Review
to revive this thread, in case anyone is still looking for a thunderbolt 2 enclosure that doesn't break the bank....
I've been testing a Thunderbay 4 here with the 5k imac, here's my observations --
I've been running it so far with two SSDs in a RAID0 formation.
the good:
1) it is reliable -- no drop-outs or corruption, unlike USB 3 enclosures.
2) it is fast. With RAID0, i'm getting 700MB/s across the SSDs, which is identical to the iMac's internal drive.
3) I've been able to daisy chain 2 firewire devices off it (a digital mixer and an audio interface) with no reliability issues, using the apple thunderbolt-to-firewire converter.
the bad:
1) build quality isn't great -- the front cover of mine came slightly bent, it is hard to get on and off. It doesn't 'feel' up to the same level of care as, say, a LaCie drive enclosure.
2) Noise. I know people are saying this enclosure is 'quiet', and perhaps if you are using spinning disks it seems that way. But for those used to SSDs, this thing is loud. They claim to be using a low-noise fan, mine however looks like a generic off-the-shelf part from china. (If you ask OWC nicely though, they will send you a replacement Zalmann quiet fan.) That fan still makes some noise -- rated at >20db, it is clearly audible, and if you keep the enclosure next to your iMac, you *will* hear it when doing any sensitive audio work (i.e., like making recordings.)
The solutions to noise:
** this may not be for everyone, and would probably void your warranty, so proceed at your own risk **
1) OWC was thoughtful enough to use a standard 92x92x25 case fan with a 3-pin header. You can get the stock fan out by removing two screws. This is excellent -- You can easily replace the stock fan with any number of similar-CFM rated low-noise fans. Or..
2) Install a Zalmann Fan Mate to slow down the fan. There appears to be enough room inside the case to fit the fan mate, but I haven't tried, because...
3) Just ditch the fan. If you are just using SSDs, my observation is that they will run cool enough without any fan whatsoever. For instance, my 2 Crucial SSDs in the enclosure are running at 82 and 81 degrees F respectively. For comparison, the iMac's internal SSD is running at 91 degrees F!
Again, OWC would never approve of something like this. But just be aware that at least for my SSDs, heat isn't a problem at all in this enclosure. I suspect that OWC had to really overdo it with the fan, because they had no idea what people would put into the enclosure -- it needed to be good enough to cool 10k spinners, etc....
So, once the noise problem is taken care of, it seems to be a decent little enclosure that's worked just fine with a simple RAID array.
Hope it helps.
