Netstor 4U rackmount 24-bay Thunderbolt 3 JBOD with PCIe expansion

Netstor NA381TB3 4U 24-bay Thunderbolt 3 storage and PCIe expansion

The Netstor NA381TB3 is a 4U 19" rackmount enclosure with twenty-four hot-swappable bays and three PCIe 3.0 slots, connected to Thunderbolt 3 Macs and workstations at 40 Gbps with data rates up to 2750 MB/s. With 10 TB drives, total capacity reaches 240 TB.

It is supplied without a RAID card: a 24-port RAID adapter installed in one of the PCIe slots turns the JBOD into an enterprise RAID storage with RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, 30, 50 or 60, while the two remaining slots take other professional cards. A built-in plate drawer can hold a Mac mini (2018), turning it into an enterprise-grade server with 24 bays and up to three PCIe cards. The server-grade redundant power supply supports 24/7 operation.

Key features

• 4U 19" rackmount chassis with 24 hot-swappable bays for SAS/SATA 12/6 Gb/s drives (drives sold separately)
• Server-grade redundant power supply for 24/7 operation
• Built-in plate drawer for installing a Mac mini (2018)
• Takes an internal 24-port RAID card with Thunderbolt driver (sold separately) for RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60
• Three PCIe 3.0 x8 slots: besides the RAID card, two more professional cards (video capture, transcoding, audio accelerator, network card)
• Drive trays for 3.5" as well as 2.5" HDDs/SSDs
• Thunderbolt 3 at 40 Gbps, up to 2750 MB/s
• Dual Thunderbolt 3 ports: daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt devices, with two 4K UHD displays or one 5K display
• Fan, temperature and per-tray LEDs, mutable alarm buzzer
• Mac certified, works with all Thunderbolt Macs
• 2 m active Thunderbolt 3 cable included

Compatibility

• Mac computers with Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 ports, Apple silicon (M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra) or Intel
• macOS: Mac OS X 10.12.3 or later
• Thunderbolt 2 Macs need the Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 adapter
• RAID cards with internal 24 ports and a Thunderbolt driver, e.g. Areca ARC-1883ix-24 (offered by Netstor as accessory BARC1883IX24)
• Third-party PCIe cards must provide a Thunderbolt-aware macOS driver

Notes

• Supplied without RAID card; hard drives, SSDs and PCIe cards are not included.
• Optional accessories from Netstor: silver short drive tray ANNA920C0450, Areca ARC-1883ix-24 RAID card BARC1883IX24.
• Netstor lists macOS support only for this model; Windows is not mentioned in the official specifications.
• With Areca ARC-1226 or ARC-1883 RAID cards and Apple silicon Macs (M1/M2), Netstor reports a possible reboot loop at power-on because the Mac boots faster than the drives spin up: the fix is Areca firmware v1.62 (2022/04/27) or later, "Delay For JBOD Init" disabled and "Stagger Power On Control" set to 0.4 s.
• Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 run at the same 40 Gbps: according to Netstor, this Thunderbolt 3 unit can be connected to either a Thunderbolt 3 or a Thunderbolt 4 port on the host computer.

In the box

• Enclosure
• 24 drive trays (installed)
• 6 internal miniSAS cables
• Thunderbolt 3 40 Gbps cable, 2 m
• 96 drive mounting screws
• 2 keys for drive trays
• 2 power cords

Specifications

• Host interface: dual Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports for host connection and daisy-chain, 40 Gbps, compatible with Thunderbolt 4 host ports
• Drive interface: SAS/SATA (12/6 Gb/s)
• Drive bays: 24, for 2.5" or 3.5" HDDs
• PCIe card size: length up to 305 mm, full height
• Power supply: redundant PSU, high efficiency and low noise, input 90-230 VAC 50-60 Hz, outputs +5 V and +12 V; 650 W according to the Netstor model description (the specification table states 600 W)
• Cooling: five 90 x 90 x 25 mm fans
• Dimensions: 559 (D) x 482 (W) x 176 (H) mm (4U)
• RAID: requires an internal 24-port RAID card with Thunderbolt driver (sold separately)
• PCIe slot expansion: three PCIe 3.0 x8 slots
• Thunderbolt expansion: up to 6 Thunderbolt devices
• Enclosure LEDs: fan normal green / failure red; temperature normal green / over 50 °C red
• Tray LEDs: white power on, flashing blue access, red failure
• Alarm: mutable buzzer for fan failure or over temperature
• Housing: heavy-duty cold-rolled steel
• Environment: operating 5 to 40 °C, storage -10 to 50 °C, relative humidity 20-80% non-condensing