I currently run flame using the SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE STATION 16 TB. Unfortunately, the storage is parsed out between 4 drives, so it’s more like having 4TBX4. I’m finding it to be relatively slow. Does anyone have a drive they’re happy with? Are we all switching to a cloud-based storage solution?
Linux or Macos? if MacOs, why not put those 4 disks in raid configuration? Also.. I’m quite happy with the performance of the OWC Thunderblade on my Mac.. my Linux box has something build in which I’m not quite sure of what it is, but it’s fast.. 
MacOs. Back when I set this up, I remember having issues setting it up as a raid configuration. Unfortunately, I can’t recall what the issue was. Which OWC Thunderblade model? I’ve usually had luck with OWC. I would never compare my Mac setup to a Linux setup, I can imagine it’s an eons difference.
raid up an OWC Thunderblade X12. extremely fast.
Holy shit. 6500 MB/s speeds. That thing is a beast. Going to grab it. Thank you!
I have it set up as a raid. and it’s still fast. Because theres 12 NVMEs the loss in making it a raid isnt great. they are expensive and get super hot. but whisper quiet - and thunderbolt 5 of course
I recommend using the apple disk utility to make the raid. I had a terrible experience with SoftRaid.
Keeps us warm in winter.. haha.. I was actually considering to mount a small (silent) fan on top of it.
I was looking into what nice shared storage options there are these days… san but not san.. but quickly found the ‘old’ vendors and their vendor-locking sheninagans had not gone away. Would be nice if there was some NVMeOF way (or similar) of building such storage ourselves..
Strong recommend
Good info here:
I used use the apple raid - then switched to the soft raid - seems ok. havent had any issues, whats the problems? should I switch back?
It was a while ago and my memory is a bit hazy, but I think it was hassling for updates and generally being high maintenance. Then also the problem was, I needed to plug the raid in to another Mac and it won’t see it unless you install soft raid. So nothing critical, but I just find Apple raid to have zero downside so far (and I run a few of them).
Ah ok. Nothing major then. I will rebuild them apple style when I have a spare day!
I made a raid5 of 4 SSDs with SoftRaid that shit the bed the first time the Mac crashed. The rebuild took a day, but failed. Then data recovery took another day. This was in the middle of a project.
I will never use it again.
I’ve heard similar stories from others. Definitely a use at your own risk, and maybe not on critical projects situation.
Generally feel software based raids have less rigor and are more exposed to risk factors than hardware or filesystem based alternatives.
Same: Raid5 with Softraid demolished itself within 24 hours. Raid0 with Apple Utility has been fine for 4 years. Just make sure you have a good daily backup workflow.
There are many ways to approach this, much of have been discussed on the Forums already.
We run a single central 1PB NAS, made from commodity Dell and SuperMicro hardware running RL 10 and ZFS.
OWC Thunderblade in raid here as well, quite happy with it.