OWC ThunderBay Flex 8-Bay Storage Enclosure
OWC ThunderBay Flex 8-Bay Storage Enclosure
Scan code: LN125533 Manufacturer code: OWCTB3F80C000
£1,304.99Item currently awaiting an ETA
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OWC ThunderBay Flex 8-Bay Storage Enclosure

OWC ThunderBay Flex 8-Bay Storage, 2.5/3.5" SATA, PCIe Expansion, Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.2 Gen 2 C+A/DP

Scan code: LN125533 Manufacturer code: OWCTB3F80C000
£1,304.99
Item currently awaiting an ETA
Pre order
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    Instalment Rate: 16.9% p.a. (fixed)
    Cost of purchase: £1,304.99
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    Instalment Rate: 16.9% p.a. (fixed)
    Cost of purchase: £1,304.99
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    Monthly Payment: £36.80
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    Cost of purchase: £1,304.99
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Product Overview

Future ready

Tame your workflow with this highly configurable productivity platform for digital imaging, VFX, video production, and video editing professionals. With unrivalled FLEXibility, you can choose drive type(s), enjoy docking convenience, and expand your capabilities with PCIe cards.


Flex Your Way Through Every Workflow

Whether you call it a workflow workhorse, a productivity platform, or a configurable command centre, 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 optimised 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.

• Plug and play with no drivers needed and includes Thunderbolt 3 cable.
• Free lifetime US-based support.


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.

Features

• 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.
• Supports one full-height, half-length, single-width PCIe card (driverless or with Thunderbolt-aware driver).
• GPUs not supported.
• 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.
• 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 display.
• Fast media ingest: front-side SD 4.0 and CFexpress card readers with up to 985MB/s speed.
• Play your card: (1) PCIe slot for audio/video capture, networking, SSD storage, hardware RAID card, or I/O card.
• 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.

1. SAS drives are supported with SAS drive controller card (available separately).
2. Up to four U.2 drives are supported. M.2 drives are also supported with M.2 to U.2 adapter (available separately).
3. 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.
4.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
Edition ThunderBay Flex 8
NAS Form Factor Desktop
Bays 8 Bay
Total Storage Included N/A
Type of Drives Included  
Edition of Drives Included  
Capacity of Drives Included  
Max. Storage Capacity  
Drive Interface Support
  • 8 x SAS/SATA
  • 2 x ThunderBolt
Drive Form Factor Support 8 x 2.5"/3.5"
Internal Flash Memory No
Internal Flash Memory Capacity  
DOM Module No
DOM Capacity  
CPU Type  
CPU Model  
CPU Cores  
CPU Speed  
RAM Memory Included  
RAM Memory Type  
Max. RAM Memory Supported  
Cache Drive Interface  
Included Cache Drive Capacity  
Included Cache Drive Type  
LAN Type N/A
Expansion Slots 8 x SATA 6GB/s
External Connectivity
  • 1 x DisplayPort
  • 2 x Thunderbolt 3
  • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A
  • 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C
Cooling Fan
Noise Level  
PSU Type  
PSU Wattage  
Max. Power Consumption 85 W
Physical Security  
Dimensions 149 x 349 x 390 (WxHxD mm)
Weight 9.2 kg
Additional Information
Scan Code LN125533
Model Number OWCTB3F80C000
GTIN 810586035071
Warranty

Please note your statutory rights are not affected.

For further information regarding Scan's warranty procedure please see our terms and conditions

Details
Duration:
36 months
Type:
Direct
DOA Period:
12 days
RTB Period:
36 months
Manufacturer Contact Details
Manufacturer:
OWC
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Buying Guide
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OWC ThunderBay Flex 8-Bay Storage Enclosure
OWC ThunderBay Flex 8-Bay Storage Enclosure