OWC Announces Express 4M2 Ultra Thunderbolt 5 SSD Enclosure for High-End Filmmakers

Other World Computing has introduced the Express 4M2 Ultra, a $400 SSD RAID enclosure designed for creative professionals needing maximum Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth. This DIY solution supports up to four NVMe M.2 drives, delivering speeds reaching 6,622MB/s for handling intensive workflows like 12K RAW video and 8K multi-cam sequences. Unlike OWC's fully-configured ThunderBlade X8, this enclosure allows users to install their own SSDs, offering flexibility in storage configuration. The device features two Thunderbolt 5 ports for daisy-chaining up to six units, expanding potential storage to 128TB as a single volume. However, each enclosure requires its own power brick, and equipping one with four 8TB SSDs could cost around $5,600 just for the drives. OWC opted for active cooling with an adaptive fan to manage heat from NVMe SSDs and Thunderbolt 5, a departure from their typically passive designs. Pre-orders are open at $399.99 for non-SoftRAID models and $549.99 with SoftRAID, with shipping expected in Q3 2026. The company markets it as the fastest compact DIY NVMe RAID available, targeting filmmakers who have upgraded to Thunderbolt 5-capable computers.