Express 4M2 = Four M.2 SSD bays with pure adrenaline inducing Thunderbolt 3 performance.
Pint-sized Powerhouse Small in stature. Big on capability. The OWC Express 4M2 is ready to serve with four easy-to-access M.2 NVMe SSD slots customizable for any workflow with vibration damping feet that allow for vertical or horizontal orientation. Install up to 32TB 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. Ingest and duplicate dailies at breakneck speeds, work with higher resolutions, smoothly scrub through demanding timelines, and plow through thousands of photos with ease. The OWC Express 4M2 is one seriously fast drive to have by your side to take your digital capabilities to a new level.
**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 the 57% smaller and 2.5x faster OWC Express 4M2.
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 ** 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 ** 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 ** 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.
**Includes SoftRAID: Easy and Complete Drive Management ** Now you can maximize disk space, get the fastest access speeds, and protect against disk failure with Plug and Play simplicity. SoftRAID’s easy setup makes it a breeze to create RAID volumes by helping you through the entire process. Just decide what you’re using your RAID volume for and how much space to allocate to it. It's that simple to create your preference of speed and/or redundancy attributes of your data volume. OWC enclosures ship with the XT version of SoftRAID. SoftRAID XT and Lite XT are fully featured and designed to only work with OWC solutions.
SoftRAID Lite XT for Windows and SoftRAID XT and Lite XT for Mac
Workflow And Storage Solutions For Pros Whether you’re finishing and mastering, creating proxies or working with state-of-the-art VFX and AR, you need dependable tech that keeps pace with your demands. OWC workflow and storage solutions cover every angle, delivering processing speeds up to 2800MB/s1, capacity for all five levels of RAID, and bonus features like the freedom to daisy-chain and hot-swap. Use the chart to find the perfect match for your workflow and storage. View Chart
**Connect To Thunderbolt And Thunderbolt 2 Systems With Ease ** The OWC Express 4M2 is fully backward compatible with Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2. Utilize Thunderbolt 3 performance to work at full speed, and step back to Thunderbolt or Thunderbolt 2 whenever connectivity compatibility is needed for your workflow. Add a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter along with the appropriate Thunderbolt cable, and you're all set.
**Pro-tips: Daisy-chaining With Thunderbolt Devices ** With the ability to run up to six devices per port, Thunderbolt ports amplify your laptop or desktop with peripheral power. Learn the basics of daisy-chaining Thunderbolt devices for maximum performance in this handy infographic. View Infographic
**OWC Thunderbolt 3 Cable ** OWC Express 4M2 comes with an OWC Thunderbolt 3 cable which is Thunderbolt certified for Mac and Windows, with additional 0.5 meter to 2.0 meter lengths available separately.
Includes
- (1) OWC Express 4M2 External Storage Enclosure
- (1) 0.7M Thunderbolt Cable
- (1) Power Supply and Power Cable
- (1) Quick Start Guide for OWC Express 4M2
- (1) Assembly Manual & User Guide for OWC Express 4M2(1) OWC SoftRAID XT Software Bundle
- (1) Quick Start Guide for OWC SoftRAID XT
- (1) Manual & User Guide for OWC SoftRAID XT
- 1 Year OWC Limited Warranty
Detailed Specs Number of Bays
- 4
Drive Bays
- 4 bays supporting: M.2 drives
- Supports NVMe M.2 SSDs with 2280 form factor and "M Key" connector type. Single- and double-sided SSDs are supported.
Hot Plug Support
- Yes
Boot Support
- All four drive bays are bootable on macOS. SSDs with 512 byte sectors require macOS 10.13 or later.
RAID Capable
- Yes
RAID Levels Supported
- RAID 0
- RAID 1
- RAID 4
- RAID 5
- RAID 10
- JBOD
- RAID 6
RAID Features
- Software RAID
Device Ports
- (1) Host Port - Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) up to 40 Gb/s (5000 MB/s)
- (1) Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) Port
- (1) DisplayPort Port
Power Delivery
- Two Thunderbolt 3 ports with 15W power delivery each.
Display Support
- Up to one 4K display @ 60Hz,
- or one 4K display @ 30Hz,
- or two 4K displays @ 60Hz
Display Support by Port
- Mini DisplayPort 1.2: Up to 4K @ 60Hz
Data Transfer Rate (Maximum)
- Thunderbolt 3 : Up to 40 Gb/s (or 5000 MB/s)
Chipset
- (1) Thunderbolt 3 - Alpine Ridge DSL6540
MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)
- Varies depending on drive mechanism installed
Contact Start Stops
- Varies depending on drive mechanism installed
Host Port Requirements
- Thunderbolt (USB-C) port (backward compatible with Thunderbolt 2/Thunderbolt1)
Mac OS Compatibility
- macOS 10.12 Sierra
- macOS 10.13 High Sierra
- macOS 10.14 Mojave
- macOS 10.15 Catalina
- macOS 11.x Big Sur
- macOS 12.x Monterey
- macOS 13.x Ventura
PC OS Compatibility
- Windows 11
- Windows 10 32-bit Edition
- Windows 10 64-bit Edition
- Windows Server 2016
Driver Required
- No
Other Requirements
- When using one or more SSDs with 512 byte sectors, macOS 10.13 or later is required.
- SoftRAID XT works with macOS 10.12 or later and Windows 10 or later. SoftRAID is licensed per computer. The SoftRAID serial number will work with both Mac and Windows but can only be active on one computer at a time. Additional seats can be purchased. RAID 4/1+0 (10) are currently Mac only at this time.
External Power Adapter
- Yes
Power Supply
- External UL-listed universal auto-switching power supply
- Need an additional power supply? Secondary/replacement power supplies are also available.
AC Input
- 100-240V, 50-60Hz, 1-2A
DC Output
- +12V, 6A
Wattage
- 72W
Replacement Adapter Part Number
- OWCPWR12V6A (sold separately)
Cooling
- (1) 60mm 2,800RPM cooling fan
Security Slot
- No
Power/Activity LED
- Yes
Housing Color
- Black
Housing Material
- Aluminum
Dimensions
- Height: 6.0 cm
- Length: 11.3 cm
- Width: 13.6 cm
Weight
- 800.0 g
Certifications
- CE
- FCC
Ambient Temperature
- Operating: 32°F to 104°F (0°C to 40°C)
- Non-Operating: -4°F to 158°F (-20°C to 70°C)
Altitude
- Operating: -304.8 m to 3,048.0 m (-1,000 ft to 10,000 ft)
- Non-Operating: -304.8 m to 12,192.0 m (-1,000 ft to 40,000 ft)