How many times have you seen a RAID array that is designed with the Mac in mind? That’s the appeal of WiebeTech’s RTX220-QR, a quad-interface two-bay RAID designed for consumers looking for a simple, easy-to-use RAID storage device.

The RTX220-QR is a large black aluminum alloy box about the size of a breadbasket. A convenient handle for carrying the enclosure and a small LED screen on the front are the only features that speak to a “consumer” market, for the device looks and performs like an audio/visual professional’s workhorse. While it can be carried with its handle, the device is so large and heavy that its about as portable as an iMac.

The RTX220-QR’s most prominent feature is likely its “TrayFree” design. Effectively, you can insert a 3.5-inch drive into the unit without bothering with a mounting bracket. The RTX220-QR’s bays are lockable and once you install a drive, the door will close with an audible click, ensuring the drive is properly aligned. If the drives aren’t properly aligned with the bay’s SATA port, a loud alarm with sound, coupled with red lights on the LED display.

The tray-less feature is a step forward for RAID design, to be sure, and makes the unit more approachable for the average consumer, but trays have already become much more convenient over the past few years so this seems a bit gimmicky than a major design upgrade. Furthermore, the lock-and-key design is intimidating and inconvenient if the user wanted to quickly swap out drives. Whatever convenience is granted by tray-less bays is surely lost by having to lock and unlock the bay every time you want to use it.

That said, the RTX220-QR is a performance machine. The frontal LCD display tells you what the RAID array is configured as, the temperature of each HD bay, and the current rotations-per-minute of the installed disks. That’s a lot of useful information in a very convenient place. The front panel also features LED indictors for alarm, status, and access. Even more LED lights are embedded in the bay doors, giving an indication if the installed drive is running normally.

The RTX220-QR enclosure can be purchased with either two 2TB drives ($763) or two 1TB drives ($623) configured either for Mac OS or Windows. The enclosure can also be purchased without drives for $399. Regardless of the configuration, the RTX220-QR comes with a one-year limited warranty and phone support available for 90 days after purchase. After 90 days, e-mail support is provided upon request.

The RTX220-QR is a quad-interface design features two FireWire 800 ports, 1 USB 2.0 port, and an eSATA port. Cables are included for the drive, including a FireWire 800 to 400 cable. If the drives are formatted for the Mac, then the unit is Time Machine compatible; simply set it as your destination and you’re good to go. That’s the good news for Mac users, as is the lack of peripheral software that could clutter your desktop. Unlike some RAID solutions, there are no widgets or extraneous software items packaged with the enclosure.

A built-in fan is pretty quiet and in our lab tests, we only found audible in a deadly silent room or office. Aside from the external LED screen, the RTX220-QR features an internal RAID controller, which can be used to set the RAID levels on the fly. When you reset the RAID level through either Disk Utility or the external controls, the RTX220-QR requires you to unmount the drives before the computer will prompt you to reinitialize your storage. If you don’t, neither your Mac nor the WiebeTech will automatically eject the drives.

We tested the RTX220-QR with our usual regime of hard drive tests while the enclosure contained two Seagate Barracuda 2TB drives. We first tested the device in a RAID 0 setting for speed and then tested it with a RAID 1 configuration to see how well it would perform when users wanted the data redundancy of mirrored storage.

In our 1GB copy test, the RTX220-QR performed admirably, finishing the test with its FireWire 800 connection enabled in a mere 23 seconds. That’s a few seconds faster than the SmartStor DS4600 RAID (). When set to a RAID 1 configuration, the average times only increased a second.

The 33-second finishing time in our duplication test with its FireWire 800 connection enabled also drew praise. It’s one of the fastest times we’ve seen from a drive, RAID or otherwise. The duplication time did increase, however, by about 10 seconds when configured to RAID 1. This time is still on par or better than most RAID enclosure’s speeds, even with RAID 0 configured. So again, the RTX220-QR was quite impressive.

The RTX220-QR Photoshop test scores, both RAID 0 and RAID 1 were strong (2 minutes and 33 seconds, and 2 minutes and 50 seconds, respectively) with its FireWire 800 connection, but they were especially strong compared to other competing drives. The SmartStor DS4600’s RAID 0 score was slightly ahead of the WiebeTech’s RAID 1 score, while the G-Speed’s RAID 0 was four seconds behind the RTX220-QR’s RAID 1 score.

Macworld’s buying advice

Sometimes marketing doesn’t do a product its due diligence. While WiebeTech’s press materials boast of the RTX220-QR's streamlined, convenient, TrayFree design, the fact of the matter is the real audience for the product is audio/visual professionals and prosumers who will enjoy the RTX220-QR’s fast performance, versatile connectivity, and multiple RAID options for maximum storage flexibility. This isn’t a unit you’re going to lug around, nor is it something you’ll find the family using next to their iMac. Instead, this is a serious product for serious storage enthusiasts that is seriously worth a looking.

[Chris Holt is a Macworld associate editor.]