OWC Shipping ThunderBay Flex 8 Media Workflow Thunderbolt 3 Storage Solution

OWC (Other World Computing, Inc.) announced that their ThunderBay Flex 8 media workflow solution, revealed at CES 2020, is shipping.

An approach for Thunderbolt 3 storage, dollar for dollar, it’s the better way for media professionals to handle their storage, connectivity, and PCIe expansion needs.

ThunderBay Flex 8 media workflow solution
The ThunderBay Flex 8 is a recipient of the 2020 Future Best of Show Award, presented by Video Edge. Video Edge awarded the ThunderBay Flex 8 their Special Edition Best of Show Award in the store, charge and connect category. The awards are evaluated by a panel of engineers and industry experts, and are selected based on innovation, feature set, cost efficiency and performance in serving the industry. A Special Edition of the award program was held this year in the absence of a physical NAB Show.

ThunderBay Flex 8 front and rear

Get it done faster, better and cheaper
Fix three bugs with one line of code and turn Mac into a HPC with this configurable workhorse for high-end video, VFX, on-set DIT, and finishing work. It’s fast storage, a dock, and PCI expansion combined into a next gen form factor.

The ThunderBay Flex 8 simplifies complex storage and expansion needs for professionals into a single easy to configure, adaptable solution. The Mac will never be unprepared for a client job again.

Flexible storage:

• 8 drive bays: maximize 3.5″ SATA/SAS ⁽¹⁾ bays for up to 128TB of capacity

• Future ready: top 4 bays can alternately use U.2 SSDs and you can create a hybrid config with real world speeds up to 2,750MB/s

• RAID: design RAID config to your exact specs with SoftRAID

Docking flexibility:

• Connect more: 1xUSB-C and 32xUSB-A 10Gb/s ports for peripherals and mobile devices

• See more: DisplayPort 1.4 for connecting up to an 8K display ⁽⁴⁾

• Fast media ingest: front-side SD 4.0 and CFexpress card readers with up to 985MB/s speed

• Do more: second Thunderbolt 3 port ⁽³⁾ for daisy chaining devices or additional display(s)

Flexpandable:
Pick your card: one PCIe slot for audio/video capture, networking, SSD storage, hardware RAID card, or I/O card

Design for:

• In house post pros who need their Mac to do be able to do it all

• DIT’s in the field with serious storage and performance needs

• Work from home high performance editor with demanding clients and serious deadlines

• High end VFX artists with 4K EXR, DPX delivery needs

• Serious colorists and finishing professionals who need a fast Mac, connectivity and storage

Flex storage however you need to
The company suggests 4 sample configurations:

• Maximum configurability

  • • Flex 8 DIY enclosure

    • Add your own drives and PCIe card for the flexibility to configure, and reconfigure, for a solution your project and data needs.

• Maximum capacity

  • • Flex 8 HDD

    • For RAW, 4K, large format, and VR workflows. Arrives pre-set with RAID-5 speed and protection.

• Maximum flexibility

  • • Flex 8 – 4SSDx4HDD

    • Fast, high-capacity SSD RAID-0 project drive for large-format, multi-stream workflows along with the added long-term storage security of an HDD RAID-5.

• Maximum workflow

  • • Flex 8 – 1+7

    • Ingest and edit live on a fast U.2 SSD or use the drive as a swappable transport for fast lab processing while being able to edit and store entire projects on the high capacity HDD RAID-5 array.

Includes SoftRAID: Easy and complete drive management
Optimize and protect your data with SoftRAID for Mac and Windows. It makes RAID creation easy, no matter which type you need. Configure your preference of speed, size, and/or redundancy for your volume and start working.

Built for future standards
Right out of the packaging, all 8 bays can utilize 6Gb SATAb/s 2.5-inch SSDs or 3.5-inch HDDs. The top 4 bays are NVMe U.2 SSD ready which means ThunderBay Flex 8 will be future proofed vs. whatever future workflow the world throws at you.

Life on-set just got lighter and easier
Sending big drives to and from set is tedious, heavy and expensive. The ThunderBay Flex 8 is compatible with the firm’s U.2 NVMe interchange System (sold separately). This allows you to keep Flex 8 on set as you swap drives to and from post with easy to transport containers that prevent costly wear and tear on your unit.

Detach but stay connected
Eject the ThunderBay Flex 8 drives and any external drives in a single click with the free firm’s Dock Ejector app. It ensures all data has been written before any drive is unmounted to protect vs. data loss. It will also warn you from accidentally ejecting an in-use drive.

Flexpandable
By removing the enclosure’s side panel, you can expand capabilities by installing a half-length, full-height, single-width expansion card in the PCIe x16 connector/x4 lanes slot. Typical uses for this for professionals are an i/o card, 10GbE networking card, additional NVMe storage, SATA/SAS or other connectivity cards.

“The OWC team designed and engineered the ThunderBay Flex 8 with great feedback and insight from all of the guys and gals out in the field working on high-level endeavors and creations married to an expert understanding what the future held in terms of new standards and opportunities to meet these user’s needs beyond imagined expectations,” said Larry O’Connor, founder and CEO. “We continuously strive to provide the very best for all of our users, so that they can do their best and not have to worry or even think twice about their connections and storage while they are working. With OWC, user’s works are safe, and we are excited to offer this new industry standard in the ThunderBay Flex 8, to be an even bigger and better part of the creative process. We are also absolutely thrilled to have received the Video Edge Special Edition Best of Show Award in the store, charge and connect category. Being validated by our customers and with industry recognition means the world to all of us at OWC.“

“OWC’s new ThunderBay Flex 8 provides a storage and connectivity approach in utilizing Thunderbolt 3 capabilities,” said Jason Ziller, GM, client connectivity division, Intel Corp. “It is exciting to see OWC continue to push the limits of what’s possible with yet another innovative solution for their customers.“

ThunderBay Flex 8 comes with same experience you have come to expect with company’s products:

• Plug and play with no drivers needed and includes Thunderbolt 3 cable

• Free lifetime US-based support

• Worry-free ownership with up to 5-year firm’s limited warranty

The ThunderBay Flex 8 integrated storage, docking and PCIe expansion solution is available at MacSales.com and other online retailers, from 0GB enclosure (add your own drives) or from 16TB to 128TB solutions. Pricing is from $1,199.00.

⁽¹⁾ Requires SAS drive controller.
⁽²⁾ Requires M.2 to U.2 adapter.
⁽³⁾ Apple Mac models with Thunderbolt 2/Thunderbolt ports can be connected using an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter (sold separately). This configuration provides data transfer at up to 20Gb but does not support notebook charging.
⁽⁴⁾ Full DisplayPort 1.4 capabilities depends on host computer support of DisplayPort 1.4 spec through its Thunderbolt 3 connection, host computer GPU capabilities, and connecting cable capabilities.

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