Malcolm Owen
Mac upgrade specialist OWC has launched the Accelsior 4M2, a PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD that is capable of transfers of over 6 gigabytes per second in RAID 0 configurations, one that is aimed primarily at Mac Pro owners seeking to add more high-speed storage to their workstation.
The Accelsior 4M2 is offered as a high-performance way to boost the onboard storage of the Mac Pro, including the current generation and versions released in 2012 and 2010. It is the fastest SSD solution OWC has ever produced, offering access speeds in excess of 6,000MB/s, which OWC suggests makes it ideal for 4K and 8K video editing, gaming, and compute-intensive tasks requiring high amounts of bandwidth.
Fitting into a half-height or full-height PCI 3.0 or 3.0 8x or 16x slot, the card is compatible with the new Mac Pro as well as the older 2012 and 2010 versions, along with PCs. If no expansion slot is available, it also works with Thunderbolt 3-based external enclosures.
The card is made up of four NVMe blade-style drives, that operate at full x4 PCIe speeds for performance. OWC also suggests even higher speeds can be achieved by using multiple Accelsior 4M2 cards together in RAID.
Though drives can be used individually, they can also be used in RAID on the card itself, including support for Raid 0, 1, 4, 5, and 1+0 volumes using the included SoftRAID software. Raid 0 ,where data is striped across multiple disks, is essential to reach the headline 6GB/s speeds.
The card is entirely slot-powered, meaning it doesn't require any extra power connections to function, is plug-and-play without needing additional drivers for installation, and is able to be used as the boot volume for fast start-up times. The four NVMe sticks are protected by a finned heat sink cover across the entire length of the card, which provides cooling without additional noisy fans.
OWC is selling the Accelsior 4M2 in a variety of different capacities, ranging from 1TB for $479.99 to 8TB for $1,599.99, while the card on its own without NVMe drives is $249.99. OWC plans to start shipping the card in the week of December 30.
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20 Comments
It's NOT bootable unless you designate one of the individual blades as the boot volume (visit their product page and view the fine print). It can't boot from a RAID volume, which sadly renders it useless for me. I was so excited about this product and now am hugely disappointed.
This product basically requires their SoftRAID software and it's only an x8 card! Get the HighPoint 7101 or Sonnet M.2 4x4. Both are x16 and more customizable without relying on SoftRAID. SoftRAID Version 6 has been delayed for months and still does not work correctly in Mojave, let alone Catalina...
It works in the cMP also, which is nice for us clinging to our old MacPro's. Not quite as fast, but still better then the SATA II connections built in.
Really, not bootable? That deflates that balloon fast!
Curious about RAIDing multiple cards though. Does this mean you get 12GBps if you have two 1TB cards? Even 6GBps is crazy fast!