The industry's first Thunderbolt 3 storage, docking, and PCIe expansion media workflow solution. Perfect for digital imaging, VFX, and video editing.
The ThunderBay Flex 8 is the world's first 3-in-1 productivity platform with unprecedented speed, space, versatility, and convenience. This highly configurable solution took home the 2020 “Best of Show” Award at Video Edge. This year the OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 was already nominated for the 2021 Tech Leadership Awards and it was a 2021 CES Innovation Award honoree. Experience for yourself why this groundbreaking platform continues to be heralded as “groundbreaking” and “revolutionary.”
ThunderBay Flex 8 is a groundbreaking workflow solution from the world’s leading Thunderbolt accessory manufacturer. It offers eight drive bays that support a mix of SATA/SAS and U.2/M.2 NVMe drives for up to 172TB of storage capacity. Next, there’s a plethora of ports including (2) Thunderbolt 3, (1) USB-C, and (2) USB-A for device docking and charging.
See your work in greater detail by adding up to an 8K display via a built-in DisplayPort 1.4 connection. Ingest hi-res images and video via front-side SD 4.0 and CFexpress card readers. And when you want to expand your desktop capabilities, there’s a PCIe slot waiting for your specific project needs.
ThunderBay Flex 8 is the one Thunderbolt 3 desktop device that rules them all. With an irresistible economy of scale, this consolidated solution is ideal for anyone waiting for the right moment to invest in Thunderbolt technology.
At the heart of the ThunderBay Flex 8 capabilities are two cutting-edge technology standards: NVMe and PCIe. Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) optimizes the performance of modern flash technology over the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) standard. It enables significantly faster SSD performance with a more direct and optimized path to a computer’s processor.
Tying both of these technologies together is the Thunderbolt 3 interface which uses the PCIe bus. This interface offers the fastest data transfers possible on a single cable between computers and peripherals like storage solutions, docks, and expansion devices while also supplying charging power.
Right out of the packaging, all eight bays can utilize SATA 6Gb/s 2.5-inch SSDs or 3.5-inch HDDs. To take advantage of 40Gb/s PCIe technology, the top four bays are NVMe U.2 SSD ready. These emerging super-fast SSDs enable ThunderBay Flex 8 to meet the future storage needs of content creators and video production pros.
Sending a drive from set to post-production typically entails tedious and time-consuming drive enclosure disassembly to access the storage drive or costly shipping of the entire enclosure to the post lab. But ThunderBay Flex 8 offers yet another option.
By installing an OWC U.2 NVMe Interchange System carrier tray (sold separately) with a built-in U.2 connector into a ThunderBay Flex 8 drive tray, you can protect the U.2 SSD drive’s connector from repeated install/removal wear for improved drive longevity and investment. When done with your shoot, just ship the lightweight protective carrier and drive to the lab where the carrier can be installed into an OWC Helios 3S (sold separately) equipped with the OWC Interchange System. It’s a complete solution to safeguard your data while lowering shipping costs.
U.2 Interchange System Carrier Tray + ThunderBay Flex 8
Protects U.2 SSD drive connector from install/removal wear to improve drive longevity and investment
Interchange System Carrier Tray with U.2 SSD
Lightweight protective carrier safeguards data while lowering shipping costs vs shipping entire enclosure
Interchange System Carrier Tray with U.2 SSD + Helios 3S + Interchange System
Desktop U.2 NVMe SSD sawappable storage for fast processing of footage
Are you a video pro working with 4K/8K and even Phantom high-speed files? The ThunderBay Flex 8 offers a variety of drive configurations that deliver real-world read/write speeds of 2,750MB/s that saturate the Thunderbolt 3 speed threshold. Try any of these options:
A virtual buffet of productivity-enhancing possibilities awaits you with the docking connections built into ThunderBay Flex 8. Power your notebook with up to 85W power delivery while capturing multi-stream hi-res footage at full frame rate. Connect audio and video mixers, digital camera, keyboards, and other peripherals and charge mobile devices via one USB-C and two USB-A 10Gb/s ports. Ingest and work with 4/8K RAW video and RAW photo files immediately at speeds up to 985MB/s with frontside SD 4.0 and CFexpress card readers. Add more viewing space with up to an 8K monitor via the DisplayPort 1.4 interface. And if all that’s not enough to satisfy your project needs, daisy-chain up to five additional Thunderbolt 3 devices!
Safely disconnect multiple drives in a single click. OWC Dock Ejector was designed by OWC hardware and software engineers to ensure all data is written before disconnection, saving time and protecting against data loss. It makes losing your hard-earned work a thing of the past.
By removing the enclosure’s side panel, you can expand your capabilities by installing a half-length, full-height, single-width expansion card in the PCIe x16 connector/x4 lanes slot. Add a 4K video capture card for direct ingest of multi-stream high-res footage. Record high-quality tracks with an audio card and then edit and archive tracks. Create a powerful file server with a high-speed networking card.
If you want to use SAS drives or encrypt your data for security reasons, you can choose a ready-to-run ThunderBay Flex 8 hardware RAID model or replace the built-in SATA drive controller with the hardware RAID card of your choice while keeping a PCIe slot open for other cards.
ThunderBay Flex 8 is a user-configurable platform that you can use to launch into projects with a new realm of time and money-saving results. To get you started, we suggest three sample configurations that make the most of the extraordinary highlights that have made OWC solutions the choice of performance enthusiasts and cinematographers around the world:
SoftRAID is the world’s fastest and most flexible application to configure, maintain, and protect your RAID volumes on Mac and PC. OWC enclosures include 3 Years of SoftRAID Premium.
M1 Macs require macOS 11.3 or later. SoftRAID is licensed per computer.
OWC Innergize™ is the first stage of the Capture to Completion™ ecosystem of OWC products designed to seamlessly propel professional photographers, videographers, and content creators to the highest level of workflow performance and reliability. This OWC custom-designed app is a complete health, performance, and field upgrade management tool when using OWC Atlas memory cards with OWC Atlas readers and reader equipped products.
Over time and use cycles, flash memory does wear out. Innergize verifies and reports the percentage of use life remaining. Now you can work with full confidence your OWC flash memory product will deliver the reliability you can trust.
Writes, deletes, and formatting all take their toll on memory cards. Innergize cleans and restores the flash memory performance of OWC memory cards so you can get the best results on every use.
When new cameras or firmware updates to existing cameras are introduced, they may not work properly with flash memory cards and drives. Innergize gives OWC memory card users the ability to quickly upgrade their firmware in the field for full compatibility, additional performance enhancements, and bug fixes for optimal reliability.
Meet the members of the OWC ThunderBay Family. Which one is just right for you?
The industry's first Thunderbolt 3 storage, docking, and PCIe expansion media workflow solution. Perfect for digital imaging, VFX, and video editing.
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