Anyone here using an OWC Thunderbay enclosure?

[Bryan Bowler]

As many of you know, I've been waiting for a holiday deal to come along for the Thunderbay 4 RAID 5 Edition and it looks like my patience has paid off. However, before pulling the trigger, I wanted to run this by the experts to make sure I'm not overlooking anything.

New Thunderbay 4 RAID 5 Edition BYOD Enclosure Kit: $549

I found the same exact drives for sale that normally come with the 20 TB pre-bundled version from OWC. It is the 5 TB Toshiba MD04ACA500 drives and they come with a 2-yr warranty from Toshiba. $199 per drive.

Questions/Confirmation:

1) I've looked closely and it appears the Thunderbay BYOD version comes with everything I need besides the drives themselves. Is this correct? It comes with the four drive sleds for 3.5" drives, right?

2) The only difference I see between the BYOD version and the pre-bundled 20 TB version is the BYOD only comes with a 1-yr enclosure warranty and 15-days of Drive Advance/Cross-Ship from the date of purchase. The pre-bundled 20 TB version comes with a 3-yr warranty, 1-yr of Level-1 Data Recovery, and 30-days of Drive Advance/Cross-Ship. By buying everything individually and building it myself, I save $280. I think the cost savings would far outweigh the extra warranties that come with the pre-bundled 20 TB version. Does anyone have a differing opinion?

3) Since I can buy the 5 TB drives individually for $199 a piece, do you think it would be in my best interest to go ahead and buy an extra 5th drive to keep on-hand as a cold spare? Here are the details behind my personal setup/situation: I will reguraly back-up my RAID array, my workflow is important but not truly mission-critical, and you do not need to use matching drives with SoftRAID. With the cost of storage always coming down, I wonder if I'd be better off saving the $199 on a drive I may never need, and simply ordering a fresh one (with a fresh warranty) if/when I ever have a drive failure. Or is $199 for a fast 5 TB drive too good of a deal to pass up? Opinions?

Thank you so much for helping me out on this!

Cheers,
Bryan

Edit: I went ahead and ordered! Details below...

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Well, I went ahead and pulled the trigger and I got a great deal! I got a 20 TB ThunderBay 4 RAID 5 Edition for $1,345, no tax and free shipping. I feel like this is an outstanding deal that won't be beat by any additional Black Friday or Holiday discounts.

Here's how I did it:

I linked through the OWC Weekly email and got the ThunderBay 4 RAID 5 Edition BYOD version for $549.

OWC is running a great Holiday special on the Toshiba drives. I picked up four of the 5 TB Toshiba MD04ACA500 hard drives for $199 each. These are the same drives that normally come with the bundled 20 TB ThunderBay and they get great reviews for both speed and reliability.

Total price was $1,345 versus the regular price of $1,659. However, I do give up a little bit on the warranty side. Instead of a 3-yr warranty on the ThunderBay enclosure, I get a 1-yr warranty. The drives still come with a 2-yr warranty. All things considered, I think the cost savings are definitely worth it.

On top of this, I also picked up a 5th copy of the same drive and an extra drive sled, so I will also have a formatted, pre-initialized cold spare ready to go should I ever have a drive failure. And I also picked up a 2m Thunderbolt cable as well. Even with these "extras", the price still came in less than it would have had I paid the normal price. I'm totally stoked and I can't wait for it to arrive. As a photographer and videographer, this will make a great addition to my new 5K iMac.

Hopefully this info helps anyone else who is thinking about picking up one of these storage beasts.

Cheers,
Bryan

 

[WilliamG]

Well, I went ahead and pulled the trigger and I got a great deal! I got a 20 TB ThunderBay 4 RAID 5 Edition for $1,345, no tax and free shipping. I feel like this is an outstanding deal that won't be beat by any additional Black Friday or Holiday discounts.

Here's how I did it:

I linked through the OWC Weekly email and got the ThunderBay 4 RAID 5 Edition BYOD version for $549.

OWC is running a great Holiday special on the Toshiba drives. I picked up four of the 5 TB Toshiba MD04ACA500 hard drives for $199 each. These are the same drives that normally come with the bundled 20 TB ThunderBay and they get great reviews for both speed and reliability.

Total price was $1,345 versus the regular price of $1,659. However, I do give up a little bit on the warranty side. Instead of a 3-yr warranty on the ThunderBay enclosure, I get a 1-yr warranty. The drives still come with a 2-yr warranty. All things considered, I think the cost savings are definitely worth it.

On top of this, I also picked up a 5th copy of the same drive and an extra drive sled, so I will also have a formatted, pre-initialized cold spare ready to go should I ever have a drive failure. And I also picked up a 2m Thunderbolt cable as well. Even with these "extras", the price still came in less than it would have had I paid the normal price. I'm totally stoked and I can't wait for it to arrive. As a photographer and videographer, this will make a great addition to my new 5K iMac.

Hopefully this info helps anyone else who is thinking about picking up one of these storage beasts.

Cheers,
Bryan

Looks good to me! It wasn't clear if the 3-year warranty included the drives or not when you buy it all together from OWC (for more money). Either way, I think you made the right move buying it all separately. Plus it's fun to put it all together.

Enjoy your new setup! I'm enjoying my 20TB RAID 5 very much.

Oh, and don't forget the Noctua NF-B9 if you find the stock fan too noisy (like I did).

 

[adww12321]

I just got off the phone with OWC. I explained that, during my pre-sale inquiry, another rep told me that units were shipping with the Zalman fans, but that my unit arrived with a Y.S.Tech fan. The guy with whom I spoke today says that he will forward my information to the appropriate people and that they will make things right.

However, I just noticed that this issue may be more complicated than I thought. The fan in my Thunderbay is a Y.S.Tech model FD129225LB-N. Some of the people in this thread are reporting that they received FD129225MB. Check out the spec sheet at the Y.S.Tech website. The LB model is listed as 8dB quieter than the MB. That's a big difference, although the real world difference will depend on operating conditions (fan speed, enclosure design, etc.). In any case, OWC is now shipping a different version of the Y.S.Tech fan. I don't know whether it is as quiet, or maybe even quieter, than the Zalman. OWC is supposed to call me back tomorrow. If I learn anything, I will post to this list.

After trying a variety of fans in the enclosure (the stock one (awful), the replacement Zalman, and the Noctua, I can tell you this -- the Noctua fan is the superior one for this application. I bought an extra one for the day the original craps out.

The caveat is that i'm using SSDs. I can't speak to big, hot spinning disks, but for my SSD array, temperatures don't go past 90F, and I have this thing set to the 'silent' setting. I never thought that i'd have a machine this powerful that was this quiet under normal operating conditions. (Critical for my application, a lot of audio work.)

I don't fault OWC for using a louder fan by default, since they honestly have no idea if people are going to put fast, hot spinning disks into the enclosure.

But if you value silence, spend the $30 and 10 minutes to crack the thing open and swap the fan out.

 

[UncleGuido]

The fan in my Thunderbay is a Y.S.Tech model FD129225LB-N. Some of the people in this thread are reporting that they received FD129225MB. Check out the spec sheet at the Y.S.Tech website. The LB model is listed as 8dB quieter than the MB. That's a big difference, although the real world difference will depend on operating conditions (fan speed, enclosure design, etc.). In any case, OWC is now shipping a different version of the Y.S.Tech fan. I don't know whether it is as quiet, or maybe even quieter, than the Zalman. OWC is supposed to call me back tomorrow. If I learn anything, I will post to this list.

I called OWC to report that my Thunderbay 4 had the Y.S.Tech fan, even though one of their reps had told me (before my order) that units were shipping with the low noise Zalman fan. They did the right thing, and sent me one of the Zalmans.

Tonight I did a test to compare the two fans. I used an iPhone app that measures SPL and plots the spectrum. This setup is not as accurate as a real SPL meter, and will not duplicate the specs quoted by the fan manufacturers. But I was only looking for the difference between the two fans, and by carefully keeping the measuring conditions constant, my results should be meaningful.

So what did I find? When mounted in Thunderbay 4, the Zalman ZM-F2 PLUS(SF) measured 1.4 dBA less than the Y.S. Tech FD129225LB-N. This is not a significant audible difference. If you have the LB version of the Y.S. Tech fan, you will not get a quieter box by swapping for the Zalman. I did not measure the MB version of the Y.S Tech, or the Noctua unit that some people prefer.

 

[WilliamG]

I called OWC to report that my Thunderbay 4 had the Y.S.Tech fan, even though one of their reps had told me (before my order) that units were shipping with the low noise Zalman fan. They did the right thing, and sent me one of the Zalmans.

Tonight I did a test to compare the two fans. I used an iPhone app that measures SPL and plots the spectrum. This setup is not as accurate as a real SPL meter, and will not duplicate the specs quoted by the fan manufacturers. But I was only looking for the difference between the two fans, and by carefully keeping the measuring conditions constant, my results should be meaningful.

So what did I find? When mounted in Thunderbay 4, the Zalman ZM-F2 PLUS(SF) measured 1.4 dBA less than the Y.S. Tech FD129225LB-N. This is not a significant audible difference. If you have the LB version of the Y.S. Tech fan, you will not get a quieter box by swapping for the Zalman. I did not measure the MB version of the Y.S Tech, or the Noctua unit that some people prefer.

Good info. I have the YS Tech LB and it's so much louder than the Noctua, which is for all intents and purposes silent.

 

[EdDuPlessis]

Well, I went ahead and pulled the trigger and I got a great deal! I got a 20 TB ThunderBay 4 RAID 5 Edition for $1,345, no tax and free shipping. I feel like this is an outstanding deal that won't be beat by any additional Black Friday or Holiday discounts.

Here's how I did it:

Congrats on the discount ;D

 

[UncleGuido]

Good info. I have the YS Tech LB and it's so much louder than the Noctua, which is for all intents and purposes silent.

Did you compare the noise levels of the Y.S. Tech and Noctua with all disks running in Thunderbay, or with no disks present? My measurements were made with the disks running. Looking at the similarity of the spectrum plots, it appears that the disk noise swamps most of the noise contributed by a fan. If so, installing a Noctua might not make a big improvement.

 

[WilliamG]

Did you compare the noise levels of the Y.S. Tech and Noctua with all disks running in Thunderbay, or with no disks present? My measurements were made with the disks running. Looking at the similarity of the spectrum plots, it appears that the disk noise swamps most of the noise contributed by a fan. If so, installing a Noctua might not make a big improvement.

Yes, I did. Sensitive hearing = I still hear the fan characteristic (not necessarily the db level) over the disks. And given my disks live in a movie room which doubles as a living room - the disks spin down when not in use. That means the Y.S. Tech fan is the obvious noise in the room. The Noctua is silent in the same environment.

 

[WilliamG]

FYI, newegg has a great deal on 5TB disks if people need some for the Thunderbay 4 enclosure.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178501

$139.88 per Seagate 5TB disk (and think of it as you get a free enclosure with each).

Then use this promo code for 5% off - NAFBF14A

That makes each disk: $132.89. They come with 2-year warranties, and if you use a credit card like Discover or Visa Signature, they'll add an extra year.

That makes 4x Seagate disks (20TB) : $531.54 with free shipping. I doubt we'll see a better deal this year, to be honest. I grabbed a couple of extra as backups.

 

[jday7757]

WilliamG, that sounds like a great deal, but I have a quick question. From everything I've been able to find this is a 5400rpm drive and I much prefer 7200rpm drives. How big a deal is it that these are 5400rpm drives?

 

[WilliamG]

WilliamG, that sounds like a great deal, but I have a quick question. From everything I've been able to find this is a 5400rpm drive and I much prefer 7200rpm drives. How big a deal is it that these are 5400rpm drives?

Depends, I suppose. I can't fathom anyone noticing the difference, to be honest. I get ~420Mb/s read/write in Blackmagic (not exactly scientific).

If you need faster than that, I suppose you could get something else. These are 5900rpm disks, by the way.

They're these disks inside:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barra...ternal/dp/B00KIVMRWU/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Ignore the one review (for obvious reasons!).

 

[joema2]

...I much prefer 7200rpm drives. How big a deal is it that these are 5400rpm drives?

Generally you want 7200 rpm for best perf. but -- a newer-technology 5400 or 5900 rpm drive will out-perform an older-technology 7200 rpm drive. This is because the areal density under the head is higher, producing a higher transfer rate at a lower rotational speed.

So you can't totally go by rpm. Also higher rpm drives usually generate more heat and noise.

Also chasing ever-higher benchmark numbers may not reflect real-world performance difference in your application. Apps may be internally bottlenecked so they just can't accommodate I/O rates much above, say, 500 MB/sec.

 

[natallica]

A question about the Noctua fan.

I received a "retail package" from Amazon that has no instructions.

The fan itself has a long cable attached to it and there are 2 shorter adapter cables. One has a blue end with an orange sticker and the other has a black end. There is no indication of which is which in terms of making the fan as quiet as possible.

Also, did people use the screws or the "vibration compensators" to mount the fan in the TB 4?

Thanks!

 

[hfg]

A question about the Noctua fan.

I received a "retail package" from Amazon that has no instructions.

The fan itself has a long cable attached to it and there are 2 shorter adapter cables. One has a blue end with an orange sticker and the other has a black end. There is no indication of which is which in terms of making the fan as quiet as possible.

Also, did people use the screws or the "vibration compensators" to mount the fan in the TB 4?

Thanks!

The "instructions" are inside the back of the package ... there is a flap held closed with a bit of velcro which opens to reveal the instructions. You nave a choice of 3 speeds by using either of the blue or black extensions for slower and no extension for default speed. I used the rubber mounts on mine for less chassis vibration.

-howard

 

[natallica]

The "instructions" are inside the back of the package ... there is a flap held closed with a bit of velcro which opens to reveal the instructions. You nave a choice of 3 speeds by using either of the blue or black extensions for slower and no extension for default speed. I used the rubber mounts on mine for less chassis vibration.

-howard

Duh! I feel stupid.

This was character building...

 

[WilliamG]

Yep, took me a minute to figure out which cable to use, too. I used the blue one for silent operation. I'm using the original screws, not the rubber dampeners.

And now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to order a second one as a spare.

 

[hfg]

Duh! I feel stupid.

This was character building...

Haha ... don't feel bad ... I was sitting there scratching my head as well, when I dropped the box and it landed on its corner and popped open.

What a revelation :

 

[monokakata]

So what did I find? When mounted in Thunderbay 4, the Zalman ZM-F2 PLUS(SF) measured 1.4 dBA less than the Y.S. Tech FD129225LB-N. This is not a significant audible difference. If you have the LB version of the Y.S. Tech fan, you will not get a quieter box by swapping for the Zalman. I did not measure the MB version of the Y.S Tech, or the Noctua unit that some people prefer.

My unit (delivered last week) also shipped with a YS fan. Before swapping it for the Noctua unit, I found my trusty (and old, and cheap) Radio Shack SPL meter.

My measurements are consistent with Uncle Guido's -- between 1 and 2 dB drop from stock to quiet fan. I used "c" weighting rather than "a," mostly because the old meter wouldn't give a consistent reading with A weighting.

Bottom line, as Uncle Guido says -- that's not a signficant drop. It's nothing like the drop I used to see in my PC building days when I'd go from stock CPU and case fans to quiet fans -- big difference there. Here, not so much.

With all 4 disks ejected, the sound levels dropped about 4 dB.

Now I have the unit on the floor under my desk, and its sound isn't audible over the room's ambient noise. In a very quiet room, though, I think it probably would be.

 

[spiritlevel]

I've got my Thunderbay and drives but no iMac to hook it to for another week...

I've put the drives in a switched it on to check noise but....nothing happened... no drives spinning up and no fan turning. Only thing I do get is an orange power LED light up on the front.

Is that normal? do drives and fan only spin when the thunderbay is hooked up to a mac?

Mine came with a Zalman fan btw

thanks

 

[hfg]

I've got my Thunderbay and drives but no iMac to hook it to for another week...

I've put the drives in a switched it on to check noise but....nothing happened... no drives spinning up and no fan turning. Only thing I do get is an orange power LED light up on the front.

Is that normal? do drives and fan only spin when the thunderbay is hooked up to a mac?

Mine came with a Zalman fan btw

thanks

That is normal.

When you attach a cable and boot your computer, the power LED will change to blue and the drives will spin up.

If your compute "sleeps", the drives will return to the orange LED condition with the drives stopped.

 

[spiritlevel]

That is normal.

When you attach a cable and boot your computer, the power LED will change to blue and the drives will spin up.

If your compute "sleeps", the drives will return to the orange LED condition with the drives stopped.

Ah ok - thanks hfg

 

[hqo201]

Buzzing Thunderbay 4

Hi Everyone

I've been following this thread for a few days and just taken delivery of a Thunderbay 4 today.

All seems to be working fine, except I can hear a very faint buzzing/fizzing electrical type sound, even when the unit is in standby (orange light). I've removed all the drives and even disconnected the fan (I got a Zalman one, so that's good!), but the buzzing sound persists, and only stops when I physically switch it off. Has anyone else had this with theirs?

 

[hfg]

Hi Everyone

I've been following this thread for a few days and just taken delivery of a Thunderbay 4 today.

All seems to be working fine, except I can hear a very faint buzzing/fizzing electrical type sound, even when the unit is in standby (orange light). I've removed all the drives and even disconnected the fan (I got a Zalman one, so that's good!), but the buzzing sound persists, and only stops when I physically switch it off. Has anyone else had this with theirs?

As a wild guess I might assume that it may be a switch-mode power supply and one of the coils or transformers is vibrating slightly. However, you may want to ask OWC tech support about it just in case it is something more serious.

I don't hear anything like that from either of mine ... even with my hearing aids in!

 

[WilliamG]

Hi Everyone

I've been following this thread for a few days and just taken delivery of a Thunderbay 4 today.

All seems to be working fine, except I can hear a very faint buzzing/fizzing electrical type sound, even when the unit is in standby (orange light). I've removed all the drives and even disconnected the fan (I got a Zalman one, so that's good!), but the buzzing sound persists, and only stops when I physically switch it off. Has anyone else had this with theirs?

Call up OWC and they'll set up an exchange. That shouldn't happen. Can you try in a different outlet? I found the stock fan to quite loud, so if you're hearing the buzzing over the Zalman, that means it's probably quite loud to someone sensitive to these things (as I am!). I'm using the dead-silent Noctua fan in my Thunderbay 4, so any noise like that would drive me nuts.

As a wild guess I might assume that it may be a switch-mode power supply and one of the coils or transformers is vibrating slightly. However, you may want to ask OWC tech support about it just in case it is something more serious.

I don't hear anything like that from either of mine ... even with my hearing aids in!

Yep, agreed. It shouldn't do it, though!