Areca ARC-8050T5U-12N – 96TB

The Areca ARC-8050T5U-12N 96TB is the 12-bay N-Version member of Areca's ARC-8050T5U Thunderbolt 5 family. This configuration combines twelve 8TB enterprise hard drives with Areca's tri-mode hardware RAID platform.

The 12N combines dual Thunderbolt 5 ports, USB 3.2 Gen 2 compatibility, DisplayPort 2.1, a Broadcom tri-mode RAID-on-Chip controller with ECC-protected cache and a four-lane SFF-8644 expansion port.

96TB Enterprise Storage

Twelve 8TB 7200rpm enterprise hard drives provide 96TB of raw capacity and are covered by a five-year drive warranty. Final usable capacity depends on RAID level and formatting. As a planning guide, RAID 5 provides approximately 88TB before formatting, RAID 6 approximately 80TB, and RAID 10 approximately 48TB.

Tri-Mode 12-Bay N-Version Architecture

Each of the twelve drive bays supports NVMe x1 using compatible U.2/U.3 media, or SAS/SATA storage. This differentiates the 12N from the SAS/SATA-only 12E and makes it suitable for high-capacity hard drives, solid-state storage or NVMe media.

Thunderbolt 5 And USB-C 10Gb

The enclosure has two Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports in total. One is used for the host connection and the other can be used to daisy-chain compatible Thunderbolt peripherals. Thunderbolt 5 provides up to 80Gb/s bidirectional bandwidth, with Bandwidth Boost up to 120Gb/s for supported display-intensive workloads. Connected to a compatible USB-only computer, the interface operates using USB 3.2 Gen 2 at up to 10Gb/s.

True Hardware RAID

A Broadcom tri-mode RAID-on-Chip controller handles RAID processing independently of the host CPU and is paired with on-board SDRAM cache protected by ECC. Supported modes include RAID 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50 and 60 together with Single Disk and JBOD.

Four-Lane SAS Expansion

The SFF-8644 expansion port provides four SAS lanes for compatible expansion storage. Areca's current quick-install documentation supports connection of up to seven expander enclosures, with a maximum of 256 drives through the RAID storage.

Display And Daisy-Chain Connectivity

A full-size DisplayPort 2.1 output supports high-resolution display workflows, while the second Thunderbolt 5 port can be used for compatible daisy-chained peripherals when the other port is connected to the host.

Enterprise Data Protection

Controller-based AES 128-bit and 256-bit hardware encryption, self-encrypting-drive support, hot spares, disk scrubbing, array verification, online RAID migration and background initialization provide a broad set of data-protection and maintenance functions.

Independent RAID Management

Configuration and monitoring are available through the front-panel LCD, in-band Thunderbolt management and the dedicated Ethernet management port. Areca's McRAID browser interface, ArcSAP, CLI, SNMP and SMTP notification options support local and remote administration. The Ethernet port is for RAID management rather than host storage connectivity.

12-Bay Desktop Chassis

The ARC-8050T5U-12N uses a 400W internal power supply in a 206 x 310 x 290mm desktop chassis weighing approximately 9.5kg before fitted-drive weight. Areca uses intelligent cooling with dual 2700rpm fans on the larger desktop chassis.

Configured And Tested By Rent a Raid

Rent a Raid can preconfigure and test the system before dispatch, including an appropriate RAID level for the intended Mac or Windows workflow, so the hardware RAID set can arrive ready for deployment.

Host Compatibility

Thunderbolt 5 host support is specified for macOS 15.3 or later and Windows 11 23H2 or later. Thunderbolt 4 is supported on macOS 14.x or later and Windows 11 or later; compatible Thunderbolt 3 Macs require macOS 15.0 or later. USB host operation is OS independent.