Areca ARC-8050T5U-24R – 432TB
(NEW THUNDERBOLT 5 VERSION)

The Areca ARC-8050T5U-24R 432TB is the 4U, 24-bay rackmount member of Areca's ARC-8050T5U Thunderbolt 5 hardware RAID family. This configuration combines twenty-four 18TB enterprise hard drives with Areca's dedicated hardware RAID platform.

Its 1.6GHz dual-core ARM A15 RAID-on-Chip controller, 8GB DDR4-2666 ECC-protected cache, PCIe Gen4 architecture, redundant power and SFF-8644 expansion make the 24R the highest-capacity chassis in the current ARC-8050T5U rackmount family.

432TB Enterprise Storage

Twenty-four 18TB 7200rpm enterprise hard drives provide 432TB 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 414TB before formatting, RAID 6 approximately 396TB, and RAID 10 approximately 216TB.

High-Performance Hardware RAID

A Broadcom SAS39xx dual-core ARM A15 RAID-on-Chip running at up to 1.6GHz handles RAID processing independently of the host CPU. The controller is paired with 8GB DDR4-2666 SDRAM cache with ECC protection and uses PCIe Gen4 architecture to support the Thunderbolt 5 storage path.

Thunderbolt 5 And USB-C 10Gb

The enclosure has two Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports in total. One can be used for the host connection while the other supports compatible Thunderbolt daisy-chaining. Thunderbolt 5 provides up to 80Gb/s bidirectional bandwidth, with Bandwidth Boost up to 120Gb/s for supported display-intensive workflows. Compatible USB-only hosts can use USB 3.2 Gen 2 at up to 10Gb/s through USB-C.

24-Bay SAS / SATA Architecture

The twenty-four drive bays support compatible 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch SAS and SATA HDDs or SSDs, with up to 12Gb/s SAS or 6Gb/s SATA connectivity per supported drive interface.

Flexible RAID Protection

Supported modes include RAID 0, 1, 1E, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50 and 60 together with Single Disk and JBOD, allowing the array to be configured for performance, capacity, resilience or an appropriate balance between them.

SFF-8644 SAS Expansion

One external SFF-8644 expansion connection allows the RAID platform to scale with compatible SAS expander storage. Areca specifies expansion up to 512 drives with suitable 12Gb/s SAS expander solutions.

Redundant Rackmount Power

The 24R uses two redundant, hot-swappable 550W power supplies with power-factor correction and 80Plus Platinum efficiency. This provides power redundancy suitable for rack-based professional installations.

Cache Protection Option

The ARC-8050T5U-24R supports Areca's ARC-1886-CBM cache backup module option, designed to protect unwritten cached data during an unexpected loss of AC power.

Display And Management

A full-size DisplayPort output is provided alongside the Thunderbolt 5 ports. RAID configuration and monitoring are available through the front-panel LCD, in-band Thunderbolt management and the dedicated Ethernet management port using tools including McRAID and ArcSAP. The Ethernet port is for RAID management rather than host storage connectivity.

4U Cooling And Acoustics

The 24-bay chassis uses four intelligent cooling fans. Areca specifies approximately 40.3dB sound pressure for the ARC-8050T5U-24R. The chassis measures 176.4 x 445 x 448mm without handles and weighs approximately 34kg before fitted-drive weight.

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 rackmount hardware RAID 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.