With Thunderbolt™ 3 and USB Type-C connectivity slowly but steadily gaining traction, Akitio has just released three new products aimed at those who want to expand aspects of their system’s storage and connectivity.
First up is the Akitio Thunder3 RAID Station 2-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array, which functions as a dual-bay storage solution with a hardware RAID controller and a Thunderbolt 3 dock. Each drive bay accepts 3.5 or 2.5" hard drives or SSDs, which can be configured as hardware RAID 0, 1, JBOD, and SPAN. It connects to your compatible Windows or Mac system using one of its 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 port, while the second can be used to daisy-chain up to five additional devices. Legacy connectivity is provided via two 5 Gb/s USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a 4K/60 Hz DisplayPort, and an SD 4.0 UHS-II card reader.
Taking advantage of the USB Type-C interface, but using 10 Gb/s USB 3.1 Gen 2 connectivity is the Akitio NT2 U3.1C 2-Bay USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C RAID Enclosure. Designed for storage expansion, data backups, or a video editing, it features two 3.5" SATA drive bays, which support 2.5" drives via an adapter. These drives can be configured as hardware RAID 0, 1, JBOD, and SPAN and the USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C interface is compatible with Thunderbolt 3, and using adapters, USB 3.1 Gen 1 and USB 2.0.
Are you frustrated by lack of expandability built into many modern-day laptops and desktops? To address, this, Akitio has released the Node Pro Single-Slot PCIe to Thunderbolt 3 Expansion Chassis, whose primary function is to provide PCIe expansion for Thunderbolt 3 systems that lack PCIe slots, such as the Apple 15.4" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (Late 2016). The Node Pro features one full-height, full-length, double-width PCIe 3.0 x16 slot that can accommodate PCIe expansion cards such as SAS/SATA and Fibre channel host bus adapters and RAID controllers, video capture cards, audio interface cards, 10GbE network cards, RED Rocket-X cards, and more. It also features two 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 ports that support power delivery (PD) up to 60W and a 4K/60 Hz DisplayPort connector.
Do you have a favorite Thunderbolt 3 or USB Type-C RAID, or have you found a way to use PCIe expansion with your Thunderbolt 3 system? Have you already used these Akitio products? Feel free to share your comments below.
