REVIEW: Stardom ST4-TB
four bay Thunderbolt 2 storage
Originally posted June 26th, 2015 by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist
Stardom wants to give you a handle on your Thunderbolt 2 storage needs -- literally. We tested their compact SOHOTANK ST5-TB four bay storage enclosure.
GRAPH LEGEND
ST4-TB SSD = Stardom SOHOTANK ST4-TB with four OWC Electra 960GB SSD drives in RAID 0 mode connected to a Thunderbolt 2.0 port of the 2013 Mac Pro
ST4-TB SSHD = Stardom SOHOTANK ST4-TB with four Seagate 2TB SSHD drives in RAID 0 mode connected to a Thunderbolt 2.0 port of the 2013 Mac Pro
LARGE SEQUENTIAL TRANSFER TEST
We used AJA System Test to test file level sequential transfer speed using a 16GB test and 4096x2160 Frame Size. RED graph bar means the FASTEST overall in Megabytes per Second.
SMALL RANDOM TRANSFER TEST
We used a range of 4K to 1024K blocks in the Standard Random test in QuickBench as a predictor boot volume 'house keeping' performance and a simulation of an application that does multiple small random transfers. RED graph bar means the FASTEST overall in Megabytes per Second.
INSIGHTS
The Stardom SOHOTANK ST4-TB is disappointing as a performance oriented Thunderbolt 2 RAID box. With four OWC 1TB Electra 6Gbps SSDs in RAID 0 mode, it should have easily reached the magical 1350MB/s real world possible speed of Thunderbolt 2. As you can see from the graphs, we measured no faster than 737MB/s.
However, its compact design, built-in power supply, and tote handle make it a useful backup storage device for field work or just moving around the office. Though it can support up to 32TB aggregate HDD capacity, for this test session we used four Seagate 2TB Desktop Solid State Hybrid Drives (SSHD model ST2000DX001) for an 8TB total. They measured a respectable 687MB/s in RAID 0 mode.
If you need faster transfer speeds for your Thunderbolt 2 storage, you may want to check out our review of the OWC ThunderBay 4 mini and Areca ARC-5028T2 6 bay.
Feedback or comments? Feel free to email me,
Also, you can follow me on Twitter @barefeats
WHERE TO BUY THE STARDOM SOHOTANK ST4-TB
Other World Computing is a dealer for Stardom products. Though not listed on their site, they may be able to special order it for you.
The 1TB Electra 6Gbps SSDs we used are available directly from Other World Computing.
The Seagate 2TB SSHD Solid State Hybrid Drive we used is available from Trans International or Amazon and BHPhotoVideo. (It comes in capacities from 1TB to 4TB.)
SHOP APPLE STORE USA
Help support Bare Feats by clicking our Apple display ads or THIS Apple USA link when ordering any Apple product or Apple compatible product.
