Orico Data Matrix Pro

Orico
Data
Matrix
Pro:
30-second
review

The
Orico
brand
is
well-considered
for
its
inexpensive
range
of
external
drive
enclosures,
but
the
Orico
Data
Matrix
Mini
products
are
a
significant
diversion.

There
are
three
options:
the
Data
Matrix
Elite,
Data
Matrix
Pro,
and
Data
Matrix
Ultra,
with
one,
two,
or
five
hard
drives
mounted
internally.

Thunderbolt
technology
connects
the
PC
or

Apple
Mac,
and
each
of
these
external
drives
incorporates
a
Thunderbolt
hub,
enabling
five
of
them
to
be
daisy-chained
for
a
substantial
amount
of
capacity.

All
these
units
are
supplied
with
drives
pre-installed,
negating
the
possibility
of
finding
a
deal
on
storage.
All
units
come
with
conventional
SATA
drives
and
a
single
M.2
SSD,
and
the
capacities
of
these
are
combined
for
no
obvious
good
reason.

Therefore,
the
Data
Matrix
Elite
can
come
with
a
4TB,
8TB,
16TB,
and
22TB
drive
and
with
a
1TB
SSD,
making
for
total
capacities
of
5TB,
9TB,
17TB
and
23TB.

The
Matrix
Pro
can
have
10TB,
18TB,
34TB
or
46TB,
as
it
comes
with
a
2TB
SSD.
The
Matrix
Ultra
is
available
with
42TB,
82TB
or
a
whopping
112TB,
and
it
also
has
a
2TB
SSD.

But,
here’s
where
things
start
to
go
South.
Orico
put
these
devices
on
Kickstarter,
where
the
Data
Matrix
Elite
starts
at
$699
for
a
5TB
model,
going
up
to
$4999
for
the
112TB
model.

While
the
SSD
is
user-upgradable,
the
internal
hard
drives
aren’t
accessible
for
replacement
or
upgrades.
The
drive
configuration
of
the
unit
is
set
by
dip
switches
before
use,
and
once
those
drives
are
formatted,
they
can’t
be
altered
without
erasing
them.

Other
than
increasing
the
size
of
the
SSD,
the
only
option
that
the
user
has
is
to
set
the
drives
as
RAID
0,
1,
spanned
or
JBOD.
In
theory,
it
might
be
possible
to
combine
multiple
units
using
software
RAID
on
the
computer,
and
that
would
offer
greater
performance
but
trade
the
reliability
should
any
of
the
units
or
drives
fail.

As
an
ex-IT
professional,
there
is
so
much
about
this
setup
that
represents
a
red
flag.
I’d
recommend
looking
at
what
TerraMaster
offers
in
external
Thunderbolt
storage
arrays
before
backing
this
Kickstarter.

Orico
Data
Matrix
Pro:
Price
and
availability

• 
  How
  much
  does
  it
  cost? From
  around
  $699
• 
  When
  is
  it
  out? Available
  now
• 
  Where
  can
  you
  get
  it? Pledges
  on
  
  Kickstarter

Kickstarter
isn’t
a
promotional
tool,
and
Orico
doesn’t
need
the
extra
investment
to
make
this
product
a
reality.

The
Data
Matrix
Elite
line
starts
at
$699
for
a
4TB
WD
Red
and
an
unbranded
1TB
SSD,
which
would
cost
around
$160
if
bought
separately.
You
could
achieve
the
same
experience
with
a
$200
Thunderbolt
hub
and
two
drive
enclosures,
which
would
cost
at
most
another
$100.
That’s
$460
of
technology
with
a
Kickstarter
price
of
$699
in
a
heavy
aluminium
box.

At
the
most
expensive
end
of
the
spectrum,
the
Matrix
Ultra
with
112TB
has
a
2TB
SSD
($150),
five
22TB
WD
Red
drives
($450
each
=
 $2250),
and
a
$200
Thunderbolt
dock.
That
makes
roughly
$2600
of
hardware
for
a
$4999
investment.
These
quoted
numbers
are
retail
costs,
not
what
Orico
would
pay
for
OEM
technology.

There
are
numerous
ways
to
connect
this
capacity
by
Thunderbolt,
including
the
TerraMaster
D5,
the
enclosure
of
which
is
only
$699.99.
It
can
deliver
a
similar
option
for
around
$3000
for
the
D5
and
drives
when
configured.

Making
this
specifically
for
Apple
Mac
users
seems
to
have
affected
the
price
of
the
Data
Matrix
devices.

Orico
Data
Matrix
Pro:
Specs

Orico
Data
Matrix
Pro:
Design

• 
  A
  Thunderbolt
  Dock
  with
  drives
• 
  No
  drive
  replacements
• 
  Single
  SSD

For
our
assessment,
Orico
sent
us
an
engineering
sample
of
the
Data
Matrix
Pro
with
a
single
1TB
SSD
and
two
4TB
WD
Red
hard
drives.

The
design
of
this
enclosure
was
designed
to
please
Apple
Mac
users
who
can
afford
the
Mac
Studio
or
Mac
Pro
without
the
need
to
remortgage.

It’s
not
that
this
hardware
won’t
work
with
a
PC,
as
we
exclusively
tested
it
without
a
single
Apple
product.
Still,
Orico
promotes
it
as
a
new
hybrid
storage
system
for
Apple
Macs
in
much
of
its
marketing
materials.

What
Orico
did
was
take
a
Thunderbolt
dock,
like
the
12-in-1
Thunderbolt
4
Docking
Station
(ORICO-TB4)
it
already
makes,
add
electronics
for
SATA
and
M.2
drive
connections,
and
place
it
all
in
a
disturbingly
heavy
aluminium
box.

What
makes
the
drive
so
heavy
is
that
the
hard
drives
are
pre-installed,
although
the
power
supply
isn’t
integrated.

The
only
user
access
is
on
the
underside
of
the
Data
Matrix
Pro.
Once
a
Torx
screwdriver
is
used
to
remove
the
cover,
it
is
possible
to
exchange
the
1TB
M.2
drive
for
something
larger
with
a
2280
form
factor
drive.
There
is
no
access
to
the
internal
hard
drives,
so
if
they
die
or
you
want
larger
drives,
then
you
either
invalidate
the
warranty
and
get
inside
by
pulling
off
the
rubber
feet
and
removing
screws,
or
you
accept
its
scrap.

This
seems
remarkably
short-sighted,
given
that
the
major
competitors
for
this
product,
the
TerraMaster
D3
and
D5,
are
made
like
NASs
with
easily
swappable
drives.

One
confusing
aspect
of
this
product
is
that
Orico
refers
to
these
boxes
as
having
Hybrid
storage,
inferring
that,
in
some
way,
the
hard
drives
and
the
SSD
are
combined.
When
on
a
PC,
at
least,
they
are
not.
Things
might
be
different
on
the
Mac,
but
on
the
PC,
the
hard
drives
appear
as
either
one
drive
or
multiple
drives
depending
on
the
configuration,
and
the
SSD
appears
as
a
drive.
However,
that
arrangement
is
described;
‘hybrid’
doesn’t
appear
to
fit
its
specification.

What’s
nice
about
the
Data
Matrix
Pro
is
that
all
the
Thunderbolt
Dock
technology
is
exposed,
providing
dual
SD
card
slots,
USB
ports,
DisplayPort
and
a
Thunderbolt
downstream.

The
one
feature
aimed
at
video
editors
is
the
CFexpress
Type-B
slot,
though
it
is
debatable
how
many
use
this
over
faster
external
Thunderbolt
SSDs
these
days. 

The
critical
inclusion
is
the
Thunderbolt
downstream
port,
which
allows
multiple
Matrix
boxes
to
be
chained
together
to
add
extra
capacity
as
needed.
The
limit
is
five
boxes,
which,
if
you
used
the
Elite
Ultra
designs
with
112TB,
would
provide
a
total
of
560TB
should
you
own
a
desk
strong
enough
to
place
them.
Oh,
and
spare
the
$25,000
needed
to
pay
for
them.

On
the
Matrix
Elite,
the
two
internal
hard
drives
can
be
configured
using
a
small
dip-switch
to
be
mirrored
(RAID
1),
striped
for
performance
(RAID
0),
spanned
or
seen
as
individual
drives
(JBOD).

That
this
wasn’t
configurable
from
the
computer
using
an
app
is
disappointing,
and
changing
involves
setting
the
new
pin
positions
and
then
resetting
the
box.]

Once
the
changes
have
been
made,
you
must
reinitialise
the
drive(s)
with
the
computer
and
format
them
according
to
the
file
system
you
like
best.

The
clunky
nature
of
that
exercise
hints
at
a
user
experience
we’ll
discuss
next.

Orico
Data
Matrix
Pro:
User
experience

• 
  Raw
  drive
  performance
• 
  No
  SSD
  caching
• 
  No
  software
  utilities

Thunderbolt
is
a
wonderful
technology
that
can,
in
both
TB3
and
TB4,
transfer
up
to
40Gbps
over
relatively
short
distances.
And
by
‘short,’
we
mean
longer
than
the
remarkably
disappointing
20cm
cable
that
Orico
provided
with
its
hardware.
Orico
will
sell
you
a
longer
cable
for
an
extra
$23,
though
cheaper
ones
are
available
from

Amazon
if
you
don’t
pick
the
Apple-branded
ones.

With
40Gbps
to
play
with,
you
might
expect
the
external
storage
on
this
system
to
be
sparkling,
but
that
would
be
a
wrong
assumption.

The
internal
hard
drives
are
SATA,
and
even
when
combined
in
RAID
0,
the
best
performance
we
achieved
was
a
read
speed
of
390MB/s
and
a
write
speed
of
235MB/s.

Using
RAID
5
with
five
drives
on
the
Matrix
Ultra
might
boost
these
numbers
somewhat,
perhaps
doubling
the
scores,
but
compared
with
SSDs,
it’s
nothing
to
write
home
about.

To
make
these
drives
suitable
for
a
video
editing
suite,
ideally,
the
drives
should
be
cached
using
the
M.2
NVMe
drive,
but
that
isn’t
a
feature
the
Matrix
Pro
offers.

The
SSD
could
be
seen
independently
in
the
system,
and
it
performed
at
3074MB/s
reads
and
2347MB/s
writes,
making
it
at
least
eight
times
faster
than
the
two
combined
hard
drives.

But,
if
this
drive
were
inside
the
host
computer,
it
would
probably
run
even
faster,
and
because
it
isn’t
possible
to
use
it
to
cache,
there
seems
to
be
no
advantage
in
having
it
inside
the
Matrix
Pro.

The
quoted
speed
of
the
CFexpress
Type-B
slot
is
1,500Mb/s,
should
you
have
media
of
that
specification.
That
speed
assumes
you
copy
the
contents
to
the
SSD,
not
the
hard
drives.

When
I
discovered
that
the
internal
hard
drives
weren’t
user-accessible,
a
mistake
even
Western
Digital
didn’t
make
with
the
My
Cloud
Duo,
suggested
a
lack
of
joined-up
thinking.
But
when
it
transpired
that
the
SSD
slot
was
merely
a
means
to
bolt
on
another
1TB
or
2TB
of
drive
space
and
not
cache
the
drives,
the
Matrix
Pro
started
to
look
more
like
a
potential
boat
anchor.

For
those
who
own
a
Mac
or
PC
and
want
to
edit
video
offline,
numerous
better
options
exist
than
this
configuration.
One
is
to
use
a
device
like
the
SanDisk
Professional
G-RAID
Shuttle
with
up
to
eight
drives
or
use
Thunderbolt
to
10GbE
adapters
and
a
NAS
box
that
can
use
SSD
as
a
cache.

Dual
10GbE
Lines
will
move
close
to
2000Mb/s,
the
contents
of
the
NAS
will
be
accessible
by
more
than
one
computer,
and
drives
can
easily
be
replaced
or
upgraded.

Compared
to
these
other
choices,
the
Matrix
Elite
and
its
brothers
appear
to
be
the
least
flexible
option
and
an
expensive
way
to
increase
a
computer’s
storage
capacity.

Orico
Data
Matrix
Pro:
Verdict

The
best
aspect
of
this
design
is
the
integral
Thunderbolt
dock,
which
enables
you
to
connect
an
external
monitor
and
chain
more
Thunderbolt
devices.
However,
a
Thunderbolt
dock
provides
that
functionality
inherently
and
typically
costs
between
$200
and
$300.

The
dip-switch
set
RAID
technology
is
of
limited
use.
If
either
of
the
drives
dies,
all
the
data
will
be
gone
for
those
who
choose
RAID
0
or
spanning
options.
The
only
data
protection
setting
is
RAID
1
(mirror),
and
should
one
of
the
drives
fail,
then
there
isn’t
any
way
to
put
a
replacement
in
and
re-sync.

The
single
M.2
SSD
also
has
zero
resilience
and
can’t
be
used
to
improve
the
poor
performance
of
conventional
SATA
drives,
which
is
a
double
fail.

Then
maybe
we
haven’t
understood
this
product,
and
it
does
something
amazing
with
caching
that
failed
to
work
in
our
engineering
sample.
That
could
be
a
possibility.

But,
every
NAS
that
uses
SSD
caching
only
offers
read
and
write
caches
with
two
physical
drives,
and
this
only
has
one.

Whatever
the
truth,
this
isn’t
a
Kickstarter
that
this
reviewer
is
inclined
to
back.