Anyone here using an OWC Thunderbay enclosure?

[Msbeezy]

I just got my Thunderbay 4. It came with a Zalman fan. I have it loaded with a SSD, two 3 tb drives, and a 1 tb drive. It's currently sitting on my desk, just next to my monitor.

I have to say, it's pretty loud Definitely not something that blends into the background. Some of it is the typical hard drive noises, but most of it is the fan.

I think short of putting it in a drawer, it's going to be loud.

I may consider the fan replacement.

Otherwise, it's been working fine and seems to be constructed pretty well.

Change the fan as I and others have noted in this thread and it becomes noticably quiter....not silent but much better

 

[WilliamG]

Change the fan as I and others have noted in this thread and it becomes noticably quiter....not silent but much better

With the Noctua fan it does actually become silent from more than 2 inches away.

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I just got my Thunderbay 4. It came with a Zalman fan. I have it loaded with a SSD, two 3 tb drives, and a 1 tb drive. It's currently sitting on my desk, just next to my monitor.

I have to say, it's pretty loud Definitely not something that blends into the background. Some of it is the typical hard drive noises, but most of it is the fan.

I think short of putting it in a drawer, it's going to be loud.

I may consider the fan replacement.

Otherwise, it's been working fine and seems to be constructed pretty well.

No reason not to get the fan replacement as noted in this thread. Takes just a minute, and makes a world of difference.

 

[scottomfg]

I just got my Thunderbay 4. It came with a Zalman fan. I have it loaded with a SSD, two 3 tb drives, and a 1 tb drive. It's currently sitting on my desk, just next to my monitor.

I have to say, it's pretty loud Definitely not something that blends into the background. Some of it is the typical hard drive noises, but most of it is the fan.

I think short of putting it in a drawer, it's going to be loud.

I may consider the fan replacement.

Otherwise, it's been working fine and seems to be constructed pretty well.

I replaced my fan with the Noctua NF-B9 Bevelled Blade Tips SSO Bearing Fan with VCN and it makes a world of difference. It's cheap and very easy to install. However, I wouldn't say it's completely silent—I sit about two feet away from it and it's tucked behind some stuff, but I can definitely hear it, but it's about as low in volume and annoyance as I can imagine any fan could be while still being heard. Definitely the drives spinning and chortling away is louder than the fans itself.

 

[Shazaam!]

SSDs use about 4 watts each and 2.5 inch HDs use about 7 watts so a fan is probably needed with the mechanical drives. I put four SSDs in a Thunderbay mini, so after I loaded the drives with files (constant use for an hour) I simply pulled the plug on the fan because I couldn't stand the noise. The drives get slightly warm during normal use, but since they're rated at 158°F max I see no reason to cool them with a fan. Silence.

 

[WilliamG]

I replaced my fan with the Noctua NF-B9 Bevelled Blade Tips SSO Bearing Fan with VCN and it makes a world of difference. It's cheap and very easy to install. However, I wouldn't say it's completely silent—I sit about two feet away from it and it's tucked behind some stuff, but I can definitely hear it, but it's about as low in volume and annoyance as I can imagine any fan could be while still being heard. Definitely the drives spinning and chortling away is louder than the fans itself.

You can't be using the blue ULN adapter that came in the box then. It's not even close to audible at 2 feet (and I'm outrageously noise-sensitive). That's all you need to keep the drives/Thunderbolt chipset cool. The air out the front of the unit is nice and cold.

 

[scottomfg]

You can't be using the blue ULN adapter that came in the box then. It's not even close to audible at 2 feet (and I'm outrageously noise-sensitive). That's all you need to keep the drives/Thunderbolt chipset cool. The air out the front of the unit is nice and cold.

Actually that's exactly what I'm using. I guess our sensitivity is different. It is absolutely not silent, this is at least partially because of how the case and cooling is designed as opposed to the fan itself, but I can definitely here the air moving through it.

 

[WilliamG]

Actually that's exactly what I'm using. I guess our sensitivity is different. It is absolutely not silent, this is at least partially because of how the case and cooling is designed as opposed to the fan itself, but I can definitely here the air moving through it.

If you're directly level with it, it's certainly possible you may be hearing the fan. I know I'm especially sensitive to noise, but it's certainly reasonable to expect there are others even more sensitive (frankly, I pity you! - I'm miserable at times due to noises/frequencies etc).

In any case, I can't imagine you're dissatisfied.

 

[scottomfg]

If you're directly level with it, it's certainly possible you may be hearing the fan. I know I'm especially sensitive to noise, but it's certainly reasonable to expect there are others even more sensitive (frankly, I pity you! - I'm miserable at times due to noises/frequencies etc).

In any case, I can't imagine you're dissatisfied.

Ha, yes, it's a burden. In all honesty, I'm on the verge of buying a $178 18ft fiberoptic TB2 cable, running it through a wall and putting the enclosure in the utility closet next to my office simply to have computing silence. To be fair to the fan though, that's mostly because of the noises from the two spinning disks in there.

 

[WilliamG]

Ha, yes, it's a burden. In all honesty, I'm on the verge of buying a $178 18ft fiberoptic TB2 cable, running it through a wall and putting the enclosure in the utility closet next to my office simply to have computing silence. To be fair to the fan though, that's mostly because of the noises from the two spinning disks in there.

OK, so that tells me you clearly have very different noise tolerances to "most" people. I'm not going to say you're crazy or anything like that - because some people think "I'm" crazy with the lengths I go to to shut things up.

 

[scottomfg]

OK, so that tells me you clearly have very different noise tolerances to "most" people. I'm not going to say you're crazy or anything like that - because some people think "I'm" crazy with the lengths I go to to shut things up.

Indeed. Though it's pure luxury, really. I've been using it this way for many months and can get by fine. But I would defnitely enjoy it being less noisy

 

[WilliamG]

Indeed. Though it's pure luxury, really. I've been using it this way for many months and can get by fine. But I would defnitely enjoy it being less noisy

Story of my life.

 

[WilliamG]

iStat Menus got updated today to 5.1, which was SUPPOSED to add support for SoftRAID disks. In actuality, ALL my disks are now missing from iStat menus. Hah! Talk about a downgrade! Is it working for anyone?

 

[hfg]

iStat Menus got updated today to 5.1, which was SUPPOSED to add support for SoftRAID disks. In actuality, ALL my disks are now missing from iStat menus. Hah! Talk about a downgrade! Is it working for anyone?

You may have to go to the "disks" menu and manually add them to the "displayed" list (drag them from the available disks icons). My disk temps are showing up after the software update.

 

[WilliamG]

You may have to go to the "disks" menu and manually add them to the "displayed" list (drag them from the available disks icons). My disk temps are showing up after the software update.

Disk temps = yes. Disk activity = nope. I also recommend turning off iStat Menus SMART utility, because SoftRAID has its own - once per day, and iStat polls far too often, causing many, many spin-ups and spin-downs of disks throughout the day.

I'm attaching the issue with iStat and disk processes.

 

[WilliamG]

You may have to go to the "disks" menu and manually add them to the "displayed" list (drag them from the available disks icons). My disk temps are showing up after the software update.

FYI, I emailed the iStat people, and they sent me over an updated working build within hours. Pretty awesome support if you ask me!

 

[hfg]

Disk temps = yes. Disk activity = nope. I also recommend turning off iStat Menus SMART utility, because SoftRAID has its own - once per day, and iStat polls far too often, causing many, many spin-ups and spin-downs of disks throughout the day.

I'm attaching the issue with iStat and disk processes.

I have currently have 4 disks active and showing capacity in iStat here:

I only get 4 disks in the temp list however, perhaps that is all that have readings.

 

[WilliamG]

I have currently have 4 disks active and showing capacity in iStat here:

I only get 4 disks in the temp list however, perhaps that is all that have readings.

Right, but that's not what you're supposed to see. This is what you should see.

 

[hfg]

Right, but that's not what you're supposed to see. This is what you should see.

Ok ... I see what you are missing.

I thought you weren't getting the bar-graph disk capacity symbols on the menu bar. You are correct, I don't get the pull down report with the update either, which I did previously (I don't utilize that function all that much myself).

 

[WilliamG]

Ok ... I see what you are missing.

I thought you weren't getting the bar-graph disk capacity symbols on the menu bar. You are correct, I don't get the pull down report with the update either, which I did previously (I don't utilize that function all that much myself).

I don't use it an awful lot, but it's really handy when you have a fairly large number of disks and one of them is going crazy. Makes it easier to find out which one is reading/writing.

 

[hfg]

I don't use it an awful lot, but it's really handy when you have a fairly large number of disks and one of them is going crazy. Makes it easier to find out which one is reading/writing.

Perhaps it is a iMac issue? It doesn't show the disks on my Retina iMac, however, after updating my cMac Pro, the disks continue to appear in the drop down list as before. I will have to try it on my 2012 iMac to see what happens there.

 

[WilliamG]

Perhaps it is a iMac issue? It doesn't show the disks on my Retina iMac, however, after updating my cMac Pro, the disks continue to appear in the drop down list as before. I will have to try it on my 2012 iMac to see what happens there.

It's actually my 2014 Mac mini my Thunderbays are connected to.

 

[hfg]

It's actually my 2014 Mac mini my Thunderbays are connected to.

Well, this is getting a bit confusing. I loaded the iStat update on 3 machines so far and the disks display properly in the iStat pulldown on all but the iMac.

So ... I went back to the Retina iMac where it didn't show the disks in iStat, and I ejected my SoftRAID 5 array ... and the disks are now displaying properly in iStat. But ... this SoftRAID 5 system is NOT using a ThunderBay, it is using a QX2 in JBOD mode over eSATA (via Caldigit TS2 dock) ... so it may not be the ThunderBay but SoftRAID 5 causing the problem?

However, my cMacPro is also using SoftRAID 5, and it DOES display the disks in iStat properly after the iStat update. The difference is that the SoftRAID5 disks are "internal" disks rather than "external" disks on the PCI or Thunderbolt bus.

More testing is in order ...


EDIT: after loading the latest build provided by iStat (tnx to WilliamG ), the problem is resolved and this system also works properly

 

[garyleecn]

how

Honestly? Yes. I run it at the lowest RPM setting (1000rpm) with the included cable, and the drives run extremely cool. Before I disabled the iStat Menus S.M.A.R.T. tools in OS X, (because it was interfering with drive-sleep protocols at the OS-level - the drives would keep sleeping and instantly waking up!), all four of my drives were all at between 31-35C. That's certainly cool enough for me.

Also, remember the entire iMac is cooled sufficiently by one fan that spins at 1200rpm under normal conditions. And that's entire computer - GPU, CPU, PSU, RAM, screen etc... The Thunderbay 4 feels very cool to the touch even when the drives are working hard and I don't see heat being an issue in the long run at all. I'd wager if you had a drive failure it would be nothing to do with heat.

Good luck!

how did you disabled smart tools?

 

[WilliamG]

how


how did you disabled smart tools?

From the iStat Menus bar in the Menu Bar at the top of your screen when the iStat app is open.

 

[garyleecn]

From the iStat Menus bar in the Menu Bar at the top of your screen when the iStat app is open.

got it thanks a lot


so you've been using thunder bay for a while, how do you like it? is it stable?