OWC 73TB Flex 1U4 4-Bay Thunderbolt 3 Storage Array (3 x 24TB HDDs + 1 x 1TB SSD)

Rack Up Workflow Flexibility

You'll turn your expandability and connectivity dreams into reality when you add the OWC Flex 1U4 to your rack or cart. Use a mix of 2.5 or 3.5" SATA/SAS and U.2/M.2 NVMe drives with four quick-access, hot-swappable drive bays. Connect mixers, keyboards, cameras, and other gear to your heart's content, as well as charge mobile devices with an ample variety of Thunderbolt and USB ports. Add up to an 8K display via DisplayPort. And when you have a custom capture, recording, networking, or storage need, the OWC Flex 1U4 lets you install a PCIe card to conquer specialized tasks.

Future Ready

When your workflow needs change, the FLEXpandability of the OWC Flex 1U4 easily adapts. Add new drives, connect different devices, and install a half-length, full-height, single-width PCIe x16 card of your choice, like a 10Gb Ethernet networking card or the fast OWC Accelsior 4M2 SSD for expanded performance storage capacity. By not locking you into an inflexible single-task design, the OWC Flex 1U4 extends its useful life and maximizes your investment well into the future.

Ideal for Rackmounting Environments

The OWC Flex 1U4 is like a bolt-in productivity supercharger for new or existing rack environments powered by a rack Mac Pro, rack PC, MacBook Pro, PC notebook, or even a Mac mini. Whether you build your own custom drive and card configuration or select one of OWC's convenient ready-to-run solutions, the OWC Flex 1U4 is ideal in a wide variety of settings:

• In School: perfect for taming ever-growing collections of digital files with easy integration and future drive capacity and performance scalability.
• At Work: adds Thunderbolt speed and swappable drives to server closets, server rooms, or colocation center backup capabilities.
• On Stage: handles all the storage and peripheral connectivity needs front-of-house pros require for live performances.
• On Set: easily fits into mobile DIT carts to capture multi-stream, hi-res footage at full framerate while daisy-chaining up to five additional Thunderbolt devices.
• In Studio: expands storage and connectivity options of fixed racks.
• At Home: great for installers creating a high-performance home entertainment server closet.

 

Do It U.2 It

A hallmark of OWC FLEX technology is the ability to use U.2 NVMe SSDs as well as the OWC ecosystem of U.2 drives and adapters. U.2 NVMe drives are specifically designed to maximize the PCIe bus and when combined with Thunderbolt, you'll blast past fast with real-world transfer speeds of up to 2750 MB/s. Whether you use your rackmount setup to complete massive backups faster, stream content during a live performance, edit large format video, or run high transactional and complex calculation applications, you can do it U.2 to it with the OWC Flex 1U4.

A Complete Swap and Share Ecosystem

The OWC Flex 1U4 goes with the flow when needing to move data outside or beyond the local network. With the OWC U.2 ecosystem, moving and sharing data is fast and easy. Swap out and ship a project from field to post in video production workflows. Move backup data to an offline colocation for backup workflows. The combination of OWC Flex 1U4 and the OWC U.2 ecosystem opens a new dimension to data transfer possibilities.

• OWC U2 ShuttleOne: Convert an NVMe M.2 blade style SSD into a swappable 2.5" U.2 SSD with the peace of mind that your drive and its content are protected by the full metal, heat-dissipating adapter.
• OWC U2 Shuttle: Combine four NVMe M.2 SSDs into a 3.5" U.2 carrier shuttle to create a swappable, massive capacity RAID solution.
• OWC Helios 3S with Interchange System: Create an external Thunderbolt powered set to post U.2 solution that safeguards your data while lowering shipping costs.
• OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual: Put blazing fast Thunderbolt powered storage and backup on a desktop with a compact two bay footprint that can use U2 ShuttleOne and U2 Shuttles.
• OWC ThunderBay Flex 8: Take control of your media workflow with a 3-in-1 Thunderbolt storage, docking, and PCIe expansion desktop solution. Easily swaps U2 ShuttleOne and U2 Shuttles to/from the Flex 1U4.

 

Ready to Rack

The Flex 1U4 comes complete with hardware for mounting into most racks and cabinets.

RAID Made Easy

Harness the full capability of your OWC Flex 1U4 drive array with the included SoftRAID XT, which is powerful and intuitive RAID management software for macOS and Windows. SoftRAID's RAID creation and management technology has been finely tuned to perfection with over 20 years of development to provide rock solid protection of your data and optimize drive performance. It is packed with features like multiple RAID options, validation and verification of drives, and predictive disk failure with SoftRAID Monitor.

SoftRAID provides a level of storage performance that you simply can't get with hardware RAID and is ideal for anyone who needs to safely store and backup massive amounts of data, including educational institutions, government agencies, businesses, content creators, and M&E professionals. If you need even more power and flexibility, you can upgrade to SoftRAID Pro to spread volumes over two or more disk enclosures.

Certified for Demanding Use

OWC understands having confidence in gear reliability is paramount to creative professionals. That's why OWC Flex 1U4 solutions go through a multi-step performance certification prior to shipping. This ensures they arrive operating properly and immediately ready for demanding use.

Secure Your Connections

Unexpected disconnects during file transfers or a work session can be devastating. The OWC ClingOn, sold separately, helps reduces and eliminate cable strain on the OWC Flex 1U4's Thunderbolt connection ports.

Display Support

• Up to two 4K displays at 60 Hz
• One 8K display at 60 Hz
• One 4K display at 120 Hz
• One 5K display at 60 Hz

Display Support by Port

• Thunderbolt 3: up to 8K at 60 Hz or 4K at 120 Hz via a native Thunderbolt 3 display or other display that supports USB-C connections and DisplayPort 1.4
• DisplayPort 1.4: up to 8K at 60 Hz or 4K at 120 Hz

Power Delivery

• One Thunderbolt 3 port with 85W of power delivery
• One Thunderbolt 3 port with 15W of power delivery
• Two USB-C ports with 15W of power delivery

Drive Bays

• Four bays supporting 2.5" SATA drives, 3.5" SATA drives, 2.5" U.2 drives, 3.5" U.2 drives, M.2 drives (with an M.2 to U.2 adapter), 2.5" SAS drives (with a SAS drive controller card), and 3.5" SAS drives (with a SAS drive controller card)
• Bays 1 and 2 each support PCIe x4, while bays 3 and 4 support PCIe x1

macOS Compatibility

• macOS 10.15 Catalina
• macOS 11.x Big Sur
• macOS 12.x Monterey
• macOS 13.x Ventura

OWC Flex 1U4 External HDD/SSD Specs

Storage Capacity	73 TB
Included Drives	3x 24 TB SATA III 3.5" HDD 7200 RPM 1x 1 TB U.2 SSD
RAID	Yes
Number of Bays	4x 2.5"/3.5" SAS (Unspecified Version), SATA III, NVMe, U.2
Inputs/Outputs	2x USB-C Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gb/s) 2x USB-C 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 3x USB-A 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 1x DisplayPort 1.4

Storage Capacity	73 TB
Included Drives	3x 24 TB SATA III 3.5" HDD 7200 RPM 1x 1 TB U.2 SSD
RAID	Yes
Transfer Rates	5000 MB/s 2750 MB/s 1250 MB/s

Number of Bays	4x 2.5"/3.5" SAS (Unspecified Version), SATA III, NVMe, U.2
Inputs/Outputs	2x USB-C Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gb/s) 2x USB-C 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 3x USB-A 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 1x DisplayPort 1.4
Media Card Slots	No
PCI Expansion	Full-Height,Half-Length 1x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x4 Electrical)

OS Compatibility

macOS 10.15 to 15

Encryption	No
Security Features	No

Input Power	90 to 264 VAC, 50 / 60 Hz at 1.8 to 3.5 A
PSU	1 x 300 W

Operating Conditions	50 to 95°F / 10 to 35°C at 8 to 90% Humidity
Storage Conditions	-40 to 149°F / -40 to 65°C at 5 to 95% Humidity
Certifications	BSMI, CE, FCC, RCM, VCCI
Cooling	3x Fans
Cable Length	2.3' / 0.7 m
Dimensions	18 x 16.9 x 1.7" / 45.6 x 43 x 4.4 cm
Weight	16.3 lb / 7.4 kg