Malcolm Owen
Other World Computing's CES 2025 offerings include massive storage with the OWC ThunderBlade X12 and connectivity with the OWC Active Optical Cable.
The OWC ThunderBlade X12 is a high-capacity, high-bandwidth storage device aimed at video professionals, including digital imaging technicians on film and TV productions. OWC offers it can be used as a production shuttle RAID in a portable size.
The aim of the device is that it solves the niche problem of a RAID solution compatible with RAID 5, that handles both massive storage capacities and sustained fast speeds for on-set footage ingestion.
Away from the set, it also fulfills the brief of being a premium editing drive for video and VFX work. This includes dealing with multi-camera sequences at 4K and 6K, RAW video at 8K to 12K, and stereoscopic 360 VR Spatial Video.
The OWC Thunderblade X12 can hold capacities from 12TB to 96TB in size, and functions in RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 formats. The enclosure has dimmable LED lights to minimize disruption during production, while also being very thermally stable due to its fin-covered casing.
OWC plans to ship the ThunderBlade X12 in March.
OWC Active Optical CableAs well as the ThunderBlade X12, the company also used CES to introduce the OWC Active Optical Cable. Intended for cost-effective connectivity of Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 devices over longer distances, it still manages to provide Thunderbolt 3 speeds.
These distances are longer than your typical Thunderbolt cables, at 3 meters (9.8 feet) and 4.5 meters (14.76 feet). Each can support high-resolution displays at up to 8K resolution, including if the source is from a Thunderbolt dock or hub.
Power delivery is lab-certified to be safe at up to 240W on the 3-meter cable, 60W on the 4.5 meter version, so it can still be used to charge devices. The cable is also covered by a braided nylon exterior on top of the advanced internal fiber optic cable, which is claimed to be immune to EMI or RFI interference.
Now available, the OWC USB 4 Active Optical Cable is priced at $94.99 for the 3-meter model, $129.99 for the 4.5 meter.
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Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
Andrew O'Hara
Amber Neely
4 Comments
The Case design with those fins is outstanding. They are very deep and provide a lot of surface area for heat distribution. I have the OWC Express and even though I have a screeming fast SSD in it, it gets only slightly hot (hotter than warm, but not hot to touch). But, if I put a VERY low speed fan running over the fins so the air can travel between them, the case gets downright cool. It works very well.
Something like this running on low is all you need for a super cool SSD in this case: https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-MULTIFAN-Receiver-Playstation/dp/B00G059G86/ref=sr_1_11
I hope OWC makes it clear if this ThunderBlade drive enclosure requires a hidden cost of an annual subscription for software.
I'm not longer an OWC fanboy after getting burned on their ThunderBay RAIDS.