This aluminum box promises lightning fast storage, but speed depends entirely on how much you already know
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- OWC Express 4m2 housing offers an alternative route to large, fast external storage
- Thunderbolt 3 on Windows Cripple performance far below the advertised Maximum Speed
- OWC Express 4m2 SSD slots are only PCIE 4.0 X1, so individual drive speeds are limited
Saturated in a market with expensive high capacity storage, the OWC Express 4m2 Housing offers an alternative route to large, fast external storage without immediately breaking the $ 3000.
For $ 239.99 for the basic configuration, this device cheaper than the Terramaster D4 SSD And offers a flexible basis for building what a 32 TB arrangement could be in combination with four 8 TB NVME discs.
The company promotes this device as a transit up to 3200 MB/s, but the performance in practice is very variable.
Maximum speed requires RAID and careful system configuration
The four M.2 NVME slots only support PCIE 4.0 X1, which limits the individual drive performance to approximately 1600 MB/s.
The achievement of peak speeds therefore requires RAID configurations and optimum conditions, factors that introduce complexity.
It offers support for RAID 0, 1, 4, 5 and 10, but again, achieving these benefits depends on software licenses, drive quality and user knowledge.
Users can be signed by the speed of the housing, but must be aware that performance profits require effort and understanding.
Compatibility with USB4 and Thunderbolt -standards for macOS and Windows gives the housing a broad attraction, although the actual speed will be closed by the host device.
For example, systems that are performed on older Thunderbolt 3 ports under Windows are well below the full bandwidth.
Although macOS users get extra functions, such as starting raid -Arrays, this is limited to systems that are performed at least macOS 11.3.
The Express 4m2 does deliver in terms of construction and thermal management.
The aluminum chassis of aircraft quality is linked to a double fan system that is only activated under high thermal loads, which ensures silent effect in most scenarios.
OWC’s inclusion of softraid on some models introduces functionality that is usually reserved for more expensive storage systems.
For those who try one portable SSD Setting their external HDD or replacing it with a little faster, this housing is economically useful, but only alone.
However, the costs for filling all four bays with quality 8 TB SSDs still push the total to $ 3000, making this option only practical for those who can deliver their own drives or already have SSDs at hand.
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