SSD 16TB Thunderbolt external

[Rajan Parrikar]

There are currently two options for a large capacity (say, 16TB) external SSD system with Thunderbolt interface.

One is the OWC Thunderblade -

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderblade


The other is the G Technology product -

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1399613-REG/g_technology_0g10193_g_speed_shuttle_thunderbolt_3.html

OWC is SoftRAID, the G Tech is hardware RAID. The OWC Thunderblade is portable.

Has anyone used either? Are there other options for similar units?

[mcbroomf]

There is one other option from OWC, the Thunderbay 4 Mini.  Not as fast but still pretty handy.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/thunderbay-4-mini/thunderbolt-3

I use this as I had a load of 4TB SSD drive sitting around after I started using Samsung T7's for on the road storage and backup.  The unit seems fine.  I run it pairing 2 Samsung drives raid 0 and 2 Micron drives raid 0, ie ~8TB each.  They are being used as a backup to may main internal SSDs and I have slower spinning backups as well. 

I'm on Windows and I initially set up the Raids using Windows disk manager.  All went well but I then reformatted them and tried the Softraid.  I wasn't impressed.  The free version with the enclosure only allows me to put it on one device, have to buy the next level to put it on more than one, and being able to disconnect it from my desktop and use it on my laptop (which also has TB3) was a selling point.  Admittedly it's not expensive.  When I set up the raids with it, it formatted the drives into 5 partitions, with one pair leaving ~500GB unallocated (250GB each drive) and on the other pair about 2GB unallocated.  I inquired what was happening with OWC and never got a satisfactory answer.  I switched back to Raid with the Windows Disk Manager. 

Despite the above I'd recommend the hardware.  No experience with the Blade, and lastly OWC also offer this enclosure.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/express-4m2

Mike

[Rajan Parrikar]

Mike,

Thank your for your response and the links. The Thunderblade is only $220 more than your unit for the 16TB version and has a rather slim, portable profile. I haven't seen any real review yet.

There is one other option from OWC, the Thunderbay 4 Mini.  Not as fast but still pretty handy.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/thunderbay-4-mini/thunderbolt-3

I use this as I had a load of 4TB SSD drive sitting around after I started using Samsung T7's for on the road storage and backup.  The unit seems fine.  I run it pairing 2 Samsung drives raid 0 and 2 Micron drives raid 0, ie ~8TB each.  They are being used as a backup to may main internal SSDs and I have slower spinning backups as well. 

I'm on Windows and I initially set up the Raids using Windows disk manager.  All went well but I then reformatted them and tried the Softraid.  I wasn't impressed.  The free version with the enclosure only allows me to put it on one device, have to buy the next level to put it on more than one, and being able to disconnect it from my desktop and use it on my laptop (which also has TB3) was a selling point.  Admittedly it's not expensive.  When I set up the raids with it, it formatted the drives into 5 partitions, with one pair leaving ~500GB unallocated (250GB each drive) and on the other pair about 2GB unallocated.  I inquired what was happening with OWC and never got a satisfactory answer.  I switched back to Raid with the Windows Disk Manager. 

Despite the above I'd recommend the hardware.  No experience with the Blade, and lastly OWC also offer this enclosure.
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/express-4m2

Mike

[andyptak]

Mike, what do you think of the T7's? Worth upgrading from the T5's?

[mcbroomf]

Mike, what do you think of the T7's? Worth upgrading from the T5's?

Sorry Andy but to be honest I haven't used them enough.  Covid has all but stalled my travels which is the only time/place I use them.  Not sure I'd know either unless I do a side by side test with a lightroom catalog on each, which is more tedious that I'm up for.  I tend to just incrementally upgrade/update my tech when I see specs that suggest a noticeable improvement.  Unrelated to this but as another example, I see an M1 (or next chip) laptop on the horizon for me in maybe a year or so, a lifelong Win guy ...

[mcbroomf]

Mike,

Thank your for your response and the links. The Thunderblade is only $220 more than your unit for the 16TB version and has a rather slim, portable profile. I haven't seen any real review yet.

Yes, similar price but better performance as well as a small form factor.  If I'd not had the SSD drives it would have been worth considering.

Some review pages.  I have not looked at them but I recall his reviews some time ago.  Do a search on the pages for the term "Thunderblade" and you'll get 16 hits on the 1st link and 8 on the 2nd.  Not easy to navigate but hopefully something there is useful

https://macperformanceguide.com/autoTopic.html?dglyTP=Thunderbolt

https://macperformanceguide.com/idx-mpg.html#OWCThunderblade

[Rajan Parrikar]

Yes, similar price but better performance as well as a small form factor.  If I'd not had the SSD drives it would have been worth considering.

Some review pages.  I have not looked at them but I recall his reviews some time ago.  Do a search on the pages for the term "Thunderblade" and you'll get 16 hits on the 1st link and 8 on the 2nd.  Not easy to navigate but hopefully something there is useful

https://macperformanceguide.com/autoTopic.html?dglyTP=Thunderbolt

https://macperformanceguide.com/idx-mpg.html#OWCThunderblade

I read those pages by Diglloyd. He has an affiliation to OWC. Not that I discount what he has to say, but it would be nice to have an independent assessment.

[Manoli]

I read those pages by Diglloyd. He has an affiliation to OWC. Not that I discount what he has to say, but it would be nice to have an independent assessment.

Unless I have something definitively positive to report, I try and refrain from detailed online commentary. In the case of OWC, I’ve used them - both hardware and software - and moved on.

IIRC, Bernard Languillier had some extensive first hand experience with OWC; I’d suggest a PM as I haven't seen him online recently, but he’s an experienced tog and personally I’d value his opinion.

[Rajan Parrikar]

Unless I have something definitively positive to report, I try and refrain from detailed online commentary. In the case of OWC, I’ve used them - both hardware and software - and moved on.

IIRC, Bernard Languillier had some extensive first hand experience with OWC; I’d suggest a PM as I haven't seen him online recently, but he’s an experienced tog and personally I’d value his opinion.

I’m a longtime customer of OWC hardware and my experience has been positive overall. The only time I had an issue was with a RAM stick that went bad. It was replaced right away, no questions asked.

[Joe Towner]

Are you looking for NVMe speeds or just great SSD speeds?

Another NVMe option is the Netstor https://www.netstor.com.tw/product_info.aspx?SerID=2&Title=Thunderbolt&ArID=92&PID=PID_190328202742977

[Rajan Parrikar]

Are you looking for NVMe speeds or just great SSD speeds?

Another NVMe option is the Netstor https://www.netstor.com.tw/product_info.aspx?SerID=2&Title=Thunderbolt&ArID=92&PID=PID_190328202742977

Thanks, Joe. I'm looking to replace my current Pegasus 16TB Thunderbolt RAID 0 hard drive array attached to iMac Pro with a corresponding SSD system. This system contains my entire photo & video library.

[sbay]

OWC also has the 4m2 which has 4 nvme slots: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/express-4m2

Smaller than the mini or regular thunderbay. The main drawback is that each of the slots is limited to something like 700 MB/s although the full device can achieve the advertised 2800mbs.

[kimballistic]

OWC also has the 4m2 which has 4 nvme slots: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/express-4m2

Smaller than the mini or regular thunderbay. The main drawback is that each of the slots is limited to something like 700 MB/s although the full device can achieve the advertised 2800mbs.

I have that.  4 2TB nvme SSDs in an 8TB software raid 0 configuration.  I didn't know about the speed limitation at the time I bought it.  I'm only getting about 650 MB/s in my blackmagic disk speed tests.  I expected much more.  It also has an irritatingly loud fan.  Overall I'd say I'm disappointed with it and am very curious about the nestor, but haven't read any significant reviews of it so pretty hesitant to drop another $500 on it.

Edit: the speeds the Nestor gets are what I was expecting from the OWC 4m2.  Wow.
https://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews/netstor-na622tb3-thunderbolt-3-ssd-enclosure-4-ssds-a-pcie-switch/

[kers]

Edit: the speeds the Nestor gets are what I was expecting from the OWC 4m2.  Wow.
https://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews/netstor-na622tb3-thunderbolt-3-ssd-enclosure-4-ssds-a-pcie-switch/

It is too bad, Apple just don't make simple towers anymore; with only 600€ spend you can have a 4x 1TB nvme raid0 inside a PCI slot.
no extra ventilators/hardware needed, the card is only 60€
and it does a lot better than 2800 MB/S - a single one does that .
Apple is limiting pro-users to built a fast computer. This is my Hackintosh- a PC-tower made to my wishlist that runs OSX. ( and Windows)

[Joe Towner]

Thanks, Joe. I'm looking to replace my current Pegasus 16TB Thunderbolt RAID 0 hard drive array attached to iMac Pro with a corresponding SSD system. This system contains my entire photo & video library.

Honestly, I wouldn't go the route of a NVMe based setup for this. The speed difference between a HDD and SSD is huge. NVMe is 'waiting for the software to catch up' level speed.  Unless you have a very specific use case - 8K/12k video - you're not going to see a good enough return on a 16tb NVMe setup.  The OWC ThunderBay 4 Mini w/ 4x4tb SSD's is under $4k - if you want to go with a larger setup they have 8 bay models.

Honestly, I'd make sure things are covered with a NAS for Time Machine backups.

[kers]

Honestly, I wouldn't go the route of a NVMe based setup for this. The speed difference between a HDD and SSD is huge. NVMe is 'waiting for the software to catch up' level speed.  Unless you have a very specific use case - 8K/12k video - you're not going to see a good enough return on a 16tb NVMe setup.  The OWC ThunderBay 4 Mini w/ 4x4tb SSD's is under $4k - if you want to go with a larger setup they have 8 bay models.

Honestly, I'd make sure things are covered with a NAS for Time Machine backups.

+1
I read 1200MB/sec
if you buy your own 4TB harddisks it will be even only 2000$

NVME is still abit too expensive for storage, i find. 1TB NVME is cheap, but 2 TB and more are very expensive.