As always, the halls of the Las Vegas convention center are fully bustling from the start as NAB 2026 once again brings thousands of companies and brands and tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of filmmakers, videographers, editors, broadcasters, and the weird mix of all of the above that many of us are forced to reside in these days.
Along with major announcements from legacy companies like Adobe, Blackmagic Design, and Sony, which shared their big news pre-conference this year, other companies are showcasing their latest and greatest gear at their booths.
The new OWC Express 4M2 Ultra is a new product on the floor this year that aims to be one of the fastest compact DIY NVMe RAID devices ever built, and the first certified Thunderbolt 5 four-slot NVMe M.2 SSD enclosure on the market. Here’s what you need to know.
OWC Express 4M2 Ultra Debut
Designed for the odd class of hybrid content creators and the even more diverse set of video editors, the OWC Express 4M2 Ultra delivers fast DIY RAID performance and a compact design that should make it both powerful and versatile for a range of editing needs.
“The OWC Express 4M2 Ultra is the fastest compact DIY NVMe RAID. Period. Thunderbolt 5 unlocks extraordinary bandwidth, and we designed this enclosure to let professionals harness every bit of it using the drives they trust and the RAID configuration their workflow demands. Thunderbolt 5. Your drives… your RAID… it’s about putting complete control, maximum performance, and future-ready scalability into a single compact solution.” – Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing (OWC).
The 4M2 Ultra aims to (kind of) deliver everything at once, offering users the freedom to choose any NVMe M.2 drive, the flexibility to configure their storage exactly how they need it, and dramatically improved workflow efficiency with Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth.
Price and Availability
Ultimately, an option for those looking to build a desktop powerhouse RAID with a custom choice of drives that should be more than capable of handling 12K RAW video files, 8K multi-cam sequences, and huge photo libraries, making them easy parts of your video editing workflows.
If you’re curious to check it out, here are the full features.
- Up to 6622MB/s Real-World Performance: Build your own high-speed NVMe RAID with Thunderbolt 5 for blazing fast transfers and intensive 8K+ video workflows.
- Use Your Choice of NVMe Drives: DIY flexibility to install four M.2 2280 or 2242 NVMe SSDs.
- RAID Ready: Easily manage RAID 0/1/4/5/10/JBOD with SoftRAID or use your preferred RAID utility.
- Massive Storage in a Small Footprint: Install up to 32TB with minimal desk space.
- Expandable Capacity: Connect additional Express 4M2 Ultra enclosures as a single volume for huge storage space without sacrificing speed.
- Connect All Your Devices: Second Thunderbolt port for connecting up to five additional Thunderbolt devices plus one USB peripheral.
- Smart Thermal Management: Solid aircraft-grade aluminum housing with smart adaptive fan quietly keeps drives running fast and your creative focus uninterrupted.
- Highly Compatible: Use with Thunderbolt 5, 4, and USB4 Macs and PCs as well as Thunderbolt 3 Macs.
The OWC Express 4M2 Ultra is now available for pre-order, starting at $399.99 for non-SoftRAID models and $549.99 with SoftRAID. Units should start shipping in Q3 of 2026. You can find more info on the company’s website here.
