The 40TB Flex 1U4 4-Bay Thunderbolt 3 Storage Array from OWC / Other World Computing is a flexible storage, docking, and PCIe expansion solution for rackmount use. Compatible with macOS 10.15, 11.x, and 12.x, the Flex 1U4 features a storage capacity of 40TB, which is split between three 8TB 7200 rpm SATA 3.5" hard drives and four 4TB NVMe M.2 SSDs, with the SSDs being housed in an OWC U2 ShuttleOne, which is a 2.5" U.2 NVMe enclosure. Connectivity to your host system is established using a 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 port, which supports data transfers of up to 5000 MB/s. Daisy-chain five additional devices or add a second display to a second Thunderbolt 3 port, while two 10 Gb/s USB-C ports, three 10 Gb/s USB-A ports, and one DisplayPort 1.4 port provide additional connectivity options. Further expansion methods, such as audio/video capture cards, 10Gb Ethernet, SSD storage, a hardware RAID, or other I/O card, can be used via the PCIe 3.0 x16/x4 slot.

If you'd like to upgrade or replace the storage in your Flex 1U4, the drive bays natively support 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives, as well as 2.5" and 3.5" U.2 drives. SAS drives are supported with an SAS drive controller (sold separately) and M.2 drives are supported using an M.2 to U.2 adapter, such as the OWC U2 Shuttle and OWC U2 ShuttleOne (sold separately). Also, the Flex 1U4 may be used on Macs with Thunderbolt 2 and Thunderbolt ports via an adapter (sold separately), but this will not support notebook charging via Thunderbolt.

40TB Storage Capacity    3 x 8TB 3.5" HDDs | 4 x 4TB NVMe SSDs    Thunderbolt 3 | USB-C 3.2 Gen 2    USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 | DisplayPort 1.4    1 x PCIe 3.0 x16/x4 Slot    Supports 8K, 5K, and 4K Displays    SoftRAID XT RAID Management Software    Data Transfers up to 5000 MB/s    Three Cooling Fans    macOS 10.15, 11.x, and 12.x Compatible

You'll turn your expandability and connectivity dreams into reality when you add the OWC Flex 1U4 to your rack or cart. Use a mix of 2.5 or 3.5" SATA/SAS and U.2/M.2 NVMe drives with four quick-access, hot-swappable drive bays. Connect mixers, keyboards, cameras, and other gear to your heart's content, as well as charge mobile devices with an ample variety of Thunderbolt and USB ports. Add up to an 8K display via DisplayPort. And when you have a custom capture, recording, networking, or storage need, the OWC Flex 1U4 lets you install a PCIe card to conquer specialized tasks.

When your workflow needs change, the "FLEXpandability" of the OWC Flex 1U4 easily adapts. Add new drives, connect different devices, and install a half-length, full-height, single-width PCIe x16 card of your choice, like a 10Gb Ethernet networking card or the fast OWC Accelsior 4M2 SSD for expanded performance storage capacity. By not locking you into an inflexible single-task design, the OWC Flex 1U4 extends its useful life and maximizes your investment well into the future.

The OWC Flex 1U4 is like a bolt-in productivity supercharger for new or existing rack environments powered by a rack Mac Pro, rack PC, MacBook Pro, PC notebook, or even a Mac mini. Whether you build your own custom drive and card configuration or select one of OWC's convenient ready-to-run solutions, the OWC Flex 1U4 is ideal in a wide variety of settings:

• In School: perfect for taming ever-growing collections of digital files with easy integration and future drive capacity and performance scalability.
• At Work: adds Thunderbolt speed and swappable drives to server closets, server rooms, or colocation center backup capabilities.
• On Stage: handles all the storage and peripheral connectivity needs front-of-house pros require for live performances.
• On Set: easily fits into mobile DIT carts to capture multi-stream, hi-res footage at full framerate while daisy-chaining up to five additional Thunderbolt devices.
• In Studio: expands storage and connectivity options of fixed racks.
• At Home: great for installers creating a high-performance home entertainment server closet.

A hallmark of OWC FLEX technology is the ability to use U.2 NVMe SSDs, as well as the OWC ecosystem of U.2 drives and adapters. U.2 NVMe drives are specifically designed to maximize the PCIe bus and when combined with Thunderbolt, you'll blast past fast with real-world transfer speeds of up to 2750 MB/s. Whether you use your rackmount setup to complete massive backups faster, stream content during a live performance, edit large format video, or run high transactional and complex calculation applications, you can do it U.2 to it with the OWC Flex 1U4.

The OWC Flex 1U4 goes with the flow when needing to move data outside or beyond the local network. With the OWC U.2 ecosystem, moving and sharing data is fast and easy. Swap out and ship a project from field to post in video production workflows. Move backup data to an offline colocation for backup workflows. The combination of OWC Flex 1U4 and the OWC U.2 ecosystem opens a new dimension to data transfer possibilities.

• OWC U2 ShuttleOne: Convert an NVMe M.2 "blade" style SSD into a swappable 2.5" U.2 SSD with the peace of mind that your drive and its content are protected by the full metal, heat-dissipating adapter.
• OWC U2 Shuttle: Combine four NVMe M.2 SSDs into a 3.5" U.2 carrier shuttle to create a swappable, massive capacity RAID solution.
• OWC Helios 3S with Interchange System: Create an external Thunderbolt powered set to post U.2 solution that safeguards your data while lowering shipping costs.
• OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual: Put blazing fast Thunderbolt powered storage and backup on a desktop with a compact two bay footprint that can use U2 ShuttleOne and U2 Shuttles.
• OWC ThunderBay Flex 8: Take control of your media workflow with a 3-in-1 Thunderbolt storage, docking, and PCIe expansion desktop solution. Easily swaps U2 ShuttleOne and U2 Shuttles to/from the Flex 1U4.

The Flex 1U4 comes complete with hardware for mounting into most racks and cabinets.

Harness the full capability of your OWC Flex 1U4 drive array with the included SoftRAID XT, which is powerful and intuitive RAID management software 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. It is packed with features like multiple RAID options, validation and verification of drives, and predictive disk failure with SoftRAID Monitor.

SoftRAID provides a level of storage performance that you simply can't get with hardware RAID and is ideal for anyone who needs to safely store and backup massive amounts of data, including educational institutions, government agencies, businesses, content creators, and M&E professionals. If you need even more power and flexibility, you can upgrade to SoftRAID Pro to spread volumes over two or more disk enclosures.

OWC understands having confidence in gear reliability is paramount to creative professionals. That's why OWC Flex 1U4 solutions go through a multi-step performance certification prior to shipping. This ensures they arrive operating properly and immediately ready for demanding use.

Unexpected disconnects during file transfers or a work session can be devastating. The OWC ClingOn, sold separately, helps reduces and eliminate cable strain on the OWC Flex 1U4's Thunderbolt connection ports.

• Up to two 4K displays at 60 Hz
• One 8K display at 60 Hz
• One 4K display at 120 Hz
• One 5K display at 60 Hz

• Thunderbolt 3: up to 8K at 60 Hz or 4K at 120 Hz via a native Thunderbolt 3 display or other display that supports USB-C connections and DisplayPort 1.4
• DisplayPort 1.4: up to 8K at 60 Hz or 4K at 120 Hz

• One Thunderbolt 3 port with 85W of power delivery
• One Thunderbolt 3 port with 15W of power delivery
• Two USB-C ports with 15W of power delivery

• Four bays supporting 2.5" SATA drives, 3.5" SATA drives, 2.5" U.2 drives, 3.5" U.2 drives, M.2 drives (with an M.2 to U.2 adapter), 2.5" SAS drives (with a SAS drive controller card), and 3.5" SAS drives (with a SAS drive controller card)
• Bays 1 and 2 each support PCIe x4, while bays 3 and 4 support PCIe x1

• macOS 10.15 Catalina
• macOS 11.x Big Sur
• macOS 12.x Monterey
• macOS 13.x Ventura

Related Questions and Answers

Q: 1. What brand and model of SSDs and HDDs are used in this pre-configured version for OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 100TB 8-Bay 7x14TB HDDs?

A: Unfortunately we do not know which drives any given OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 100TB 8-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array (1 x 2TB SSD, 7 x 14TB HDDs) will ship with, as they use different drives throughout the lifetime of the RAID Array.

Q: 2. Can we purchase extra drives (same model) for hot swappable spares? Link?

A: Sure, you could get spare drives to swap into the OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 144TB 8-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array (8 x 18TB HDDs), but depending on your RAID setup you may have issues swapping in a fresh drive with a drive that has critical data on it, so it really depends on how you manage your data.

Q: 3. Are the drives in the Flex 8 enterprise drives?

A: Spindle Speed: 7200 revolutions per minute - Features: Enterprise, RAID 5 - factory configured

Q: 4. What drives come preinstalled on this? SATA OR SATA III?

A: The Compatible Drive Interface is SATA III

Q: 5. What are people putting in the PCIe slot?

A: The OWC ThunderBay Flex can 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 via the PCIe x16 slot.

Q: 6. what it the acoustic noise leavels?

A: The manufacturer does not specify the noise level of this RAID array.

Q: 7. Can two separate RAID Arrays be created within this device, ie one Array using the SSD's and a separate RAID array using the HDD's for backing up the first?

A: Yes, it is possible to run multiple RAID volumes on the OWC Thunderbay. However, these volumes would be spread out between multiple parts of all disks, and not confined to certain disks only - all disks would be part of all volumes present on the array.

Q: 8. What type of CFexpress reader is this??

A: This card reader accepts CFExpress type B.

Q: 9. What exact hard drives are being used and is there a link to extra drives I can purchase for hot swapping?

A: We don't have information on what exact drives OWC uses in the OWC ThunderBay Flex 8, but for replacement drives for hot swapping any 3.5" SATA III Drive will work. I recommend these WD 18TB WD181KFGX Red Pro drives here: https://bhpho.to/3JhPm4I.

Q: 10. Is there a version that can fit more as M.2 rather than U.2?

A: The OWC 4TB Flex 1U4 4-Bay Thunderbolt 3 Storage Array (4 x 1TB SSDs) is not currently available in an alternate M.2-based configuration.