OWC ThunderBay 8 Thunderbolt 3 Storage Enclosure

Have wanted one of these for years. A little spendy though but works great. EASY to set up. So far been a workhorse. Wish it was quieter though.

it seemed to have good read and writes and is in a nice case but the fan arrived dead and I didn't know until a few days later. ugh.

The hardware is great. You can store a vast amount of data on this if you use big enough drives. Set up is easy. The unit is well made a sturdy. The software is very good, but it is not included with the system and it is subscription based so you will be paying for it every year.

Well my Drobo 5D finally died. I lost all my data. I think one of the drives "healed" and after that things went downhill . Drobo is no longer supported either. It was definitely a great device, but had to move onSo I read all the reviews and decided to give this 8 bay OWC a try. I love it!First its awesome lookingSecond its not that loud as others are saying, maybe if you are sitting right next to it, but I have in the basement next to my mac mini server, so It dont bother me one bitThird tech support is fast. I chatted online about a few questions, responded within minutes!Fourth I really like the soft Raid, it is so easy to use, even I did it!Only issue I dont like is that if I add another hard drive, the RAID 5 volume I already have cant be expanded without backing it up first and erasing it etc, but thats ok!great purchase so far!

I have at least 5 OWC enclosures as well as enclosures from other manufacturers. it is important to keep in mind that these enclosures require softraid to run RAID arrays so software updates are a regular thing as well as invoices for those updates. I spend 3-4 hours each quarter or about 10 hours a year with softraid customer service dealing with some issue. The customer service people are great but they may be over their heads with this software. OWC is not a software company they are a retailer who decided to get into software and it shows. I have had a complete losses of data on a raid array using a Thunderbay with softraid that the customer service people could not prevent or explain. If you use this system I recommend simple raid arrays like 1 or 1+0. When I tried a raid 5 it resulted in a total loss of all data with no explanation from tech support.Another issue is if you want to move your enclosures to other computers. Softraid does not allow this unless the other computers use softraid, so keep that in mind.The enclosures also have short warrantees in my opinion. The OWC Thunderbay is the only enclosure I have had to throw away because it simply died and was out of warrantee. This was a different enclosure from the one that lost all data. It felt strange to me to throw away a 4 bay enclosure because my shelves are full of old enclosures from other companies that I simply retired because they were Esata or older Usb. I am not sure what causes a OWC enclosure to simply stop working and need to be thrown in the trash.The most reliable OWC enclosures I own are the older ones that do not use Softraid and I have never had to pay yearly fees to keep them running.I am not sure if I will buy any more OWC enclosures and I wanted others to understand that this is not set and forget system but one that will require ongoing troubleshooting and expenses.

Well, this storage is exactly what I wanted. My only concern is the noise level (approximately) 42dB with two HDDs installed. I might replace the fan with a quieter model.Otherwise, it is extremely well-built. A decent device.

This product is very solid, metal parts, easy to use. A lot of competitors products are made out of mostly plastic parts, and feel fairly flimsy. I wish OWC made a product like this that had more than 8 bays.

I initiated a repair request since their enclosure isn't transportable (I later found out). Warranty ends after 12 months and I asked if they can repair, at which I would pay. They promptly stated there are no repair options and I now have a heavy paperweight. Will not buy an OWC product again.