Usually, speed and mass storage, at a reasonable price, is a mutually exclusive proposition for media professionals. AKiTiO understands this and has produced their Thunder2 Quad Mini enclosure. It offers Thunderbolt 2 connection technology that tops out at 20Gbps of serious bandwidth via a single cable.
True to its name, the Quad Mini offers four 2.5” drive bays, great for hard drives 6Gbps at full SATA-III speeds when configured as JBOD. Diskless, this kit is available for $349.99 from AKiTiO’s Amazon store.
The AKiTiO Thunder2 Quad Mini is great for Mac Pro users who work with terabytes of ultra high definition video that need a portable external storage solution. It offers two Thunderbolt 2 ports with DisplayPort 1.2 support, which can drive a 4K monitor.
AKiTiO Thunder2 Quad Mini Kit Includes:
The enclosure is designed for both speed and storage. Insert four 2.5” SATA 6Gbps HDDs to ensure maximum storage or four SSDs to prioritize speed. Its large quiet fan and aluminum case will provide efficient cooling.
Cooling four drives for many hours of operation is possible with easily removable trays that have air gaps on the top and bottom. A large rear mounted fan draws as much heat away from the disks as possible, combined with a vented grill and its aluminum enclosure.
Install four SSDs and configure them with Apple Software RAID in a RAID 0 configuration. In this state, the Thunder2 Quad Mini should deliver throughput up to 1375MB/s read and 1232MB/s write. Alternatively, it is capable delivering full SATA-III speeds by running each 2.5” SATA HDD individually in a JBOD configuration.
The free Data Multiplier software from AKiTiO offers a way to copy files to individual disks in the storage enclosure up to 34% faster. Go from 1 minute and 12 seconds for a 10GB single-file copy process to finish individually via the drag and drop method or copy the same file in 48 seconds via Data Multiplier. The software verifies and checks copied files to ensure data integrity.
Features:
Its second Thunderbolt 2 port allows for up to five additional Thunderbolt accessories to be daisy chained. Attach additional external storage devices and a monitor with a single cable to each unit.
A few use cases for this enclosure and SSDs are on-site shoots with 4K video cameras that require terabytes of fast storage for video production work or presentations that require ultra high definition video.
AKiTiO makes the Thunder2 Quad Mini in multiple versions. Their version with HDDs at 4 x 2TB of storage is priced at $959.99. Their 4 x 1TB SSD model comes in at $2,689.99 and the 4 x 3TB SSD option is super pricey at $12,999.
Thunderbolt 2 enabled portable devices like the Thunder2 Quad Mini with terabytes of SSD storage can be expensive. Alternatively, that is why AKiTiO gives customers the option to install HDDs. The company created their free Data Multiplier application that saves time by simultaneously copying files to all hard drives, if the enclosure is configured as JBOD.
Configuring the enclosure and drives with Apple’s Software RAID at RAID 0 provides a generous throughput of up to 1375MB/s read with a set of SSDs. Look for speedy SSDs from another manufacturer and get the diskless Thunder2 Quad Mini.
Whether you need lightning fast SSDs in a software RAID configuration to edit ultra HD video at an on-site shoot or four 2.5” HDDs to maximize storage capacity, the Thunder2 Quad Mini from AKiTiO will more than adequately do the job.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
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Disclosure: I received a diskless AKiTiO Thunder2 Quad Mini at no cost for review. I have not been compensated for the review. All thoughts and opinions are mine. Photos are courtesy of AKiTiO.
