Anyone here using an OWC Thunderbay enclosure?

[Bruno C]

Thanks for the input, William. I appreciate it.

It turns out I also notice that slight electrical buzzing coming from my unit like Hqo201 mentioned a few posts before. If I had to describe it, it really sounds like eggs frying, but on a very low sound level. It is pretty faint and I could only begin noticing it when the TB was idle (orange LED) late at night with absolute silence; but now that I'm aware of it I can distinguish it among the spinning of the disks/fan when the device is on, but only if I put my ear next to the TB. Therefore, it doesn't disturb me in an acoustical sense, but rather in the sense that something might be wrong.

The noise appears to come from the little door and disappears when the enclosure is physically switched off, just like Hqo201 described.

Sigh... I'm guessing I should just fully go with that RMA instead of asking for new trays only, huh?

 

[WilliamG]

Thanks for the input, William. I appreciate it.

It turns out I also notice that slight electrical buzzing coming from my unit like Hqo201 mentioned a few posts before. If I had to describe it, it really sounds like eggs frying, but on a very low sound level. It is pretty faint and I could only begin noticing it when the TB was idle (orange LED) late at night with absolute silence; but now that I'm aware of it I can distinguish it among the spinning of the disks/fan when the device is on, but only if I put my ear next to the TB. Therefore, it doesn't disturb me in an acoustical sense, but rather in the sense that something might be wrong.

The noise appears to come from the little door and disappears when the enclosure is physically switched off, just like Hqo201 described.

Sigh... I'm guessing I should just fully go with that RMA instead of asking for new trays only, huh?

That sort of nice would not bother me one bit, because ALL electronics have some kind of resonance/buzz/interference-y noise to them. You should hear my Sony Vaio Z2 laptop. Good grief. All electronics make noise. Most of it is way beyond our ability to hear, but some of it can be annoying. I'd say if you can't hear it unless you put your ear right next to it - don't bother RMA-ing it.

----------

No, it's when my Trainz Simulator programme loads some route from the RAID-0 volume with hundreds of small files (10 kB, say). Clunking isn't the right word for it, more like rattling of the read heads in the three HDs. Anyway, I can't hear them now; that fibreglass cable is nice piece of kit (but rather expensive).

Right, then that sounds like the nature of the drives. So it goes...

 

[eoren1]

Will the new Noctua fan work?

My Thunderbay is en route and I found this great thread.

Looked into the Noctua NF-B9-1600 mentioned/linked earlier in the thread and found there is an updated model: Noctua NF-A9 FLX 92mm
Review is here: http://www.quietpc.com/nf-a9-flx

Will this work just as well/better? Available on Amazon with 2-day Prime shipping http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-A9-FLX-Premium-92mm/dp/B00NEMG9B0#customerReviews

 

[WilliamG]

My Thunderbay is en route and I found this great thread.

Looked into the Noctua NF-B9-1600 mentioned/linked earlier in the thread and found there is an updated model: Noctua NF-A9 FLX 92mm
Review is here: http://www.quietpc.com/nf-a9-flx

Will this work just as well/better? Available on Amazon with 2-day Prime shipping http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-A9-FLX-Premium-92mm/dp/B00NEMG9B0#customerReviews

Well... it's hard to say. Looking at the specs they look pretty much identical. Personally? I'd go with the tried and tested. With the newer model you get a 6.1% more fan noise with the ULNA than the older model, for 5% more air flow.

The air flow of the older model with the ULNA is plenty enough for me, and I'd rather not risk being able to hear that louder fan, but that's just me.

That said, you probably can't go wrong with either, but they look to perform very similarly, the LNA fan speeds being the biggest differentiator.

NF-B9 (AKA old model):

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=16&lng=en&set=1

NF-A9 (AKA new model)

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=104&lng=en&set=1

 

[eoren1]

Well... it's hard to say. Looking at the specs they look pretty much identical. Personally? I'd go with the tried and tested. With the newer model you get a 6.1% more fan noise with the ULNA than the older model, for 5% more air flow.

The air flow of the older model with the ULNA is plenty enough for me, and I'd rather not risk being able to hear that louder fan, but that's just me.

That said, you probably can't go wrong with either, but they look to perform very similarly, the LNA fan speeds being the biggest differentiator.

NF-B9 (AKA old model):

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=16&lng=en&set=1

NF-A9 (AKA new model)

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=104&lng=en&set=1

I was looking more at which would get to me faster since enclosure and drives arriving tomorrow. At this point, I'll wait to see how loud it is.

Thanks

 

[WilliamG]

I was looking more at which would get to me faster since enclosure and drives arriving tomorrow. At this point, I'll wait to see how loud it is.

Thanks

Plug the enclosure into your computer without any drives in, to see how loud it is. You need the thunderbolt able connected to check.

 

[Dalu]

I just went trough all the post in this thread. But i couldn't see a measurement for a single drive samsung 850Pro 1TB SSD. I have an WD Thunderbolt Duo and removed the original drive and replaced it with the 850pro. I just can get around 380mb/s R/W. In and USAP USB3 hard drive case i get slightly better (around 400 mb/s) but much less then samsung claims at 550mb/s read - 520 mb/s write.

Does anybody know where the bottle neck is?

Thanks

Daniel

 

[matreya]

Does anybody know where the bottle neck is?

My guess is the WD Thunderbolt Duo. I have an OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual that is fine for hard drives, but lacklustre when it came to SSDs.

I ended up moving my SSDs to an OWC Thunderbay 4 Mini. But I noticed that with the SSD 60% filled, speeds have dropped off..

 

[Dalu]

If you benchmark the Thunderbay 4 mini with just SSD, how quick is that? Do you exceed the 400mb/s ?

Thanks

Daniel

 

[matreya]

If you benchmark the Thunderbay 4 mini with just SSD, how quick is that? Do you exceed the 400mb/s ?

The only way I can benchmark at higher than 400MB/sec is with two of my 1TB Crucial M500s in RAID 0, and even then I get 715/442 MB/sec (read/write).

The other issue is that I haven't enabled TRIM since upgrading to Yosemite :/

The speeds with the aforementioned OWC Dual enclosure were about 220MB/sec

I have a single Intel 730 SSD inside an OWC Mercury on the go pro thunderbolt enclosure (I swapped out the hard drive) and it benchmarks at 497/357 MB/sec (read/write).

 

[rebby]

If you benchmark the Thunderbay 4 mini with just SSD, how quick is that? Do you exceed the 400mb/s ?

Thanks

Daniel

I have a ThunderBay 4 mini with 4 Samsung 840 EVO 1TB drives (performance "fix" has been completed on all 4 drives). I tried various RAID configurations (SoftRaid 0, 1+0, 4, 5, and Disk Utility 0) and benchmarked all of them with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test (5 GB setting) over TB2 on both my mid-2014 rMBP and my late-2013 nMP. I don't have all the numbers in front of me but I do recall that the RAID 0 numbers where roughly 1125 MB/s Write and 1200 MB/s Read (the numbers for SoftRaid vs Disk Utility were virtually identical BTW). I can post the exact numbers of all RAID tests when I get home later today if you're interested.

I also tested the SoftRaid 0 configuration over TB1 on my mid-2013 iMac and I believe the numbers were in the 750 MB/s - 800 MB/s for both read and write.

FWIW, the fan in this unit isn't quite a silent as I had initially hoped either so I ordered one of these to replace the stocker (due here tomorrow) -> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NQMESS/

 

[WilliamG]

FWIW, the fan in this unit isn't quite a silent as I had initially hoped either so I ordered one of these to replace the stocker (due here tomorrow) -> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NQMESS/

That's the wrong fan size, no?

 

[rebby]

That's the wrong fan size, no?

Not for the ThunderBay mini. The mini uses a 60x25mm fan.

FWIW, here are my Blackmagic Disk Speed results (using a 5GB test size) that I mentioned above;

Disk Utility RAID 0 64k 1160/1170
SoftRaid RAID 0 64k Workstation 1110/1185
SoftRaid RAID 0 64k Photography 1140/1205
SoftRaid RAID 0 128k Photography 1080/1160
SoftRaid RAID 4 620/1025
SoftRaid RAID 5 575/890
SoftRaid RAID 1+0 64k 580/735

It doesn't look like I recorded any of the TB1 results. I do remember not getting the results that I expected from TB1 so I moved my testing to a TB2 device pretty quickly.

FWIW, I ended up going with -> SoftRaid RAID 0 64k Photography 1140/1205 as this volume will be used primarily for photography work. I have near realtime backups to my NAS for this volume so the (IMHO) minor risk of RAID 0 does not concern me at the moment. I do admit however, the prospect of RAID 4 or RAID 1+0 was tempting due to the performance numbers.

 

[WilliamG]

Not for the ThunderBay mini. The mini uses a 60x25mm fan.

FWIW, here are my Blackmagic Disk Speed results (using a 5GB test size) that I mentioned above;

Disk Utility RAID 0 64k 1160/1170
SoftRaid RAID 0 64k Workstation 1110/1185
SoftRaid RAID 0 64k Photography 1140/1205
SoftRaid RAID 0 128k Photography 1080/1160
SoftRaid RAID 4 620/1025
SoftRaid RAID 5 575/890
SoftRaid RAID 1+0 64k 580/735

It doesn't look like I recorded any of the TB1 results. I do remember not getting the results that I expected from TB1 so I moved my testing to a TB2 device pretty quickly.

FWIW, I ended up going with -> SoftRaid RAID 0 64k Photography 1140/1205 as this volume will be used primarily for photography work. I have near realtime backups to my NAS for this volume so the (IMHO) minor risk of RAID 0 does not concern me at the moment. I do admit however, the prospect of RAID 4 or RAID 1+0 was tempting due to the performance numbers.

Ah yes, the mini. Missed that.

Those are some good speeds! Interesting you can pick the stripe size on RAID 0. It's fixed at 16K on RAID 5 (which is fine).

 

[eoren1]

Received the OWC ThunderBay 4 with SoftRAID on Friday. Just as many said, the fan is loud. I ended up ordering the Noctua NF-A9 solely because it would arrive faster via Amazon Prime. I'll report back when it's here but have another question.

I have four 4TB drives that are currently undergoing a 3 pass verification.

Once that is done, I intend to set up a RAID5 array for use as primary data and photography for my iMac.

My question is regarding use of volumes vs folders.

I plan to create:
One 512GB volume to be a bootable clone of the SSD in the iMac
One 2 TB volume to serve as the iMac 'hard drive' for application data

I am torn as to whether it is preferable to create:
One 10 TB volume for photos, movies, music, and all other data using folders to separate them

OR

One 5TB volume for photos only (currently have 2.7TB in a 3TB external)
One 5TB volume for movies, music and all other data. (currently have about 2.5TB on a 4TB external)

I use Carbon Copy Cloner and will do so with volumes or folders in the RAID backed up to individual FW800 4TB drives.

I figure the folder structure offers me more freedom and, as long as I don't use Time Machine on any, I don't believe I need to force a limit to a volume.

Is this correct?

Thanks

Eyal

 

[Msbeezy]

I have a ThunderBay 4 mini with 4 Samsung 840 EVO 1TB drives (performance "fix" has been completed on all 4 drives). I tried various RAID configurations (SoftRaid 0, 1+0, 4, 5, and Disk Utility 0) and benchmarked all of them with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test (5 GB setting) over TB2 on both my mid-2014 rMBP and my late-2013 nMP. I don't have all the numbers in front of me but I do recall that the RAID 0 numbers where roughly 1125 MB/s Write and 1200 MB/s Read (the numbers for SoftRaid vs Disk Utility were virtually identical BTW). I can post the exact numbers of all RAID tests when I get home later today if you're interested.

I also tested the SoftRaid 0 configuration over TB1 on my mid-2013 iMac and I believe the numbers were in the 750 MB/s - 800 MB/s for both read and write.

FWIW, the fan in this unit isn't quite a silent as I had initially hoped either so I ordered one of these to replace the stocker (due here tomorrow) -> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NQMESS/

I'm about to order this enclosure for the same application..do the drive caddies come with the empty case and if not are they needed..I don't see anywhere on OWC site starting included or not.. or even where to buy them if not..
tia

 

[rebby]

I'm about to order this enclosure for the same application..do the drive caddies come with the empty case and if not are they needed..I don't see anywhere on OWC site starting included or not.. or even where to buy them if not..
tia

Drive caddies are included. Nice metal ones, screws are included as well.

On a related note, if you do go with the Noctua 60x25mm fan that I linked to there are a few things to keep in mind. The Noctua is a little wider than the factory fan. It's not a problem though, there is a LOT of room in the case for the bigger fan, you just need to install the back cover a little differently with the bigger fan (you can't pivot the cover back into place like you can with the stock fan). The bigger issue is the wiring harness. The Noctua wiring harness does not plug into the board on the TunderBay. What I did was cut the end off of the factory fan and the Noctua molex adapter and splice them together. This left me with a little extra wire so I just wrapped and zip-tied it out of the way. I would have preferred to have the correct end but it doesn't look like Noctua provides a fan w/the correct header.

Enjoy the enclosure. I've been happy with mine thus far.

 

[eoren1]

Spinning disk noise?

I've been using the Thunderbay 4 with four HGST 4TB NAS 7200rpm drives fairly extensively over the weekend. Finished certifying and spent the day copying over data.

Is it just me or are the drives incredibly loud in this enclosure? It's all read/write noise but it makes the fan silent in comparison. I'm hoping that the noise is from my updating to Yosemite and that Spotlight is actively indexing the drives but...wow...

Wonder if anyone has come up with ways to isolate the drive noise coming out of this thing.

 

[eoren1]

Just an update - the Noctua NF-A9 arrived and fits great. Very easy to replace the original fan and did make a difference.

I decided to use the Thunderbay as for my iMac's user directory due to the speed but that does mean more read/write and, as I mentioned above, the unit is LOUD due to the four hard drives making their read/write noises.

Tried to reduce the noise by relocating the unit to under the desk. Contacted OWC tech support about using sound dampening foam inside the case - not recommended. The also said I should leave the area in front open as well as the back. I had considered getting some sound dampening foam (2" thick) to surround it on three sides on the wooden shelf it now rests on.

Anyone else have ideas? Does no one else experience a lot of hard drive activity noise with this unit?

*Did some reading and it looks like the HGST NAS drives are just loud. Reliable but loud. I ended up moving my user folder from the RAID to the internal hard drive and the system is back to being extremely quiet.

 

[jday7757]

I really like the speed of my ThunderBay 4 but I agree that the drives are very noisy. I am surprised about all the disk activity that occurs even when I'm not doing anything in the computer. Yes, I'm also using the ThunderBay for my user directory so I do understand some of the disk activity, but not the amount that occurs. A few weeks ago I did an online chat with OWC support on this issue and the only idea he had was that Spotlight was I defining the files on the drive. The initial indexing had finished weeks before this so I know that the continued disk activity is not the I dexing. I guess this is something we need to put up with.

 

[matreya]

Did some reading and it looks like the HGST NAS drives are just loud. Reliable but loud.

Which capacity are you experiencing loudness? I've got 4 x 4TB Deskstar NAS drives in a Thunderbay IV and I can barely hear them..

 

[WilliamG]

I really like the speed of my ThunderBay 4 but I agree that the drives are very noisy. I am surprised about all the disk activity that occurs even when I'm not doing anything in the computer. Yes, I'm also using the ThunderBay for my user directory so I do understand some of the disk activity, but not the amount that occurs. A few weeks ago I did an online chat with OWC support on this issue and the only idea he had was that Spotlight was I defining the files on the drive. The initial indexing had finished weeks before this so I know that the continued disk activity is not the I dexing. I guess this is something we need to put up with.

Are you sure it's not the heads parking? That noise is freaking annoying. You might want to try the HDAPM tool to turn the head parking off if it is. If it's actual drive accessing... hmmm.

You can also install iStat Menus and it will tell you what's accessing the disks.

 

[jday7757]

Thanks for the reply WilliamG. It could be parking of the heads, but would that be done as frequently as I hear the "activity"? For example, I might be watching TV and not using the computer at all and all of a sudden I hear the ThunderBay drives, sometimes going for minutes at a time. I am not really familiar with HDAPM but I just downloaded it and installed it but it failed saying APM is not supported on the drives.

I do have iStat menus installed but not quite sure exactly what all it tells me. Let me say that I've been using PCs for over 30 years (and consider myself fairly proficient and knowledgeable on them) but just switched to the iMac last month so I'm really on a steep learning curve.

For metreya. My ThunderBay has 4 x 2TB Toshiba drives (these are the ones that came with the system from OWC).

I'm thinking the bottom line is that this is probably alright and that it's maybe just annoying because it's something I'm not used to. The basic working and speed of the RAID 5 is great. I'll just keep monitoring the issue and learn more about iStats. Thanks again for the help.

 

[WilliamG]

Thanks for the reply WilliamG. It could be parking of the heads, but would that be done as frequently as I hear the "activity"? For example, I might be watching TV and not using the computer at all and all of a sudden I hear the ThunderBay drives, sometimes going for minutes at a time. I am not really familiar with HDAPM but I just downloaded it and installed it but it failed saying APM is not supported on the drives.

I do have iStat menus installed but not quite sure exactly what all it tells me. Let me say that I've been using PCs for over 30 years (and consider myself fairly proficient and knowledgeable on them) but just switched to the iMac last month so I'm really on a steep learning curve.

For metreya. My ThunderBay has 4 x 2TB Toshiba drives (these are the ones that came with the system from OWC).

I'm thinking the bottom line is that this is probably alright and that it's maybe just annoying because it's something I'm not used to. The basic working and speed of the RAID 5 is great. I'll just keep monitoring the issue and learn more about iStats. Thanks again for the help.

Minutes at a time? That's definitely peculiar. That rules out head parking, potentially. That's usually an annoying clunk that lasts just a second or two.

iStat Menus is useful because with the menu bar at the top you can see exactly which app is accessing which disk and if it's reading or writing to that disk in particular. I'd really recommend using that as a simple way to check activity. If nothing obvious shows up, it could also be Spotlight indexing, so go into Spotlight preferences, Privacy, and add that disk to the not-indexing list to see if that fixed it.

That's what I have for now. Let me know how you get on.

 

[eoren1]

Regarding the loud drives, I did switch my user directory back to the iMac's internal 1TB drive. I hear the same amount of read/write activity but it is so much quieter than the Thunderbay. I cannot emphasize enough just how loud the seek and write noise is with this enclosure and the four 4TB HGST NAS drives. It really does not seem to be head parking.

I might try adding the RAID to the privacy area in Spotlight but that defeats a lot of the purpose of even using the RAID for a user directory.

Seriously considering surrounding the shelf the enclosure sits on under desk with 2" acoustic egg crate foam to silence it/deaden some of the noise.

Wondering if worth the effort. Even though the RAID is benchmarking at 5x faster than the internal HDD, I'm not sure I'm seeing that in real world use. I still have Yosemite and applications on a 128gb SSD attached via Thunderbolt.

E