Promise Thunderbolt 5 enclosures boost speed & storage for Mac creative workflows

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From field shoots to studio edits, two new Thunderbolt 5 RAID enclosures from Promise Technology are built to keep Mac users in the fast lane.

Mac Studio with ports on a desk, adjacent to a screen and an orange, rounded speaker with tripod legs.
Mac Studio



Storage demands are evolving fast, especially for Mac users working in 4K, 8K, or AI-heavy environments. Promise Technology is answering that call with two new Thunderbolt 5 storage enclosures built to deliver speed, scalability, and seamless integration with Apple workflows.

Pegasus5 M8: Compact speed for mobile creators



The Pegasus5 M8 is a compact Thunderbolt 5 enclosure designed for fast, portable workflows. It supports eight NVMe SSDs in E1.S or M.2 form factors and delivers up to 6,000 MB/s in throughput -- enough to handle 4K and 8K video projects without breaking a sweat.

Thunderbolt 5 enables 80 Gbps sustained bandwidth and up to 120 Gbps with Bandwidth Boost, ideal for multi-stream editing or large-scale AI datasets.

Silver rectangular device with a handle on top, featuring a logo and power button on the front, set against a gray background.
The Pegasus5 M8. Image credit: Promise



For mobile professionals, the M8 offers workstation-class storage speeds in a quiet, energy-efficient chassis that's easy to transport between sets or studios. It's a plug-and-play solution for Apple users, with full macOS compatibility and seamless performance in Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and other Mac-native tools.

Pegasus5 R12: Hybrid storage with massive capacity



The Pegasus5 R12 is built for teams who need both capacity and speed. It combines 12 SATA hard drives with four M.2 NVMe SSDs, delivering up to 6,000 MB/s over Thunderbolt 5.

The hybrid configuration allows for fast access to active projects while offering long-term storage for media libraries or AI training data. Despite its capacity, the R12 fits into a compact desktop enclosure only slightly larger than the previous Pegasus32 R8.

Silver rectangular metal device with a handle on top, labeled 'Promise Technology', has indicator lights and small logo near the bottom.
The Pegasus5 R12. Image credit: Promise



It features Promise's proprietary RAID engine for hardware-level data protection and flexibility across RAID configurations. For Mac Studio, it's a space-efficient way to get high-density storage without investing in rackmount hardware.

Designed for Apple workflows



Both the M8 and R12 are fully optimized for macOS and Apple Silicon, offering out-of-the-box support for the latest Macs. They work natively with Apple's pro apps and development environments, from Final Cut Pro to Xcode and Core ML.

Users can take advantage of Thunderbolt 5's massive bandwidth to connect multiple 6K or 8K displays, daisy-chain devices, and move huge files faster than ever.

Compared to USB-C SSDs or older RAID solutions, these enclosures deliver a major leap in both speed and scalability -- especially important as file sizes and AI workloads continue to grow.

For Mac users looking to future-proof their storage stack, the Pegasus5 M8 and R12 offer compelling new options that combine speed, capacity, and native Apple integration in compact desktop designs.

Promise hasn't announced pricing or availability for the Pegasus5 M8 or R12 yet. Those details are expected to follow the NAB 2025 showcase, so Mac users eager to upgrade their workflows will have to stay tuned a little longer.



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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    netroxnetrox Posts: 1,546member
    How is it possible for it to reach 6GB per second if it maxes out at 40Gbps per direction (40/8 = 5)?  Also pretty sure that the 120GBps Boost is only for displays, not storage. 
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  • Reply 2 of 2
    Mike Wuerthelemike wuerthele Posts: 7,012administrator
    netrox said:
    How is it possible for it to reach 6GB per second if it maxes out at 40Gbps per direction (40/8 = 5)?  Also pretty sure that the 120GBps Boost is only for displays, not storage. 
    TB5 has 80 gigabit total steady-state speed in either/both directions at a time, it's not symmetrical. Drives can easily hit 6 gigabits per second on TB5.

    Details on PAM-3 for TB5 are here: https://www.synopsys.com/articles/pam3-technology-implementation-usb4-v2.html TLDR is that it can be used for drives, in a pinch, but it probably won't in the short term as the drive bridge boards won't do it. So for now, it's to increase bandwidth with heavy IO running on drives, and driving displays at the same time. 
    edited April 7
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