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

You may have noticed that virtually none of the people we have featured has chosen to use an OWC product. We were surprised at this as OWC has a very good reputation for so many Mac and Storage related products. The Thunderbolt write performance slowness of some NVMe SSDs can be eliminated by using an SSD that doesn't have that problem. PCIe 4.0 NVMe devices usually don't have the problem (but it's kind of a waste to use a 5000+ MB/s NVMe in a 2800 MB/s Thunderbolt enclosure - at least it will show what Thunderbolt can achieve). Im video editing on my M1 MAX MacBook Pro. Ive built this enclosure up to 8TB (with 4 x 2tb Sabrent SSD drives inside it). And it works really fast - The setup is so easy as well there are videos online. Silence: so I could use this storage in the same room as the Mac Studio and not be forced to run long cables into my basement machine room. 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: Drive Compatibility OWC Express 4M2: Drive Compatibility

It has also allowed me to move nearly all my instrumental samples and libraries onto a drive format that is over 10 times faster than my current system. My orchestral template now loads in just under 60 seconds. And there I was, about to go and make another cup of tea.” In Conclusion 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 PowerhouseSo we reached out to OWC to ask them to clarify the situation regarding how they allocate the PCIe lanes. They replied saying… As for the Express 4M2, it remains, as far as I know, the only such product on the market. It is unique in that it allows four drives to be merged together in a virtual disk. It manages to hit the right balance of performance AND storage. There are cheaper single drive devices available but of much lower capacity. The Samsung X5 comes to mind. On top of that it is small and can be daisy-chained (and hot-swapped) for even more flexibility. We would have preferred a longer cable, a longer warranty and multiplexed to fully benefit from faster NVMe SSD. 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.

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

Speed: at least 1000MB/sec so the session audio, Atmos audio and video could all come from one drive. I'm running mostly Samsung 980 Pro M.2 drives in different external Sonnet Thunderbolt 3 expansion chassis-old Sonnet GPU chassis or an Echo Express 3 slot chassis with multiple PCIe to M.2 cards in it.”Portability: so I could take projects on the train to a destination studio, or to a hotel room with my laptop. It is our understanding that the M1 Max SoC has four Thunderbolt 4 controllers on the chip and is able to feed up to four TB4 ports. When it comes to the M1 Max powered MacBook Pro, this means that each of the three Thunderbolt 4 ports has its own controller offering a dedicated 40 Gbps per port. With the M1 Max powered Mac Studio, there are four TB4 ports using all four controllers on the M1 Max chip. It's smaller and easier to fit into your workflow, studio and on stage. It's faster with four easy-access M.2 slots so you can swap, upgrade or expand your Express 4M2 to configure and reconfigure it to serve any project need. We already have a broader article SSDs And Storage Drives For Your Studio - Everything You Need To Know. In that article, we cover all kinds of drives from HDDs (spinners) to SSDs (solid-state drives). However, as we explained in that article, there are SSDs and SSDs. Very interesting. Where did you get the enclosure from? You say it's a no-name, but can you provide any information about the enclosure?

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

You like to explore your own independent path, and digital storage is where you have fun, push hard and spark the imagination. You explore, you refine, and when ready, you share your vision with the world. The OWC Express 4M2 is the external drive built for the journey before you and the path yet to be explored. 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. Small in stature. Big on capability. The OWC Express 4M2 is ready to serve with four easy-to-access M.2 NVMe SSD slots customisable for any workflow with vibration damping feet that allow for vertical or horizontal orientation. Install up to 16TB of capacity and experience up to 2800MB/s of mind-bending performance via Thunderbolt 3. The Express 4M2 is an amazingly small digital workhorse with world-renowned OWC quality and award-winning support built in. Size: at least 6TB single volume size (without resorting to exotic software RAID solutions that group smaller volumes together). 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

Each computer has a Sonnet Echo III chassis attached and together they are configured side by side in the DuoModo housing. If he were building a system now Dave would suggest the fanless version of the Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card (Silent) “especially as the Sonnet M.2 4x4 is now fanless, not that I’ve ever heard the fan in my older version that has a fan”. Need more power and protection? Choose a solution that includes OWC's powerful SoftRAID RAID software.

OWC Express 4M2

Pro Tools and SoundMiner are snappier on this drive. I am hopeful that this setup will work well as a primary work drive. Given how expensive it is compared to spinning hard drives and USB SSDs, it had better last a long time. The Express 4M2 enclosure only works with NVMe (PCIe 3.0) SSDs. SATA M.2 drives will not function if installed. 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… The OWC Express 4M2 comes equipped with OWC SoftRAID which provides the amazing capability to RAID across multiple drive enclosures. You can also add more Express 4M2 drives to your storage pool using Windows Storage Spaces. Configure and reconfigure your storage however you need by combining multiple OWC Express 4M2 drives together on Mac and Windows. Connect to Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 Systems with Ease OWC sent us the Express 4M2 fitted with four Aura P12 SSDs. The former was launched last year while the latter is a newly released part so today’s review will be about the DAS Combo.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.