Areca ARC-8050T5U-12E Thunderbolt™ 5 80 Gb/s Enclosure | USB 3.2 RAID 12x NVMe (U.2/U.3)/SAS/SATA

Areca ARC-8050T5U-12N – 12-bay Thunderbolt™ 5 hardware RAID array with support for NVMe, SAS, and SATA

The most advanced desktop Thunderbolt™ 5 RAID array for professionals

The Areca ARC-8050T5U-12N is a flagship, 12-bay enterprise-class RAID array designed for the most demanding Apple Mac and Windows users. Equipped with a next-generation hardware RAID controller and a Thunderbolt™ 5 interface, it delivers bandwidth of up to 80 Gb/s, and up to 120 Gb/s thanks to Bandwidth Boost technology. The 12N model utilizes Tri-Mode technology, allowing each of the twelve bays to support NVMe U.2/U.3 PCIe Gen4, SAS 12 Gb/s, and SATA 6 Gb/s drives, offering maximum configuration flexibility and top-tier performance.

It’s the ideal solution for film studios, post-production facilities, DIT environments, data centers, and companies working with 4K and 8K footage and massive data sets.

Key Features

• Thunderbolt™ 5 with up to 80 Gb/s bandwidth
• Bandwidth Boost technology up to 120 Gb/s
• 12 drive bays supporting:
• NVMe U.2/U.3 PCIe Gen4
• SAS 12Gb/s
• SATA 6 Gb/s
• Enterprise-class hardware RAID controller
• 8 GB of DDR4 ECC cache
• two Thunderbolt™ 5 (USB-C) ports
• compatibility with Thunderbolt 5, Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3 (Mac), and USB 3.2 Gen2
• Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 (4-lane) expansion port for connecting additional drive bays
• DisplayPort 2.1 output
• Management via Thunderbolt, Gigabit Ethernet, or LCD display
• Hardware data encryption
• Support for SED (Self-Encrypting Drives)
• Active Thunderbolt™ 5 120 Gb/s cable included.

Tri-Mode – complete configuration flexibility

The biggest advantage of the ARC-8050T5U-12N model is its use of Tri-Mode technology, which allows you to install the following in each bay:

• NVMe U.2/U.3 PCIe Gen4 drives,
• 12 Gb/s SAS drives,
• 6 Gb/s SATA drives.

You can build both ultra-fast NVMe arrays for editing 8K content and high-capacity SAS or SATA configurations designed for data archiving. What’s more, different types of storage media can work together on a single platform, making it easy to tailor the configuration to your specific needs.

Thunderbolt 5 – A New Level of Performance

With two Thunderbolt™ 5 ports, users get:

• bandwidth of up to 80 Gb/s,
• up to 120 Gb/s in Bandwidth Boost mode,
• the ability to drive two 6K monitors simultaneously,
• support for up to 6 Thunderbolt devices via daisy chaining,
• and compatibility with computers equipped exclusively with a USB-C port (USB 3.2 Gen2).

Enterprise-Class Hardware RAID

At the heart of the device is a high-performance RAID-on-Chip (ROC) controller with a 1.6 GHz Dual-Core ARM A15 processor and 8 GB of DDR4 ECC memory, which performs all RAID operations in hardware without taxing the computer’s CPU.

Supported RAID levels:

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

The device also offers enterprise-class features such as:

• Online RAID Level Migration,
• Online Capacity Expansion,
• Array Roaming,
• Auto Rebuild,
• Background Initialization,
• SMART monitoring,
• hardware encryption of the controller and SED drives.
• Scalability up to 512 drives

The ARC-8050T5U-12N model is equipped with a Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 (4-lane) port designed for connecting external SAS expanders, such as the Areca ARC-4038.

This allows the system to be expanded to up to 512 drives while maintaining full hardware RAID functionality and high performance. It’s the ideal solution for users whose storage capacity needs are constantly growing.

Ideal for Apple Mac and Windows

The ARC-8050T5U-12N array is designed for professional users:

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

The device also works with computers equipped exclusively with a USB-C port, ensuring broad compatibility.

Technical Specifications

• Model: Areca ARC-8050T5U-12N
• Number of bays: 12
• 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 PCIe Gen4, SAS 12 Gb/s, SATA 6 Gb/s
• RAID controller: Dual-Core ARM A15 1.6 GHz RAID-on-Chip
• Cache: 8 GB DDR4 ECC
• Expansion port: 1 × Mini SAS HD SFF-8644 (4-lane)
• Management port: 1 × Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45)
• Supported RAID levels: 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60, JBOD, Single Disk
• Video output: DisplayPort 2.1
• Daisy chain up to 6 Thunderbolt devices
• Cooling: 2 × 90 mm fans + 1 × 40 mm fan
• Power supply: 400 W
• Dimensions: 206 × 310 × 290 mm
• Weight: approx. 9.5 kg
• Operating system: macOS 15.3 or later, Windows 11 (23H2) or later; USB – system-independent
• Includes an active Thunderbolt™ 5 120 Gb/s cable

Ideal Applications

The Areca ARC-8050T5U-12N is perfect for:

• professional editing of 4K, 6K, and 8K footage,
• film post-production,
• television production,
• working with Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, and Avid Media Composer,
• photography and graphic design,
• DIT environments,
• data archiving,
• data centers,
• AI applications and big data analysis,
• and enterprises requiring the highest performance and scalability.

Why buy from Abart Pro?

Abart Pro is the official partner of the Areca brand in Poland and provides professional storage solutions for macOS and Windows users. Our product lineup includes Thunderbolt RAID arrays, RAID controllers, and NVMe, SAS, and Fibre Channel solutions designed for film studios, photographers, content creators, and data centers. We offer expert technical consulting, assistance in selecting the optimal configuration, and support in designing high-performance and secure storage systems tailored to our customers’ individual needs.