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OWC ThunderBlade

Introduction

1.1 Minimum System Requirements

• Operating System:

• macOS 10.13 or later

• Windows 10 or later

• Hardware:

• Mac or Windows PC with Thunderbolt 3 port

1.2 Package Contents

• OWC ThunderBlade

• 0.5 m Thunderbolt 3 cable

• Power supply and cable

1.3 Getting Started

• To use the ThunderBlade, connect it to your computer via attached Thunderbolt

3 cable (macOS 10.13 or later, or Windows 10 or later required). Device drivers are

not required, however use of SoftRAID XT (macOS only at the time of this writing)

requires the SoftRAID driver and application.. See Section 2.1 for more information.

• The LED indicator on the front of the device (see Section 1.5) glows blue when

the device is receiving power and is connected to an active host. The LED glows

white when the device is connected to a host that is in Sleep or hibernation mode,

or when it has power but is not connected to a host. This LED is also connected

to a light sensor on the back of the device which enables automatic brightness

adjustments based on ambient light levels.

• The LED has four segments, one for each installed M.2 SSD. When one or more of

the SSDs are accessed, the corresponding segments will blink blue.

• While it is possible to connect a DisplayPort 1.2 display to the spare Thunderbolt 3

port on the device by using the appropriate cable or adapter, HDMI and other types

of displays require an active display adapter with a USB-C host connection.

• Software RAID volumes cannot be used as boot drives in macOS 10.13 and

later. In order to boot to this device, do the folllowing: break the RAID, format one

of the drives as an independent volume, then install macOS on that drive. The

remaining drives can be recongured as a RAID 0 volume if necessary. For more

details, please see: www.owcdigital.com/thunderblade-boot

1.4 About This Manual

The images and descriptions may vary slightly between this manual and the unit shipped.

Functions and features may change depending on the rmware version. Screenshot images

may vary slightly from the applications you seen on-screen. The latest product details and

warranty information can be found on the product web page. OWC’s Limited Warranty is

not transferable and subject to limitations.

INTRODUCTION

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OWC THUNDERBLADE Specifications

General

NVMe	Yes
Interface	PCI Express 3.0
Read speed	2800 MB/s
Write speed	2450 MB/s
SSD capacity	8000 GB
SSD form factor	M.2
Wi-Fi	No
USB version	-
USB connector	USB Type-C
USB ports quantity	2
Thunderbolt version	3
USB connector gender	Female
Certification	CE, FCC, RoHS
Product color	Black
Housing material	Aluminum
Mac operating systems supported	Mac OS X 10.13 High Sierra, Mac OS X 10.14 Mojave, Mac OS X 10.15 Catalina, Mac OS X 10.15.3 Catalina, Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Mac OS X 11.0 Big Sur
Windows operating systems supported	Windows 10
Storage temperature (T-T)	-40 - 65 °C
Operating temperature (T-T)	10 - 35 °C
Storage relative humidity (H-H)	5 - 90 %
Operating relative humidity (H-H)	8 - 90 %
Cables included	Thunderbolt
Product type	SSD enclosure
RAID levels	0, 1, 4, 5, 10
Storage drive size	M.2 \
Installed storage drive type	SSD
Number of storage drives supported	4
Chipset	Intel® DSL6540
Noise level	0 dB
Data transfer rate	40 Gbit/s
Power source type	DC
AC adapter frequency	50/60 Hz
AC adapter input voltage	100 - 240 V
AC adapter output current	4.8 A
AC adapter output voltage	15 V