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In the External SSD/NVMe recommendations thread from the DUC Darryl shares that his current preference for a high-performance solution would be to use a “well regarded” NVMe M.2 card in your own portable enclosure. 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. Unfortunately, there’s an obscure incompatibility between this drive’s USB 3.0 implementation and the Mac Pro 6,1. Glyph’s engineers worked with me on this and came to the conclusion that it would never work properly on a Mac Pro 6,1. Multi-Drive 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. The fastest that Thunderbolt 3 or 4 will actually move data at is around 2800MB/s for data reads. This is due to the reserved bandwidth for video.
OWC Express 4M2: Drive Compatibility OWC Express 4M2: Drive Compatibility
The main benefit of the 4M2 is capacity. It can benefit performance with the slight inconvenience of software RAID.NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a hyper-efficient communications interface protocol built from the ground up to properly take advantage of SSD technology and high-performance connection buses like PCIe. The result is exponentially faster and efficient SSD storage, and the OWC Express 4M2 has room for four NVMe SSDs. DisplayPort These solutions are based on the combination of a PCIe Thunderbolt enclosure with PCIe NVMe cards inside. But be aware that it would appear that not all PCIe chassis are the same when it comes to how the PCIe lanes are handled. Some split one lane across multiple cards, reducing access to the available bandwidth. You need to make sure that all of the PCIe lanes can be directed to all of the cards in the enclosure to maximise speed and bandwidth, otherwise, your investment in fast NVMe cards may be wasted. 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 best solution for a multi-blade system is our Helios 3 paired up with the Accelsior 4M2 PCIe card. This allows full bandwidth to each blade whether it is in a RAID configuration or not. For single blade use, I would highly suggest the Envoy Pro FX or the Envoy Pro SX, these take full advantage of the available bandwidth.”
OWC Express 4M2
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. And by portable enclosure I mean a PCIe slot chassis where you can install the right PCIe to M.2 adapter cards, esp. cards with PCIe switches on them to get efficient speed out of the drives.If you are looking to push performance to the limit then you are more likely to need to go for a fan-based solution because at peak performance we understand that when these drives and their onboard controllers get hot they can start to throttle performance. All four drive bays are bootable on macOS. SSDs with 512-byte sectors require macOS 10.13 or later. 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 With the release of the new MacBook Pro and Mac Studio, more and more people are looking for even higher speed storage options. In this article, we explore how this has come about, what technology is now available and suggest some options for solutions for your new studio computer.
OWC Express 4M2 + Aura P12 Thunderbolt 3 external DAS Combo
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 Powerhouse The OWC Express 4M2 fully supports Windows workflows as well. Using Windows Storage Spaces you can pool the four M.2 NVMe SSDs together with support for all the Storage Spaces configuration options including the ability to add another OWC Express 4M2 to expand your storage pool on the fly. Speed: at least 1000MB/sec so the session audio, Atmos audio and video could all come from one drive. Each computer has a Sonnet Echo III chassis attached and together they are configured side by side in the DuoModo housing.Portability: so I could take projects on the train to a destination studio, or to a hotel room with my laptop. Built Smaller and Faster from Input by Pros Like You The OWC Express 4M2 is designed with superior ease-of-use in mind. We worked with award-winning creatives and listened to the kudos they heaped onto the OWC ThunderBay mini, and we put all that shared knowledge to good use when we set out to build the next-gen Thunderbolt 3 multi-bay drive. The result is 57% smaller and 2.5x faster OWC Express 4M2.
High Speed Storage Solutions For Next Gen Computers Like
This is where prebuilt solutions become much rarer and we currently will need to turn to DIY solutions and build our own. 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. Game-Changing NVMe SSD Performance DisplayPort 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. 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. 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.
The need to speed, made in USA
OWC Thunderbolt 3 Cable OWC Express 4M2 comes with an OWC Thunderbolt 3 cable which is Thunderbolt certified for Mac and Windows, with an additional 0.5 meter to 2.0 meter lengths available separately.
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