Areca ARC-8050T5U 160TB 8-Bay Thunderbolt 5 RAID Storage System

160TB of Enterprise SATA Storage + 20TB Matching Spare

The Areca ARC-8050T5U is a professional 8-bay Thunderbolt 5 RAID storage system designed for high-capacity workstation storage, video production, post-production, photography, content creation, backup, and data-intensive applications.

This configuration is fully populated with eight 20TB Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC560 enterprise SATA hard drives, providing 160TB of raw installed storage capacity.

An additional matching 20TB Ultrastar DC HC560 SATA drive is included as a dedicated spare, providing a ready replacement drive without having to source another matching enterprise drive after a failure.

160TB Installed + 20TB Spare

Included storage:

• 8 × 20TB Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC560 SATA HDDs
• 160TB raw installed RAID capacity
• 1 × additional 20TB Ultrastar DC HC560 SATA HDD
• 180TB total drive capacity included

The ninth drive is supplied separately as a spare and is not part of the eight-drive RAID array.

Enterprise Ultrastar DC HC560 Drives

The included Ultrastar DC HC560 drives provide high-capacity enterprise storage using a 6Gb/s SATA interface. The 20TB drives use CMR recording and are designed for demanding data-center and enterprise storage environments.

Drive specifications:

• Capacity: 20TB
• Series: Ultrastar DC HC560
• Part Number: 0F38785
• Interface: SATA 6Gb/s
• Form Factor: 3.5-inch
• Rotation Speed: 7,200 RPM
• Cache: 512MB
• Recording: CMR
• Sector Format: 512e / 4Kn
• Enterprise-class HDD
• Designed for 24×7 operation

Thunderbolt 5 Professional Storage

The ARC-8050T5U combines high-capacity enterprise hard drives with Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, providing a high-bandwidth external storage platform for modern professional workstations.

The system is well suited for workflows involving large files and high-capacity media libraries, including:

• 4K video editing
• 6K video production
• 8K media workflows
• Professional photography
• RAW photo libraries
• Video post-production
• Content creation
• Digital media production
• Large project storage
• Workstation expansion
• High-capacity backup
• Data archiving

Hardware RAID

The ARC-8050T5U provides hardware RAID functionality, allowing the eight installed drives to be configured according to the user's requirements.

Depending on the RAID level selected, the system can be optimized for:

• Maximum usable capacity
• Data redundancy
• Drive-failure protection
• Storage performance
• A balance of capacity and redundancy

Actual usable capacity depends on the selected RAID level, filesystem, formatting, and controller configuration.

Approximate RAID Capacities

With eight 20TB drives:

*Before filesystem overhead and decimal-to-binary capacity differences.

20TB Spare Drive Included

This configuration includes a ninth matching 20TB Ultrastar DC HC560 SATA drive.

The spare drive provides a convenient replacement for one of the eight installed drives in the event of a failure. Keeping a matching enterprise drive on hand can simplify drive replacement and help minimize downtime.

8 drives installed + 1 matching spare = 9 drives included.

System Specifications

What's Included

RAID System

• 1 × Areca ARC-8050T5U 8-Bay Thunderbolt 5 RAID Enclosure

Installed Storage

• 8 × Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC560 20TB SATA HDD
• Part Number: 0F38785

Spare Storage

• 1 × Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC560 20TB SATA HDD
• Part Number: 0F38785

Total

• 9 × 20TB enterprise SATA drives
• 160TB installed raw RAID capacity
• 20TB dedicated spare
• 180TB total drive capacity included