Anyone here using an OWC Thunderbay enclosure?

[macrolen]

Hi all,

Does anyone know what connector type the fan uses on the Thunderbay 4 Mini? I'd like to replace the fan without splicing wires if possible.

EDIT: NVM It looks to be a 2 pin connector, so a 3-pin to 2-pin adapter should work when installing a fan of the 3-pin variety (for example the Noctua).

 

[xgman]

I can't stand even the new quiet fan they use on the Thunderbay. I'm just going to remove it and go fanless. There are plenty of cases that don't have active cooling on hard drives. That said, if I was running al;l 4 slots with mechanical drives maybe in raid, I'd want to have some cooling, but with one 6tb drive and 1 ssd and one other drive which have all previously run fine in a MyBook thunderbolt enclosure with no fans, they should be ok.

 

[WilliamG]

I can't stand even the new quiet fan they use on the Thunderbay. I'm just going to remove it and go fanless. There are plenty of cases that don't have active cooling on hard drives. That said, if I was running al;l 4 slots with mechanical drives maybe in raid, I'd want to have some cooling, but with one 6tb drive and 1 ssd and one other drive which have all previously run fine in a MyBook thunderbolt enclosure with no fans, they should be ok.

This has been addressed. And yes - I agree with you about the so-called "quiet" fan. It's anything but.

Get a Noctua with the adapters and be happy!

 

[Msbeezy]

I am currently running 2 TB4 minis and one TB4 all daisy chained with the TB4 at the end...finally connected also to the TB4 is a rocketstar 5212..now running 10.11.1 if i turn off the TB4 my imac 5k wont wake

 

[garyleecn]

I am currently running 2 TB4 minis and one TB4 all daisy chained with the TB4 at the end...finally connected also to the TB4 is a rocketstar 5212..now running 10.11.1 if i turn off the TB4 my imac 5k wont wake

how can you stand the noise of so many hard drives spainning around?

 

[Msbeezy]

The TB4 minis have ssds...4 Samsung 840 in raid0 and 4 Samsung 850s...the TB4 has 4 4tb drives that I seldom access..just for backups so it sleeps mostly

 

[garyleecn]

The TB4 minis have ssds...4 Samsung 840 in raid0 and 4 Samsung 850s...the TB4 has 4 4tb drives that I seldom access..just for backups so it sleeps mostly

i have to WOW.... so 8 SSD's?? what kinda of performance you need....... im just so amazed......

for backup, why dont you go NAS route? it's quieter and comes with way more features..

 

[toptoptopper]

Just to add following the earlier point made about a Thunderbay making an odd 'fizzing/buzzing' noise - I too have the exact same issue. I bought my initial unit from MegaMac (based in Ireland who import them directly from OWC) and after a couple of weeks noticed a noise akin to electrical arcing which really concerned me. I explained this to MegaMac who collected the unit and confirmed that all the units they had in stock were doing the exact same thing. They sent it to OWC in the States for investigation, who apparently said they identified an issue with the power supply. However, once returned to MegaMac, they plugged it in and the problem still existed. Interestingly, however, upon plugging the Thunderbay into a 'step down' transformer (thereby reducing the incoming voltage to US/110v) the noise apparently stopped.

Anyway, MegaMac and OWC are liasing over the issue but I thought it prudent to point out that there's a potential issue with running Thunderbays on UK power. I'll post here if I get to the bottom of it. I've had a Thunderbay sent back to me to tide me over and give me access to my data, but I think for now I'll only switch it on if absolutely necessary - it's a little concerning it might be slowly frying the 4 hard drives I have installed!

 

[xgman]

This has been addressed. And yes - I agree with you about the so-called "quiet" fan. It's anything but.

Get a Noctua with the adapters and be happy!

done and done! (actually I moved the whole thing into the next room via a hole in the wall and a 9' TB cable.)

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Hey everyone,

I'm interested in a TB IV or TB IV Mini. Noise is my biggest concern; I do a lot of audio recording and need a very quiet environment. Using a longer TB cord, I could put this unit on a bookcase that is about 7-8 feet away from where I sit at my desk. If I got a TB IV with HDDs, would that still be noticeably audible? What about the TB IV with HDDs?

WilliamG recommended getting a Noctua with adapters. What does that refer to, and how do I do that?

 

[hfg]

The Noctua is a replacement fan which comes with a couple of cable "adapters" which allow even slower fan speeds resulting in lower noise. I use them on 3 ThunderBay enclosures and the fan is not noticeable in my environment.

The disk noise is unavoidable and will highly depend on the quality of drives you select. NAS rated drives are designed for multi-bay enclosures and generally are designed for lower vibration and noise. You could also select NAS drives with less than 7200 rpm rotational speeds which will lower the overall noise of the drive system at the expense of performance.

 

[monokakata]

Hey everyone,

I'm interested in a TB IV or TB IV Mini. Noise is my biggest concern; I do a lot of audio recording and need a very quiet environment. Using a longer TB cord, I could put this unit on a bookcase that is about 7-8 feet away from where I sit at my desk. If I got a TB IV with HDDs, would that still be noticeably audible? What about the TB IV with HDDs?

WilliamG recommended getting a Noctua with adapters. What does that refer to, and how do I do that?

Noctura is a quiet fan. Installation is very easy.

Here's the one I got for my Thunderbay IV:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006ISKYPE?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Noctura is a quiet fan. Installation is very easy.

Here's the one I got:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006ISKYPE?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

Thanks to you both. The main use for this drive will be for my photos, which I work on in Lightroom and Photoshop, so it seems like NAS drives (which are more for backup, right?) wouldn't be the best choice.

Was thinking of a RAID5 with 4x1 TB SSDs, not so much for the speed, but for the noise. If I understand correctly this would give me 3 TB of storage capacity with some safety in case one drive fails?

When I install the Noctura fan, is there a particular setting I'm supposed to use?

 

[hfg]

I am using this fan, but it appears to be the same product as monokakata suggested above:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014I9K30?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

I run 4 ea. 3TB and 4TB drives in my Thunderbays as RAID-5 with SoftRAID software both for backup and file server usage. Noise wise I would rate them:
1: HGST NAS (quiet)
2: WD RED NAS (quiet)
3: Seagate 3TB desktop (noisy)

Probably my quietest are built with HGST 1TB 2.5" 7200rpm laptop drives in RAID-5 4-drive configuration in a Thunderbay Mini or Promise Pegasus J4 enclosure (I use both for working drives) giving 3TB working space. The laptop drives seem to have much lower noise levels than the larger desktop drives. Here again, you could use 5400 rpm drives for even less noise.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Thanks hfg.

If I got the Thunderbay with 4 TB HDDs, and the Noctura fan, and put it 7-8 feet away from my desk on a bookcase, would it still be audible?

 

[v8media]

Thanks hfg.

If I got the Thunderbay with 4 TB HDDs, and the Noctura fan, and put it 7-8 feet away from my desk on a bookcase, would it still be audible?

It really depends on the person. If you're really sensitive to noise, you may still notice it and/or be annoyed at it. I have mine on the far side of a large desk and I hardly ever hear it, however when the drives are spinning for a large data transfer, I do feel the vibrations if I'm leaning on my desk. If you have it set on a separate piece of furniture, that would get rid of that possibility, or you could set it on a piece of foam to dampen some of that.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

It really depends on the person. If you're really sensitive to noise, you may still notice it and/or be annoyed at it. I have mine on the far side of a large desk and I hardly ever hear it, however when the drives are spinning for a large data transfer, I do feel the vibrations if I'm leaning on my desk. If you have it set on a separate piece of furniture, that would get rid of that possibility, or you could set it on a piece of foam to dampen some of that.

I have a file cabinet on the wall opposite my desk, on the other side of the room. In theory I could drill a hole in the back of one of the drawers in that cabinet, put some foam on the bottom of the drawer, and then put the Thunderbay in one of the drawers. It would be pretty unsightly to have the cable running along the baseboard of the wall (especially since the baseboard is white, and there are no white, long TB cables--they are all black), and I'm not sure if it's safe from a heat perspective to put the Thunderbay inside of a drawer?

EDIT: actually, that won't work. I'd have to drill through both the back of the drawer, and the back of the cabinet, and it's such a nice piece of furniture that I don't want to do that. Back to the drawing board...

 

[eoren1]

Thanks hfg.

If I got the Thunderbay with 4 TB HDDs, and the Noctura fan, and put it 7-8 feet away from my desk on a bookcase, would it still be audible?

I have this setup and it is under my desk in a small open cubby I built. I am very sensitive to noise (see some earlier comments of mine in this thread). Have the Noctura fan and it really is just about silent when not in use.

The key question is what will you be using this drive for and how much drive access will there be? The drives are loud in their metal enclosure when reading/writing. I have the drives holding my main photography folder (4 TB) and other data that is accessed very intermittently. I do all my main processing of images on the iMac internal SSD and/or an external SSD for speed and ends up being silent as well. Carbon Copy Cloner runs routines to back up to and from the RAID (depending on source info) but I have that set up to run during the day when I am out of the house.

When I briefly tried using the RAID to house my User folder, it was truly unbearable.

Just need to figure out your usage and how much reading/writing noise there will be.

 

[bilbo--baggins]

One of my Thunderbay 4 units failed today. I presume it's the internal power supply. Unfortunately, the warranty is only 1 year, and OWC don't offer any kind of repair, or parts such as replacement power supply. Such as waste having to put the device in the bin.

I had 2 of these units set up with 3 drives in each in a RAID 1+0 in SoftRAID. Whilst it seemed to work well, I'm very reluctant to buy another unit after only 2 years.

I really expected better support from OWC.

 

[WilliamG]

One of my Thunderbay 4 units failed today. I presume it's the internal power supply. Unfortunately, the warranty is only 1 year, and OWC don't offer any kind of repair, or parts such as replacement power supply. Such as waste having to put the device in the bin.

I had 2 of these units set up with 3 drives in each in a RAID 1+0 in SoftRAID. Whilst it seemed to work well, I'm very reluctant to buy another unit after only 2 years.

I really expected better support from OWC.

Wow that blows. I haven't peered inside mine in a while, but is the PSU/board one unit, or was it ever modular? That may explain why you can't just get a new power supply.

Still, that sucks, and I feel for you .

 

[bilbo--baggins]

Wow that blows. I haven't peered inside mine in a while, but is the PSU/board one unit, or was it ever modular? That may explain why you can't just get a new power supply.

Still, that sucks, and I feel for you .

I've dismantled the unit. There is a circuit board connected to the thunderbolt ports, which attaches to a circuit board that attaches to the hard drives; this receives an 8 pin cable from the power supply (but may also be an integrated controller?).

The cable that supplies this 'power supply' gets mains voltage, and the 8 pin outputs don't have any voltage. So it's definitely this board that has failed.

 

[WilliamG]

I've dismantled the unit. There is a circuit board connected to the thunderbolt ports, which attaches to a circuit board that attaches to the hard drives; this receives an 8 pin cable from the power supply (but may also be an integrated controller?).

The cable that supplies this 'power supply' gets mains voltage, and the 8 pin outputs don't have any voltage. So it's definitely this board that has failed.

Good info. That's still a bummer. Is it modular enough that if the part were available an end-user could replace it?

 

[bt22]

What about Drobo? They have a TB model.

 

[hfg]

I've dismantled the unit. There is a circuit board connected to the thunderbolt ports, which attaches to a circuit board that attaches to the hard drives; this receives an 8 pin cable from the power supply (but may also be an integrated controller?).

The cable that supplies this 'power supply' gets mains voltage, and the 8 pin outputs don't have any voltage. So it's definitely this board that has failed.

There isn't by chance a simple fuse somewhere on that power supply board, directly in line where the AC power is connected?

 

[bilbo--baggins]

Thanks for the reply. Interestingly it does say on the power supply board something along the lines of 'risk of fire replace fuse with the same type'. However, I don't see anything on the board that I recognise as being a fuse, unfortunately.

I ended up buying another Thunderbay 4 (I enquired to a UK supplier of OWC products, and SoftRAID support, who replied to say their experience was that the Thunderbay 4's are generally reliable - so I'm hoping this failure is just bad luck). I already have a Drobo 5D which I've relegated to Time Machine function. The Drobo 5Dt looks promising, but I decided against in the end as it's very expensive (over £900 here in the UK), is a bit slower than I get with my RAID 1+0 with SoftRAID, and I like the more visible drive monitoring that SoftRAID provides compared to Drobo. If I have another Thunderbay fail then maybe next time I'll move to the 5Dt.

I'll keep my failed unit for spares - and I plan to keep pursuing OWC as I think it's unacceptable that they won't repair or provide parts.

There isn't by chance a simple fuse somewhere on that power supply board, directly in line where the AC power is connected?