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About OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 is a Thunderbolt RAID enclosure that connects directly to your computer.
It contains eight drive bays and is intended as a high-speed mass storage medium connected directly to an Apple Mac or PC via the Thunderbolt port.
What sets the OWC Flex 8 apart is that it is more than just a drive enclosure.
In addition to eight drive slots, OWC Flex 8 includes:
- Multiport docking station with USB 3.1 and USB-C ports on the front of the device
- Built-in fast SD and CFexpress card reader
- 2x PCI-e slot
- 85W Thunderbolt port - allows you to connect additional peripherals or charge your laptop
- An additional 15W Thunderbolt port to power peripherals requiring lower power, preventing monopolization of the 85W port
U.2 SSD: Different top four slot configuration
Another cool thing about the OWC Flex 8 is that unlike other SATA/SAS drive solutions; The top 4 drive bays also support U.2.
U.2 SSDs may look like typical SATA SSDs, but they connect via high-speed PCI-e lanes, giving them incredible performance. Even a single U.2 SSD provides blazing-fast cache, while combining multiples in RAID0 will deliver blazing speeds.
Flexibility – this is the basis of OWC Flex 8
Adding up all these functions, you get a system that allows for many configurations for various applications.
A few examples include:
Using the four U.2 slots on the top row of the device to create a super-fast RAID0 SSD for caching.
Using the built-in card reader to quickly copy media.
Using a spare PCI-e slot to add additional storage, a network card, or for video capture cards, e.g. adding a DeckLink card to a machine without PCI slots (such as Mac Mini, Macbook Pro or iMac.
SoftRAID or not to SoftRAID?
It is worth mentioning that Flex 8 does not come with hardware RAID. Running it in a RAID5 configuration requires a RAID solution – software or hardware.
OWC Flex 8 comes with a license for OWC's SoftRAID software, which is a powerful software RAID system for Windows and macOS. An additional cool thing is that the SoftRAID driver is included with default macOS installations, so if you buy Flex 8 pre-configured with RAID5 - you can simply connect it to any Mac and see the volume instantly!
If you're using a PC - OWC offers SoftRAID which runs in RAID0 and RAID1 (mirror), with RAID5 support coming soon. Windows 10 also comes with built-in RAID0 and RAID5 software, which can be configured using the drives in Flex 8.
But another cool option is that OWC Flex 8 allows you to install a dedicated hardware RAID card.
As previously described, the Flex 8 has two built-in PCI slots. In the default configuration, the SATA controller occupies one slot and is connected to the drive bays. You can replace this controller with a SAS controller (if you want to use SAS drives) or a SATA or SAS hardware RAID controller.
This second configuration is universal if you use Flex 8 for cross-platform mobile storage. Simply format your hardware RAID volume in HFS+ and access it on your Mac or PC (with software like MacDrive) – without having to worry about the type of RAID software you're using.
SIP, Secure Boot and SoftRAID driver installation
The SoftRAID driver installed with macOS is usually not the latest version. If you need the latest and greatest SoftRAID driver, you need to follow a few steps to install it. If your Mac has a T2 security chip, this involves adjusting some boot security permissions.
To install the latest SoftRAID driver – you must disable Apple Secure Boot. There are some basic things to know about this (it's not as bad as it seems):
You don't need to install the latest SoftRAID driver. Currently, SoftRaid 5.8.1 that comes with macOS works very well, is reliable and efficient. If this were not the case, Apple would not have included it in the version of its operating system.
There is a BIG difference between disabling Apple Secure Boot for the RAID driver and disabling Apple SIP (System Integrity Protection). SIP is a feature introduced in OSX 10.11 that constantly monitors all system files, ensuring that no software (malignant or not) corrupts your OS installation.
Disabling Secure Boot allows necessary third-party software to load within the first few minutes after power-up; but SIP still runs in the background, protecting the operating system.
OWC SoftRAID drivers do not require disabling SIP - so there is no need to worry when following OWC installation instructions.
ThunderBay Flex 8 from OWC: performance by the numbers
So – how does Flex 8 work? Configured with a single, fast U.2 SSD for quickly caching things like image sequences, and a seven-drive RAID5 for storing backups of larger media files, the Flex 8's performance is impressive.
Working and editing on a RAID disk takes place in real time, without any difficulties or problems.
Caching on a U.2 SSD also works well.
Blackmagic Design disk speed test
A single U.2 SSD achieved read speeds of over 2,300 MB/s. RAID0 of more U.2 would be even faster. The seven-drive RAID5 array also performed well, achieving write speeds of over 650 MB/s and read speeds of 510 MB/s. Fast enough for almost any modern post-production media format, all in a RAID5 configuration. Configuring the disks in a RAID0 array will provide even greater speeds.
AJA system test
Using the AJA System Test, with the image frame size set to UHD, I consistently achieve significantly higher speeds:
So in the final analysis – there is no doubt that the Flex 8 is very fast. Different loads and different tests with different applications running will produce different results (even on the same system!), but in real-world use the performance is excellent.
And the PCI slot? There are up to 4 PCI lanes (maximum possible number of lanes compatible with Thunderbolt). You can use it, for example, to host a DeckLink 4k card - and it works perfectly, even in 10-bit 4K resolutions.
It works seamlessly, as if the card was in the computer. She had no issues with frame skipping or disconnection.
Is Flex 8 by OWC the right solution for you?
We present three different example configurations for three different work models.
These use cases should help you decide if it's right for you.
Configuration 1: Basic workstation
If you're a freelancer, photographer, videographer, editor, or a little bit of all of that - OWC Flex 8 is a fantastic option for direct storage. Let's configure the kit for use with an extensive iMac or iMac Pro setup:
6x 18TB HDDs
2x 8TB U.2 SSDs
1x PCI-e DeckLink Mini Monitor 4k card
Optional – Aktio Node Titan eGPU case with AMD GPU installed.
In this configuration – you have a huge 90 TB, fast, fault-tolerant RAID5 storage. It's fast enough for most work - but for heavier projects like RAW or image sequences, you also have super-fast 16TB RAID0 U.2 RAID0.
For most data, you store it on a fault-tolerant RAID5 volume - and you also cache it on a RAID0 SSD for maximum performance.
Using the PCI Flex 8 slot for DeckLink Mini Monitor 4k - you get full 4k SDI output at a reasonable price. A similar standalone Thunderbolt box for SDI output costs more than twice as much. The Flex 8 also offers a second Thunderbolt port - so if you need more GPU performance in the future, you can add an eGPU enclosure.
As a bonus, you get easy-access, front-mounted USB ports and a high-speed card reader for connecting client drives/media.
Configuration 2: Auxiliary station
You can also use the OWC Flex 8 in this setup.
Let's say you're a photographer or videographer and you have a high-performance workstation connecting to your existing high-speed shared storage.
Substations are a great way to offload non-color tasks like compliance/editing/graphics/email/etc., and create a fantastic platform for running software oscilloscopes like ScopeBox or OmniScope.
For this secondary station setup, you can use a latest-generation Mac Mini with Thunderbolt support and add:
OWC Flex 8 with 8x 12TB HDDs 10GbE
network card installed in a free PCIe port
But why so much disk space? Because the secondary station is the perfect tool for regular backups of your current projects! You can use 10G Ethernet to connect to shared storage and then use rsync or Carbon Copy Cloner to create nightly backups of all your current projects.
This configuration provides great security and ease of disaster recovery.
If a major failure of the shared storage system occurs, you can simply disconnect Flex 8 from the secondary station and connect it to your main Mac Pro and continue working without interruption! It's a great backup plan in the event of a big breakdown, and because Flex 8 is fast enough to act directly - you can get to it in the blink of an eye.
Setup 3: DIT or on-set storage solution
OWC Flex 8 is also the perfect solution for storing and transmitting media on set. Thanks to its 85W Thunderbolt port, you can connect it to a modern Macbook Pro - using it to both store and power your laptop.
An example on-set configuration includes:
4x 16TB HDDs
4x 8TB U.2 SSDs - or 4x OWC U.2 Shuttle bays 4x NVMe M.2 SSD
OWC U.2 multi-connector U.2 swap system
DeckLink 4K mini monitor
Optional - hardware card RAID, facilitating connections between Mac and PC computers.
Again, in this configuration we fill the PCI slot with a DeckLink card for video inputs/outputs - and similarly to the freelancer/photographer configuration - we choose a cheaper card with only the output. As a DIT requiring SDI input is unlikely.
Using OWC's U.2 exchange system to manage media on set
One great use for the Flex 8 on set is that it can be paired with OWC's U.2 swap system, seamlessly moving SSDs between systems. This system allows you to place removable SSD drives in the top 4 Flex 8 slots, copy media from the main RAID5 array to them, and then pull them out to give to clients, editors, graphic designers, etc. - after a quick copy.
The U.2 swap system itself is pretty cool. It consists of a special bus and a PCI docking station for converting a small PCI Thunderbolt3 enclosure called Helios 3S into a U.2 SSD replacement system via Thunderbolt.
In practice it looks like this:
Copy the media from the main RAID5 array to one of the 4 U.2 SSDs in the top row.
Use OWC Dock Ejector software to eject the SSD from the operating system
Remove this SSD from the case
Remove the SSD from the Flex 8 drive rails
Pass the SSD sled to someone else with a Helios case and dock for quick access
Final conclusions
As you can see, Flex 8's greatest strength is its configurability. You can build the system anywhere with any parameters related to your work model.
We have provided three sample configurations that only partially demonstrate the capabilities of OWC Flex 8.
The system can be expanded in any way, as you can use the PCI slot to add a multitude of different tools specific to your work model. For example, mass storage interfaces, specialized sound cards, graphics cards and many others.
From a cost standpoint, the Flex 8 is a fantastic bargain. One OWC Flex 8 device can replace four different, dedicated devices:
Card reader for copying client media
Thunderbolt Enclosure PCIe
Hub USB
Direct Attached Thunderbolt RAID
OWC Flex 8 is cheaper and easy to customize. Additionally, if your needs change, it can be easily reconfigured to new needs.
Source: https://mixinglight.com
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