OWC Express 4M2 (0 TB) Four-Slot M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure with SoftRAID XT, Up to 2800MB/s, Four M.2 NVMe SSD bays, Add up to 32TB of storage

Product Information

Note: Each SSD uses x 1 lane only. To get the full Thunderbolt 3 supported speed you need to install 4 SSD`s and set it to RAID. Only when fitted with 4 SSD`s together they will run on PCIe 3.0 x 4 lanes. Also, note that smaller size SSD`s are generally slower than higher size SSDs. Mechanisms Supported The M.2 form factor (also known as the Next Generation Form Factor, or NGFF) is a more modern type of internally mounted expansion card that replaces the previous mSATA (Mini-SATA) standard. Unlike standard HDDs and SSDs, M.2 drives aren’t connected to a motherboard via a cable, they’re instead plugged directly into the motherboard using a dedicated M.2 connector slot, making M2 a form factor rather than a drive format. Although Nathaniel is looking for a solution that will work well with his new Mac Studio, the growing need for high-speed storage is not restricted to just the new Studio computer from Apple, or even the other M1 Pro and M1 Max Apple computers, the developments in data interfaces in computer technology are available in many other computers, both Mac and Windows. The OWC Express 4M2 fully supports Windows workflows as well. Using Windows Storage Spaces you can pool the four M.2 NVMe SSDs together with support for all the Storage Spaces configuration options including the ability to add another OWC Express 4M2 to expand your storage pool on the fly. NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a hyper-efficient communications interface protocol built from the ground up to properly take advantage of SSD technology and high-performance connection buses like PCIe. The result is exponentially faster and efficient SSD storage, and the OWC Express 4M2 has room for four NVMe SSDs. DisplayPort

OWC Express 4M2: Drive Compatibility OWC Express 4M2: Drive Compatibility

The OWC Express 4M2 is designed with superior ease-of-use in mind. We worked with award-winning creatives and listened to the kudos they heaped onto the OWC ThunderBay mini, and we put all that shared knowledge to good use when we set out to build the next-gen Thunderbolt 3 multi-bay drive. The result is the 57% smaller and 2.5x faster OWC Express 4M2.RAID and Storage Spaces The OWC Express 4M2 comes with SoftRAID Lite XT ready to be set up in RAID 0 performance or RAID 1 mirrored drive mode. So you can customize your Express 4M2 for speed or data redundancy. If you need more options, you can easily upgrade to add extra capabilities and RAID modes to meet any workflow demand. A third benefit related to performance is the problem of otherwise fast NVMe drives (3000 MB/s) having slow performance in any Thunderbolt enclosure (800 MB/s for write) - since the 4M2 only support PCIe 3.0 x1, the slowness doesn't matter, and software RAID can let you achieve the bandwidth expected of Thunderbolt.

OWC Express 4M2 4-Slot NVMe M.2 SSD Enclosure OWC Express 4M2 4-Slot NVMe M.2 SSD Enclosure

Customise your Express 4M2 with up to four NVMe SSDs, RAID them however you wish and connect it all with Thunderbolt 3 — the fastest and most flexible interface around. The sheer performance of the Express 4M2 helps you meet deadlines faster, giving you more time to explore your creativity and push your projects further. Pint-Sized Powerhouse The fastest that Thunderbolt 3 or 4 will actually move data at is around 2800MB/s for data reads. This is due to the reserved bandwidth for video. It works very well and I don't get any extreme temperatures. I guess the fan is more needed for constant write/read actions like video editing.Jamey uses the Sonnet 4x NVMe PCIe cards. He has one in his Mac Pro 7,1 with four 2TB NVMe drives and another with four 2TB NVMe drives in his transportable rig inside a Sonnet Echo III enclosure. Jamey explains more about his portable rig which has two computer systems… In the External SSD/NVMe recommendations thread from the DUC Darryl shares that his current preference for a high-performance solution would be to use a “well regarded” NVMe M.2 card in your own portable enclosure. NVMe stands for Non-Volatile Memory Express, and it refers to the way in which data is moved, rather than the shape of the drive (form factor). NVMe drives communicate with your computer’s processor using the PCIe interface and as we have shown this sidesteps the speed and bandwidth limitations of the SATA buss. Depending on who makes your NVMe drive you can expect to see speeds as much as five or six times faster than a SATA-based equivalent. The reason it is set up to one PCIe lane per drive bay is because of Windows. We could update the design to use a PCIe switch, as in the Accelsior 4M2, allowing each drive to get up to four PCIe lanes of performance. The downside is that Windows does not support PCIe switches over Thunderbolt. Some PCs can; many cannot. Until you try it out on your PC, there is no real way of knowing. The Glyph drives are great as well - have a 4TB version from them. Its only around 850MB/s read speeds, but real world I don't notice the difference. They have newer 8TB versions which are faster.

OWC Express 4M2 4-Slot NVMe M.2 SSD Enclosure with SoftRAID OWC Express 4M2 4-Slot NVMe M.2 SSD Enclosure with SoftRAID

So far we have mentioned NVMe drives as being super-SSDs, but you may have also seen the term M.2 drives used in this context. SoftRAID is the most powerful, intuitive software RAID utility on the market. Multiple RAID levels let you select the RAID level that fits you or your project’s needs best. If you need maximum volume capacity, optimum drive performance, data protection, or a combination of attributes, SoftRAID has you covered.This is where prebuilt solutions become much rarer and we currently will need to turn to DIY solutions and build our own. So we reached out to OWC to ask them to clarify the situation regarding how they allocate the PCIe lanes. They replied saying… Display connection flexibility is yours with a convenient DisplayPort located right on the rear of the OWC Express 4M2. There's no need to worry about adapters or extra long cables. Just plug your display directly into the Express 4M2 and you're all set. Multi-Drive The first chassis houses 2 HDX cards and a Sonnet Fusion Dual U.2 SSD PCIe Card with 2x 8TB SSD drives for my sound library and project data. Commenting on our article New Mac Studio Announced - The Machine Studios Have Been Waiting For Forest said…