Areca ARC-8050T5U-6MN Thunderbolt™ 5 80 Gb/s Enclosure | USB 3.2 RAID 6x 6x NVMe (U.2/U.3)/SAS/SATA

Areca ARC-8050T5U-6MN – 6-bay Thunderbolt™ 5 RAID array with NVMe, SAS, and SATA support and expandability

Professional Thunderbolt™ 5 RAID array for the most demanding creative environments

The Areca ARC-8050T5U-6MN is an advanced 6-bay enterprise-class RAID array equipped with a hardware RAID controller and a Thunderbolt™ 5 interface, offering bandwidth of up to 80 Gb/s, and up to 120 Gb/s in Bandwidth Boost mode. The 6MN model stands out for its support of Tri-Mode technology, which allows each bay to work with NVMe U.2/U.3, SAS 12 Gb/s, and SATA 6 Gb/s drives, and additionally offers a Mini SAS HD (SFF-8644) expansion port for connecting external drive enclosures and further expanding the storage system.

This solution is designed for professional film studios, photographers, television producers, post-production companies, and enterprises that demand the highest performance, data security, and easy scalability.

Key Benefits

• Thunderbolt™ 5 with bandwidth up to 80 Gb/s
• Bandwidth Boost up to 120 Gb/s
• 6 drive bays supporting:
• NVMe U.2/U.3
• SAS 12 Gb/s
• SATA 6 Gb/s
• professional enterprise-class hardware RAID controller
• two Thunderbolt™ 5 (USB-C) ports
• Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 expansion port for connecting an additional drive shelf
• DisplayPort 2.1 support
• Ability to daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt devices
• Hardware-based data encryption
• Support for SED (Self-Encrypting Drives)
• Compatibility with macOS, Windows, and USB-C computers.

Thunderbolt 5 – Performance for Working with 8K Content

The Thunderbolt™ 5 interface provides up to twice the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 3 and 4, enabling smooth workflow with multiple streams of 4K, 6K, and 8K content.

Two Thunderbolt ports allow you to simultaneously:

• transfer massive amounts of data,
• daisy-chain additional Thunderbolt devices,
• use professional high-resolution monitors,
• and power compatible laptops via Thunderbolt.

Tri-Mode – complete freedom of storage choice

The ARC-8050T5U-6MN model supports three drive technologies in each bay:

• NVMe U.2/U.3 PCIe
• SAS 12 Gb/s
• SATA 6 Gb/s

This allows you to create a configuration perfectly tailored to your application—from ultra-fast NVMe arrays for video editing to high-capacity archiving systems based on SAS or SATA drives.

Enterprise-Class Hardware RAID

At the heart of the device is a high-performance Raid-on-Chip (ROC) controller that performs all RAID operations in hardware, without burdening the computer’s CPU.

Supported RAID levels:

• RAID 0
• RAID 1
• RAID 10
• RAID 3
• RAID 5
• RAID 6
• RAID 30
• RAID 50
• RAID 60
• JBOD
• Single Disk

Additionally, the device offers an ECC-protected cache, hardware-based data encryption, and enterprise-class features such as online RAID migration, capacity expansion without downtime, and automatic array reconstruction.

System Scalability

The 6MN model is equipped with a Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 port, enabling the connection of external disk enclosures via a SAS expander.

This allows users to increase the system’s capacity in the future without having to replace the entire array, which is particularly important in professional production environments.

Ready for Use with Apple Mac

The array has been optimized to work with the following computers:

• Apple Mac Studio
• MacBook Pro
• Mac Pro
• Mac mini
• Apple Silicon computers (M1, M2, M3, M4, and newer)
• Windows computers with Thunderbolt 5

The device can also work with computers equipped exclusively with a USB-C port (USB 3.2 Gen2), making it suitable for use outside of a Thunderbolt environment as well.

Technical Specifications

• Model: Areca ARC-8050T5U-6MN
• Number of bays: 6
• Host interface: 2 × Thunderbolt™ 5 (USB-C)
• Bandwidth up to 80 Gb/s (120 Gb/s Bandwidth Boost)
• Supported drives: NVMe U.2/U.3, SAS 12 Gb/s, SATA 6 Gb/s
• Expansion port: 1 × Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 (2-lane)
• Controller type: Hardware RAID
• Supported RAID levels: 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60, JBOD, Single Disk
• Video output: DisplayPort 2.1
• Daisy chain up to 6 devices
• Cooling: Intelligent fans
• Power Supply 180 W + 4-pin XLR DC input
• Dimensions 146 × 255 × 290 mm
• Weight approx. 6.0 kg
• Supported Systems macOS 15 or later, Windows 11 or later, USB – regardless of operating system
• Included: Active Thunderbolt™ 5 cable

Ideal Applications

The Areca ARC-8050T5U-6MN is perfect for:

• editing 4K, 6K, and 8K footage,
• film post-production,
• working with Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Final Cut Pro,
• photography and graphic design,
• DIT environments,
• professional backup,
• data archiving,
• and business applications requiring the highest performance and expandable storage capacity.

Why buy from Abart Pro?

Abart Pro is the official distributor of Areca solutions in Poland and offers comprehensive storage systems for macOS and Windows users. Our product lineup includes professional Thunderbolt RAID arrays, hardware controllers, and SAS, NVMe, and Fibre Channel solutions used by film studios, photographers, production companies, and data centers. We provide expert technical advice, assistance with selecting RAID configurations, and support for building high-performance and secure data storage systems.