OWC Thunderbay IV?

[RoastingPig]

Anyone have one of these units yet? is it noticeably loud in a quiet environments? i want to purchase one.

 

[danny_w]

I don't have the Thunderbay but I do have the Qx2 which is the basis for that model, and it is LOUD! There may be something wrong with my particular unit but the fan is louder than all 4 hard drives combined all by itself. I am sending mine back. I just got a Drobo 5D and it is MUCH quieter! And be aware that the Thunderbay does NOT have a hw RAID controller like the Qx2, but uses software RAID; how they plan for you to use software RAID with 4 disks I don't know. If you're going to spend that much money for a case then I would recommend getting something with a real controller onboard like the Promise Pegasus2 or the Drobo 5D or something else.

 

[MrTed]

Anyone tried thunderbay IV ? I need one for a JBOD of 2XHDD and 2XSSD
Are speeds as fast as Pegasus ? I wish it was TB-2 but can't wait.
Thx

 

[matreya]

Anyone tried thunderbay IV ? I need one for a JBOD of 2XHDD and 2XSSD
Are speeds as fast as Pegasus ? I wish it was TB-2 but can't wait.
Thx

I'm using one with 4 x 2TB Toshiba hard drives in software RAID0, and achieve read speeds of 724MB/sec and writes of 693MB/sec.

Can't attest to how fast SSDs would run inside one of these...

 

[CalfCanuck]

Anyone tried thunderbay IV ? I need one for a JBOD of 2XHDD and 2XSSD
Are speeds as fast as Pegasus ? I wish it was TB-2 but can't wait.
Thx

I received one of the first generation models back in Feb, and it was quite loud. But they responded to the negative user reviews about noise by upgrading to a quieter fan - I just got a retrofit fan installed last week, and it is quite a bit better. Still noticeable in the background, but no longer annoying to me. And my room is very quiet.

Haven't had any startup or sleep issues in my JBOD setup - I leave the drives on all the time. I do have a 512 GB SSD in one bay, BTW. I really like the ability to hot swap individual drives, for my off-site backup routine.

 

[hfg]

I don't have the Thunderbay but I do have the Qx2 which is the basis for that model, and it is LOUD! There may be something wrong with my particular unit but the fan is louder than all 4 hard drives combined all by itself. I am sending mine back. I just got a Drobo 5D and it is MUCH quieter! And be aware that the Thunderbay does NOT have a hw RAID controller like the Qx2, but uses software RAID; how they plan for you to use software RAID with 4 disks I don't know. If you're going to spend that much money for a case then I would recommend getting something with a real controller onboard like the Promise Pegasus2 or the Drobo 5D or something else.

I just replaced the fan in my Qx2 with the replacement fan offered by OWC for the early Thunderbay IV units. It is now extremely quiet and the swap was very easy (a few screws to swap the fan on the backplate, then simply plug it in).

 

[danny_w]

I just replaced the fan in my Qx2 with the replacement fan offered by OWC for the early Thunderbay IV units. It is now extremely quiet and the swap was very easy (a few screws to swap the fan on the backplate, then simply plug it in).

You didn't have to take the Qx2 all apart? The backplate came off separately from the outside then?

 

[hfg]

You didn't have to take the Qx2 all apart? The backplate came off separately from the outside then?

Yeah ... 2 screws and the backplate fan assembly comes off, then simply reach in and unplug it. Swap the fan for the new one, and plug it in. Then replace the screws to hold the backplate in place. Less than 5 minutes.

I see they now advertise the fan as a Qx2 replacement as well as for the Thunderbay IV.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TBIVFAN/