Last updated at 10/05/2026 23:03:01
96TB OWC ThunderBay 8 Thunderbolt 3 RAID Enterprise Drive Storage Solution With SoftRAID
Delivery between 14–20 May $12
OWC Thunderbay 8 96TB Enterprise Hard Drive Models with SoftRAID by Ramcity
Delivery between 13–18 May $13.95
OWC Thunderbay 8 96TB Enterprise Hard Drive Models with SoftRAID
Delivery between Tue – Thu $12.90
originally posted on bhphotovideo.com
I've had several 8-Bay RAID enclosures (Both Hardware and Software) for years but most on the market from trusted brands come pre-configured with drives. This is convenient but comes at a premium when compared to purchasing the enclosure and selecting the specific drives that you want. All drives fail and I've had some fair fairly quickly within the pre-configured and 'tested' RAID enclosures. I bought this particular RAID enclosure because has Thunderbolt 3 and I can daisy chain other thunderbolt enclosures.The RAID configuration software OWC SoftRAID is clunky but does the job. Have the software handy on a USB stick in case you need to reinstall the OS.I wish the cooling fan was a bit quieter. You may want to consider buying a super quiet 92mm cooling fan to ... MoreI've had several 8-Bay RAID enclosures (Both Hardware and Software) for years but most on the market from trusted brands come pre-configured with drives. This is convenient but comes at a premium when compared to purchasing the enclosure and selecting the specific drives that you want. All drives fail and I've had some fair fairly quickly within the pre-configured and 'tested' RAID enclosures. I bought this particular RAID enclosure because has Thunderbolt 3 and I can daisy chain other thunderbolt enclosures.The RAID configuration software OWC SoftRAID is clunky but does the job. Have the software handy on a USB stick in case you need to reinstall the OS.I wish the cooling fan was a bit quieter. You may want to consider buying a super quiet 92mm cooling fan to replace it. The Noctua NF-A9 FLX cooling fan has been recommended on several forums.
originally posted on macsales.com
When I was advised that my DROBO would not be supported when I upgraded to the new MAC OS, I started looking for a new storage device. It didn't take long to find the OWC ThunderBay. I opted to go with the TB 8 as I am replacing two Drobo 5D units. Installation was easy enough and with the help of a couple YouTube videos, getting the SoftRaid program was not a problem. I selected the Raid 5 to be the fastest performance while still protecting my data. There were a couple hiccups, however. I started with 4 drives on my TB 8 - three 6TB and one 4TB, thinking that I could easily add the four more drives as the need for more memory arose. WRONG!I should mention that I am a photographer and use my TB 8 to store big, RAW photo files. Think ahead when you set up the TB 8, ... MoreWhen I was advised that my DROBO would not be supported when I upgraded to the new MAC OS, I started looking for a new storage device. It didn't take long to find the OWC ThunderBay. I opted to go with the TB 8 as I am replacing two Drobo 5D units. Installation was easy enough and with the help of a couple YouTube videos, getting the SoftRaid program was not a problem. I selected the Raid 5 to be the fastest performance while still protecting my data. There were a couple hiccups, however. I started with 4 drives on my TB 8 - three 6TB and one 4TB, thinking that I could easily add the four more drives as the need for more memory arose. WRONG!I should mention that I am a photographer and use my TB 8 to store big, RAW photo files. Think ahead when you set up the TB 8, as right now, you CANNOT add more drives to the existing RAID 5 without reformatting and losing your data.. (Backup and restore a second time!), and finally, with the DROBO, I could switch out a lower capacity drive with a higher capacity drive. Again, WRONG! You can replace a failing drive, but only with a drive of the same size. So much for built in flexibility. I hope OWC will find a way to increase drive capacity on the fly. I have settled for three 6TB and five 4TB drives. Unless they can improve here, it might have been better to get two of the ThunderBay 4 units.So, that being said, the unit is solid and not at all noisy like I read in one review. I have not really looked over the features in detail, but all looks good so far. I love the Thunderbolt 3 connection, as it is faster than my previous storage. The 'wake-up' could be a little faster, but once it is running, everything is speedy.
originally posted on bhphotovideo.com
Good DAS with loads of storage and fast Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. Can throw eight 16TB drives in here and get 128TB of storage, which then reduces in size depending on which flavor of RAID you choose. I formatted mine using RAID 5 (which protects against a single drive failure). Once built, the ThunderBay is plenty fast for editing photos and 4K videos directly off the RAID volume.Main things I don't like are the fan and key lock enclosure. The fan is fairly loud, and runs constantly. Second, the latch is locked and unlocked using a set of custom keys. Would be a big problem if the keys were lost, so I keep the keys in the door. Unfortunately the keys vibrate and make noise. Wish there was an option for a simpler, magnetized plate.(FYI, check out my YouTube ... MoreGood DAS with loads of storage and fast Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. Can throw eight 16TB drives in here and get 128TB of storage, which then reduces in size depending on which flavor of RAID you choose. I formatted mine using RAID 5 (which protects against a single drive failure). Once built, the ThunderBay is plenty fast for editing photos and 4K videos directly off the RAID volume.Main things I don't like are the fan and key lock enclosure. The fan is fairly loud, and runs constantly. Second, the latch is locked and unlocked using a set of custom keys. Would be a big problem if the keys were lost, so I keep the keys in the door. Unfortunately the keys vibrate and make noise. Wish there was an option for a simpler, magnetized plate.(FYI, check out my YouTube channel under my name above for a more extensive review)
| General | |
| Device Type | Hard drive array |
| Chassis | |
| Built-in Devices | LED panel |
| Installed Devices / Modules Qty | 8 |
96TB OWC ThunderBay 8 Thunderbolt 3 RAID Enterprise Drive Storage Solution With SoftRAID
Delivery between 14–20 May $12
OWC Thunderbay 8 96TB Enterprise Hard Drive Models with SoftRAID by Ramcity
Delivery between 13–18 May $13.95
OWC Thunderbay 8 96TB Enterprise Hard Drive Models with SoftRAID
Delivery between Tue – Thu $12.90
I've had several 8-Bay RAID enclosures (Both Hardware and Software) for years but most on the market from trusted brands come pre-configured with drives. This is convenient but comes at a premium when compared to purchasing the enclosure and selecting the specific drives that you want. All drives fail and I've had some fair fairly quickly within the pre-configured and 'tested' RAID enclosures. I bought this particular RAID enclosure because has Thunderbolt 3 and I can daisy chain other thunderbolt enclosures.The RAID configuration software OWC SoftRAID is clunky but does the job. Have the software handy on a USB stick in case you need to reinstall the OS.I wish the cooling fan was a bit quieter. You may want to consider buying a super quiet 92mm cooling fan to ... MoreI've had several 8-Bay RAID enclosures (Both Hardware and Software) for years but most on the market from trusted brands come pre-configured with drives. This is convenient but comes at a premium when compared to purchasing the enclosure and selecting the specific drives that you want. All drives fail and I've had some fair fairly quickly within the pre-configured and 'tested' RAID enclosures. I bought this particular RAID enclosure because has Thunderbolt 3 and I can daisy chain other thunderbolt enclosures.The RAID configuration software OWC SoftRAID is clunky but does the job. Have the software handy on a USB stick in case you need to reinstall the OS.I wish the cooling fan was a bit quieter. You may want to consider buying a super quiet 92mm cooling fan to replace it. The Noctua NF-A9 FLX cooling fan has been recommended on several forums.
When I was advised that my DROBO would not be supported when I upgraded to the new MAC OS, I started looking for a new storage device. It didn't take long to find the OWC ThunderBay. I opted to go with the TB 8 as I am replacing two Drobo 5D units. Installation was easy enough and with the help of a couple YouTube videos, getting the SoftRaid program was not a problem. I selected the Raid 5 to be the fastest performance while still protecting my data. There were a couple hiccups, however. I started with 4 drives on my TB 8 - three 6TB and one 4TB, thinking that I could easily add the four more drives as the need for more memory arose. WRONG!I should mention that I am a photographer and use my TB 8 to store big, RAW photo files. Think ahead when you set up the TB 8, ... MoreWhen I was advised that my DROBO would not be supported when I upgraded to the new MAC OS, I started looking for a new storage device. It didn't take long to find the OWC ThunderBay. I opted to go with the TB 8 as I am replacing two Drobo 5D units. Installation was easy enough and with the help of a couple YouTube videos, getting the SoftRaid program was not a problem. I selected the Raid 5 to be the fastest performance while still protecting my data. There were a couple hiccups, however. I started with 4 drives on my TB 8 - three 6TB and one 4TB, thinking that I could easily add the four more drives as the need for more memory arose. WRONG!I should mention that I am a photographer and use my TB 8 to store big, RAW photo files. Think ahead when you set up the TB 8, as right now, you CANNOT add more drives to the existing RAID 5 without reformatting and losing your data.. (Backup and restore a second time!), and finally, with the DROBO, I could switch out a lower capacity drive with a higher capacity drive. Again, WRONG! You can replace a failing drive, but only with a drive of the same size. So much for built in flexibility. I hope OWC will find a way to increase drive capacity on the fly. I have settled for three 6TB and five 4TB drives. Unless they can improve here, it might have been better to get two of the ThunderBay 4 units.So, that being said, the unit is solid and not at all noisy like I read in one review. I have not really looked over the features in detail, but all looks good so far. I love the Thunderbolt 3 connection, as it is faster than my previous storage. The 'wake-up' could be a little faster, but once it is running, everything is speedy.
Good DAS with loads of storage and fast Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. Can throw eight 16TB drives in here and get 128TB of storage, which then reduces in size depending on which flavor of RAID you choose. I formatted mine using RAID 5 (which protects against a single drive failure). Once built, the ThunderBay is plenty fast for editing photos and 4K videos directly off the RAID volume.Main things I don't like are the fan and key lock enclosure. The fan is fairly loud, and runs constantly. Second, the latch is locked and unlocked using a set of custom keys. Would be a big problem if the keys were lost, so I keep the keys in the door. Unfortunately the keys vibrate and make noise. Wish there was an option for a simpler, magnetized plate.(FYI, check out my YouTube ... MoreGood DAS with loads of storage and fast Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. Can throw eight 16TB drives in here and get 128TB of storage, which then reduces in size depending on which flavor of RAID you choose. I formatted mine using RAID 5 (which protects against a single drive failure). Once built, the ThunderBay is plenty fast for editing photos and 4K videos directly off the RAID volume.Main things I don't like are the fan and key lock enclosure. The fan is fairly loud, and runs constantly. Second, the latch is locked and unlocked using a set of custom keys. Would be a big problem if the keys were lost, so I keep the keys in the door. Unfortunately the keys vibrate and make noise. Wish there was an option for a simpler, magnetized plate.(FYI, check out my YouTube channel under my name above for a more extensive review)
I have used Thunderbay products for years but starting in 2022 the reliability and customer service has really taken a large dive. They have also now moved to a 100 dollar a year subscription for the software. This was not announced but customers were left to face a “upgrade your software licence” after updating our OS.Last year clients were all forced to upgrade the software when OS X upgraded. This was explained as a requirement due to the new security model. It seemed understandable but the upgrade also seemed to introduce multiple kernel panics and constant reboots. This continued regularly for 9 months until Apple released an upgrade in June. The product still causes kernel panics after a cold boot and must be unplugged. Yes, I have spent many hours ... MoreI have used Thunderbay products for years but starting in 2022 the reliability and customer service has really taken a large dive. They have also now moved to a 100 dollar a year subscription for the software. This was not announced but customers were left to face a “upgrade your software licence” after updating our OS.Last year clients were all forced to upgrade the software when OS X upgraded. This was explained as a requirement due to the new security model. It seemed understandable but the upgrade also seemed to introduce multiple kernel panics and constant reboots. This continued regularly for 9 months until Apple released an upgrade in June. The product still causes kernel panics after a cold boot and must be unplugged. Yes, I have spent many hours troubleshooting with the company. This year after upgrading my OSX I was faced with a “pay for licence” screen and I am unable to access the software. It locked me out of the software and I can not even uninstall the software unless I figure out the terminal commands. How is this service?Two stars because the enclosure performance is really good when it is not rebooting my system and the RAID rebuild process was really good. I am looking at other options now.
I am using this with three 24TB Seagate Iron Wolf Pro hard drives (eventually will fill out the remaining 5 slots). I'm not using Raid, and each drive has its own name (no JBOD). Very easy to install the drives. My only quibble is that the front panel could be a little easier to read as the drive letters are very small and faint, and the lights could be a bit bigger/brighter. It makes a little noise, but unless you have to do some recording nearby, I don't think it would bother anyone.Speed is about 265 GB/s, a bit faster than my Lacie external which was around 240 (USB 3.2). These drives are mainly for archive storage, although I imagine I will do some video editing directly from these drives from time-to-time. My main editing drive will be the OWC Express 4M2 ... MoreI am using this with three 24TB Seagate Iron Wolf Pro hard drives (eventually will fill out the remaining 5 slots). I'm not using Raid, and each drive has its own name (no JBOD). Very easy to install the drives. My only quibble is that the front panel could be a little easier to read as the drive letters are very small and faint, and the lights could be a bit bigger/brighter. It makes a little noise, but unless you have to do some recording nearby, I don't think it would bother anyone.Speed is about 265 GB/s, a bit faster than my Lacie external which was around 240 (USB 3.2). These drives are mainly for archive storage, although I imagine I will do some video editing directly from these drives from time-to-time. My main editing drive will be the OWC Express 4M2 with 16TB, possibly expanding to 32TB.I'll also be buying a longer thunderbolt cable for this--the included cable just doesn't give much room to set things up comfortably.
This, and my OWC Thunderbay 4 purchased around the same time, frequently disconnect from my Mac (potentially causing data loss). OWC says to install an app called Amphetamine (available on the Mac app store) to keep the drives awake and avoid disconnects. It works, but in all my decades of using Macs I've *never* had this problem with other enclosures (including some from OWC) and I wonder if not allowing the drives to sleep is shortening their lives. In general, I love OWC products, and I don't know of another brand with something comparable to the Thunderbays, but I don't think I'd buy these again. BTW, using OWC's SoftRAID app makes the disconnects more frequent and, I would guess, also increases the risk of data loss. I've removed it from my computers.
I have a Thunderbay 4 and now a Thunderbay 8 and I find them simple to setup, quiet and easy to use (though I think the level of noise is somewhat dependent on the drives you purchase). I put 8 x 22TB Seagate Ironwolf HDs in a RAID 5 configuration and after spending some time certifying every drive through SoftRAID, it has worked without a hitch. I'm using this to replace a Drobo 8D and it is quieter and takes up less real estate. This is a solid purchase if you need a lot of storage space for photos and video, and at 600MB/s write and 1000MBs read, you can work directly with 4K video files.
This is my first ever RAID setup and it's painful to think I waited so long to go this route (15+ years of using individual external HDDs and SSDs).I loaded this thing with 8x 16TB IronWolf Pro drives and setup a RAID 5 (128TB = 112TB total storage with 1 drive for redundancy/recovery).The speeds I am getting with this thing average 750-800MB/s write and 1,300-1,400MB/s read. Note that you MUST use 8 total drives to achieve higher speeds like this, I see a lot of people complaining they are getting slow speeds, but they are usually using only 4 or so drives, or 5,400RPM drives.I can easily playback 6K R3D files from my Red Komodo as well as all filetypes, resolutions and frame rates from my Sony FX3.Definitely happy with this purchase and would recommend to ... MoreThis is my first ever RAID setup and it's painful to think I waited so long to go this route (15+ years of using individual external HDDs and SSDs).I loaded this thing with 8x 16TB IronWolf Pro drives and setup a RAID 5 (128TB = 112TB total storage with 1 drive for redundancy/recovery).The speeds I am getting with this thing average 750-800MB/s write and 1,300-1,400MB/s read. Note that you MUST use 8 total drives to achieve higher speeds like this, I see a lot of people complaining they are getting slow speeds, but they are usually using only 4 or so drives, or 5,400RPM drives.I can easily playback 6K R3D files from my Red Komodo as well as all filetypes, resolutions and frame rates from my Sony FX3.Definitely happy with this purchase and would recommend to any video editors who need speed, but also care about protecting their data!
Migration from a Drobo5D was fairly straightforward. Performance so far has been excellent. The unit is not as loud as several reviews complain about. It's tolerable. The Thunderbolt cable that it comes with is really quite short. SoftRAID setup was fairly straightforward although I would have appreciated a better explanation about the differences between Verify and Certify before performing these lengthy operations on five 20 TB disks. Overall I'm pleased with the purchase and how I was able to migrate my RAID to this new device.
Im buying as soon as they become available a Mac Studio Ultra but I wanted to be ready with the storage. Today I still use a Mac Pro 11 years old with internal disks. It's a fast machine but after seeing what my Macbook Air can do with video compression I decided that is time to switch. My main concern was the noise, I do have an older SATA box from OWC that I use for backup but I shut it down when is not in use due to the noise. Well, this new Thunderbay 8 is just whispering. A very well designed product, the fan probably has variable speed and my WD HDD don't make too much noise even though they are enterprise specs. One of the RAID is 3 14TB in RAID zero configuration (soft ) and I get about 750/800 MB/s , faster than when I had them installed in my old Mac Pro ... MoreIm buying as soon as they become available a Mac Studio Ultra but I wanted to be ready with the storage. Today I still use a Mac Pro 11 years old with internal disks. It's a fast machine but after seeing what my Macbook Air can do with video compression I decided that is time to switch. My main concern was the noise, I do have an older SATA box from OWC that I use for backup but I shut it down when is not in use due to the noise. Well, this new Thunderbay 8 is just whispering. A very well designed product, the fan probably has variable speed and my WD HDD don't make too much noise even though they are enterprise specs. One of the RAID is 3 14TB in RAID zero configuration (soft ) and I get about 750/800 MB/s , faster than when I had them installed in my old Mac Pro since SATA there was just 3Gbps . Silent fast, not too expensive . Nothing beat this. Also, everything was plug & play. I just moved my HDD from my Mac Pro to this box and they appeared on my Mac Air when I plugged the TB cable in. My only complain is the black color, it's nice but why black? This should have been the same color like the Macs are. At least the mainstream silver. Second minor complain the cable in the box is very short. Buy a longer cable when you buy the box unless your connected device is really next to this box.
| General | |
| Device Type | Hard drive array |
| Chassis | |
| Built-in Devices | LED panel |
| Installed Devices / Modules Qty | 8 |
OWC ThunderBay 8 - Hard Drive Array - 96 TB - 8 Bays (SATA-600) - HDD 12 TB x 8 - Thunderbolt 3 (External)
Professional Grade 8-Bay Thunderbolt 3 Storage Solution With eight hot-swappable drive bays, ThunderBay 8 is like a high-performance personal data center for lmmakers, video production pros, photographers, graphic designers and small business workgroups. It o ers massive, professional-grade storage capacity with real-world tested speed up to 2,586MB/s1 in a desktop-sized design. Use mixed drives independently or combine drives as a RAID with SoftRAID. With a locking front panel and security slot on the backside, the ThunderBay 8 is like an ironclad vault for your data. Plus, with front-panel LEDs indicating the status of each drive, youll know at a glance if your data is secure. Its rugged heat-dissipating aluminum enclosure also features two Thunderbolt 3 ports, so you can breeze through business backups all the way up to todays largest RAW photo and multi-stream 4K video formats.
Professional Grade 8-Bay Thunderbolt 3 Storage Solution With eight hot-swappable drive bays, ThunderBay 8 is like a high-performance personal data center for lmmakers, video production pros, photographers, graphic designers and small business workgroups. It o ers massive, professional-grade storage capacity with real-world tested speed up to 2,586MB/s1 in a desktop-sized design. Use mixed drives independently or combine drives as a RAID with SoftRAID. With a locking front panel and security slot on the backside, the ThunderBay 8 is like an ironclad vault for your data. Plus, with front-panel LEDs indicating the status of each drive, youll know at a glance if your data is secure. Its rugged heat-dissipating aluminum enclosure also features two Thunderbolt 3 ports, so you can breeze through business backups all the way up to todays largest RAW photo and multi-stream 4K video formats.
Professional Grade 8-Bay Thunderbolt 3 Storage Solution With eight hot-swappable drive bays, ThunderBay 8 is like a high-performance personal data center for lmmakers, video production pros, photographers, graphic designers and small business workgroups. It o ers massive, professional-grade storage capacity with real-world tested speed up to 2,586MB/s1 in a desktop-sized design. Use mixed drives independently or combine drives as a RAID with SoftRAID. With a locking front panel and security slot on the backside, the ThunderBay 8 is like an ironclad vault for your data. Plus, with front-panel LEDs indicating the status of each drive, youll know at a glance if your data is secure. Its rugged heat-dissipating aluminum enclosure also features two Thunderbolt 3 ports, so you can breeze through business backups all the way up to todays largest RAW photo and multi-stream 4K video formats.
Professional Grade 8-Bay Thunderbolt 3 Storage Solution With eight hot-swappable drive bays, ThunderBay 8 is like a high-performance personal data center for lmmakers, video production pros, photographers, graphic designers and small business workgroups. It o ers massive, professional-grade storage capacity with real-world tested speed up to 2,586MB/s1 in a desktop-sized design. Use mixed drives independently or combine drives as a RAID with SoftRAID. With a locking front panel and security slot on the backside, the ThunderBay 8 is like an ironclad vault for your data. Plus, with front-panel LEDs indicating the status of each drive, youll know at a glance if your data is secure. Its rugged heat-dissipating aluminum enclosure also features two Thunderbolt 3 ports, so you can breeze through business backups all the way up to todays largest RAW photo and multi-stream 4K video formats.
in 3 offers
The lowest price for OWC ThunderBay 8 - Hard Drive Array - 96 TB - 8 Bays (SATA-600) - HDD 12 TB x 8 - Thunderbolt 3 (External) right now is $8,999.00 at Macfixit Australia, compared across 3 retailers.
The all-time low was $8,334.99 on 30 July 2025 — today's price is 8% above the lowest ever. That's a little above the best price we've seen.
Prices last updated 10 May 2026.
