OWC 8TB (4 x 2TB NVMe) Flex 1U4 4-Bay Rackmount Thunderbolt Storage, Docking & PCIe Expansion Solution
Overview
OWC Flex 1U4
You’ll turn your expandability and connectivity dreams into reality when you add the OWC Flex 1U4 to your rack or cart. Use a mix of 2.5 or 3.5-inch SATA/SAS and U.2/M.2 NVMe drives with four quick-access, hot-swappable drive bays. Connect mixers, keyboards, cameras, and other gear to your heart’s content as well as charge mobile devices with an ample variety of Thunderbolt and USB ports. Add up to an 8K display via DisplayPort. And when you have a custom capture, recording, networking, or storage need, the OWC Flex 1U4 lets you install a PCIe card to conquer specialised tasks.
Ideal for All Rackmount Environments
The OWC Flex 1U4 is like a bolt-in productivity supercharger for new or existing rack environments powered by a rack Mac Pro, rack PC, MacBook Pro, PC notebook, or even a Mac mini. Whether you build your own custom drive and card configuration or select one of OWC's convenient ready-to-run solutions, the OWC Flex 1U4 is ideal in a wide variety of settings…
- In school: perfect for taming ever-growing collections of digital files with easy integration and future drive capacity and performance scalability
- At work: adds Thunderbolt speed and swappable drives to server closets, server rooms, or colocation centre backup capabilities
- On stage: handles all the storage and peripheral connectivity needs “front of house” pros require for live performances
- On set: easily fits into mobile DIT carts to capture multi-stream, hi-res footage at full frame-rate while daisy-chaining up to five additional Thunderbolt devices
- In studio: expands storage and connectivity options of fixed racks
- At home: great for installers creating a high-performance home entertainment server closet
Do It U.2 It
A hallmark of OWC FLEX technology is the ability to use U.2 NVMe SSDs as well as the OWC ecosystem of U.2 drives and adapters. U.2 NVMe drives are specifically designed to maximise the PCIe bus and when combined with Thunderbolt, you’ll blast past fast with up to 2750MB/s real-world transfer speed. Whether you use your rackmount setup to complete massive backups faster, stream content during a live performance, edit large format video, or run high transactional and complex calculation applications, you can do it U.2 to it with the OWC Flex 1U4.
A Complete Swap and Share Ecosystem
The OWC Flex 1U4 goes with the flow when needing to move data outside or beyond the local network. With the OWC U.2 ecosystem, moving and sharing data is fast and easy. Swap out and ship a project from field to post in video production workflows. Move backup data to an offline colocation for backup workflows. The combination of OWC Flex 1U4 and the OWC U.2 ecosystem opens a new dimension to data transfer possibilities.
- OWC U2 ShuttleOne: convert an NVMe M.2 “blade” style SSD into a swappable 2.5-inch U.2 SSD with the peace of mind that your drive – and its content - are protected by the full metal, heat dissipating adapter
- OWC U2 Shuttle: combine four NVMe M.2 SSDs into the world’s first 3.5-inch U.2 carrier shuttle to create a swappable, massive capacity RAID solution
- OWC Helios 3S with Interchange System: create an external Thunderbolt powered set to post U.2 solution that safeguards your data while lowering shipping costs
- OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual: put blazing fast Thunderbolt powered storage and backup on a desktop with a compact two bay footprint that can use U2 ShuttleOne and U2 Shuttles
- OWC ThunderBay Flex 8: take control of your media workflow with the world’s first 3-in-1 Thunderbolt storage, docking, and PCIe expansion desktop solution. Easily swaps U2 ShuttleOne and U2 Shuttles to/from the Flex 1U4
RAID Made Easy
Harness the full capability of your OWC Flex 1U4 drive array with the included SoftRAID XT, the most powerful, intuitive RAID management software on the market for macOS and Windows. SoftRAID’s RAID creation and management technology has been finely tuned to perfection with over 20 years of development to provide rock solid protection of your data and optimise drive performance. It is packed with features like multiple RAID options, validation and verification of drives, and predictive disk failure with SoftRAID Monitor.
Certified for Demanding Use
OWC understand having confidence in gear reliability is paramount to creative professionals. That’s why OWC Flex 1U4 solutions go through a multi-step performance certification prior to shipping. This ensures they arrive operating properly and immediately ready for demanding use.
- Drive diversity: use SATA/SAS and U.2/M.2 NVMe drives for up to 128TB of capacity and real-world Thunderbolt speeds up to 2750MB/s
- Drive flexibility: swap drives quickly and easily if / when needed
- Go maximum: utilise U.2 NVMe SSDs - as well as the OWC ecosystem of U.2 drives and adapters - for incredible speed and flash density per bay
- Powerfully easy RAID: create, manage, and monitor advanced RAID sets with OWC SoftRAID
- Use it all: connect keyboards, mixers, cameras, displays, and mobile devices such as tablets with 2 x USB-C 10Gb/s and 3 x USB-A 10Gb/s ports
- See more: connect up to an 8K display to the DisplayPort 1.4 port
- Do more: add a half-length full-height single-width audio / video capture, 10Gb Ethernet, SSD storage, hardware RAID, or I/O card to the PCIe x16 lane (at x4 speed) slot
- Configurable: daisy chain up to five devices or add an additional display with the second Thunderbolt (USB-C) port
- Charge: keep your notebook powered with 85W via the upstream Thunderbolt port
Video
Since the launch of the OWC ThunderBay desktop storage line in 2014, computer users across the planet have continued to fall in love with it. They embrace its massively powerful RAID capacity and intense performance fuelled by time-tested OWC reliability.
Compatibility
Compatible with the devices listed below.
MacBook Air
MacBook Pro
Mac Pro
iMac
Mac mini
Mac Studio
iMac Pro
Specifications
- Total Capacity
-
- 8.0TB
- Standard Mechanism
-
- 4 x 2.0TB OWC U2 ShuttleOne 2.5-inch NVMe U.2 SSD
- Display Support by Port
-
- Thunderbolt 3 (Titan Ridge): up to 8K @ 60Hz or 4K @ 120Hz via a native Thunderbolt 3 display or other display that supports USB-C connections and DisplayPort 1.4
- DisplayPort 1.4: up to 8K @ 60Hz or 4K @ 120Hz
- Hot Plug Support
-
- Yes
- Certifications
-
- CE, FCC, VCCI, RCM, BSMI
- Data Transfer Rate (Maximum)
-
- Thunderbolt 3: up to 40 Gb/s (or 5000 MB/s)
- Plug and Play
-
- Yes
- RAID Features
-
- Software RAID
- Mac OS Compatibility
-
- macOS 10.15 Catalina
- macOS 11.x Big Sur
- macOS 12.x Monterey
- macOS 13.x Ventura
- PC OS Compatibility
-
- Not compatible with Windows PCs
- Power Supply
-
- Internal UL-listed universal auto-switching power supply
- AC Input
-
- 90-264V, 47-63Hz, 3.5A at 100V (max.), 1.8A at 240V (max.)
- DC Output
-
- +12V, 25A
- Wattage
-
- 300W
- Power Delivery
-
- 1 x Thunderbolt 3 port (85W)
- 1 x Thunderbolt 3 port (15W)
- 2 x USB-C ports (15W)
- Number of Bays
-
- 4
- Expansion Slots
-
- 1 x full-height, half-length PCIe 3.0 x16 (physical) slot running at PCIe 3.0 x4 lane performance
- Device Ports
-
- 1 x host port - Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) up to 40 Gb/s (5000 MB/s)
- 1 x Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C ports up to 10Gb/s (1250MB/s) - USB 2.0/3.0 backwards compatible
- 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-A ports up to 10Gb/s (1250MB/s) - USB 2.0/3.0 backwards compatible
- 1 x DisplayPort port
- Cooling
-
- 3 x cooling fans
- Security Slot
-
- No
- Power Button
-
- Yes
- Rack Space
-
- 1U
- Dimensions
-
- H: 44 x L: 456 x W: 430 mm
- Weight
-
- 7400 g
What's in the box?
- 1 x OWC Flex 1U4
- 1 x 0.7 m Thunderbolt Cable
- 1 x Rack Mounting Hardware for 18-26" Racks and Cabinets
- 1 x Assembly Manual and User Guide
- 1 x SoftRAID Software Bundle
- 1 x SoftRAID XT User Guide
Warranty
- 5 Year Limited Warranty
Part Number
- OWCTB3F1U4N008