. OWC if you’re reading this. Add a PWM version of the Noctua fan with a smart temperature controlled system to control fan speed.

3. Rated 2 out of 5

   Alexandre O’Hara (verified owner) – November 12, 2022

   Pretty much useless on my windows 10 pc. Bought to run raid 5 and I can only use raid 0 or 1 on windows. About 80MBs write and read speed… Hopefully it’ll work well with the new MacBook once I get it but until then it’s a big paper weight

4. Rated 1 out of 5

   Freda Lakin (verified owner) – October 22, 2022

   Empty box that is ugly as sin. No functionality included.

5. Rated 3 out of 5

   Janessa Fay (verified owner) – October 4, 2022

   The RAID enclosure works great but I did not realize this version of the ThunderBay 4 does NOT include a license for SoftRAID the software needed to manage the RAID. This software will cost you an additional $250 (if you want RAID 5). Very disappointed at this price the software should be included.

6. Rated 5 out of 5

   Madelyn Rosenbaum (verified owner) – October 1, 2022

   I own the OWC three port hub raid 1 enclosure. For about three years with out any issues. Was running out of space so I was in the market for another solution. I decided to go with a raid 5 enclosure for peace of mind. Going with OWC was a no brainer. Easy setup and fast data transfers.

7. Rated 5 out of 5

   Caroline Kessler (verified owner) – September 20, 2022

   After I purchased 2 Thunderbay 8 for my media server, I decided to gue the 4 bay version for my personal computer (All Macs) I used to have the hard drives in cradles, and I was getting corruption issues all the time. After moving to these enclosures I haven’t experienced ANY issues with the drives. Did I tell you that the speed performance is unbeatable? From USB 3ish to Thunderbolt makes a BIG difference.

8. Rated 4 out of 5

   Mertie Bernier (verified owner) – July 15, 2022

   I bought this to have redundant backup for my photo library. I also purchased 4 separate Segate 6 GB drives and set up for raid 1. Installing the drives was easy build quickly is good. I would have given 5 stars but it is a bit noisy. The fan is pretty loud.