Thunderbolt 3 in Action: Akitio Thunder3 Duo Pro DAS Review
by Ganesh T S on April 14, 2016 8:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- DAS
- Thunderbolt 3
- Akitio
Thunderbolt Software
Consumers dealing with Thunderbolt 3 must understand that this is cutting-edge technology. It is imperative that the drivers and the Alpine Ridge firmware be up to date in order to ensure a smooth usage experience. GIGABYTE has a driver update as well as a firmware update tool available for the GA-Z170X-UD5 TH motherboard, and other system vendors should also have similar updates available.
The Thunderbolt software component gets installed along with the driver. Unlike traditional USB, every connected Thunderbolt peripheral must first be authorized to connect before becoming accessible. This authorization can be permanent or on a case-by-case basis. Management of authorized devices is done through the Thunderbolt software.
The software also allows users to check the driver and firmware versions.
Power Consumption
Power consumption of the Thunder3 Duo Pro units were recorded under various conditions. While using the device in a standalone mode (i.e, just connected to the host, and no daisy chaining involved), the unit idled at around 5.4W and had a peak power consumption of around 12.1W. This was with two of the Intel SSDs in RAID-0 in the course of our benchmarking routine.
Benchmarks were also processed with the typical usage scenario of high-capacity hard drives. Two 8TB Seagate Enterprise NAS HDDs (7200 RPM) were configured in RAID-0 for this purpose. Peak power consumption was around 40W, but the unit stayed between 24W and 28W throughout the course of our benchmarking.
Adding the SanDisk Extreme 900 to either of the above configurations drove up the power consumption at the wall by around 5 - 8W.
Concluding Remarks
The Thunderbolt ecosystem has received a major boost with the release of products and peripherals supporting Thunderbolt 3 with its Type-C connector. Intel has managed to create a compelling case for the inclusion of Thunderbolt 3 in various systems due to the unique features of the Alpine Ridge controller. The integration of a USB 3.1 Gen 2 host controller has emerged as a key aspect.
Coming to the business end of the review, the 2-bay Akitio Thunder3 Duo Pro performed flawlessly in our testing, and gave expected results in various benchmarks. More importantly, thanks to the presence of a two-port controller, it could easily bring out the various advantage provided by Thunderbolt (daisy chaining etc.). The availability of a USB 3.1 Gen 1 device port ensures that the unit can also be used with systems that don't have Thunderbolt 3.
The unit has a solid feel and a pleasing industrial design. The tool-less installation procedure for the drives is welcome. The unit includes an active Thunderbolt 3 cable (capable of handling 40 Gbps), and, for a cutting-edge product, the street price of $378 sounds reasonable. That said, there is scope for improvement in the product - it would be nice to have easy hot-swap capabilities similar to, say, the LaCie 2big Thunderbolt 2. A notch / plastic key to help in setting the RAID level would also be welcome. The drive bay / slot could also be designed to make drive removal / replacement simpler.
Going through the specifications of the Thunderbolt 3 peripherals currently announced / available in the market (including the Akitio Thunder3 Duo Pro) shows that Windows support is being worked upon first, and not Mac OS X. This leads me to believe that Thunderbolt has well and truly arrived for the mass market. Widespread usage is bound to bring down the premium associated with Thunderbolt right now. One can definitely say that Thunderbolt will not go the Firewire way.
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ganeshts - Saturday, April 16, 2016 - link
I would have agreed with you a year or so back, but the good thing here is that Thunderbolt has emerged successfully out of the Mac shadow. At present, every Thunderbolt 3 device out there is compatible with Windows only, and not Mac.From a system perspective, for a very little premium, board vendors can integrate USB 3.1 Gen 2 + Thunderbolt 3 into their notebooks and consumers can get more out of that integrated port compared to a pure USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port. Whether that extra premium is worth it, the consumer should figure out. The board we used - GIGABYTE Z170 board with Alpine Ridge integrated - can be purchased for less than $200. I think at this price, compared to a vanilla system, consumers might be OK with something a bit more future-proof.
From a device perspective, yes, lots of Thunderbolt peripherals are overpriced. But, eGFX solutions will definitely be attractive to a lot of gaming folks who are looking for portability. Then, there is Thunderbolt networking which is attractive for small workgroups (more of a business use-case there). Daisy chaining is another great feature for thin systems.
Frankly, a year or two back, I wouldn't have been bullish on Thunderbolt, and would have equated it with Firewire. But, with Thunderbolt 3, I think Intel has finally converged on to the right type of solution.
theduckofdeath - Saturday, April 16, 2016 - link
Mobile gaming with an external GPU will stay a niche, as the bottleneck will still be the poorly cooled mobile technology within the notebook. Especially with DX12 and the likes, processor and motherboard component performance will be a lot more relevant than it has been since Microsoft introduced the hardware extraction layer to Windows last decade.And it's not just "some" TB accessories that are overpriced for what you get. Like the previous commenter said, you can build an actual PC for the price of this external case. Use it for storage if you like, or whatever else you'd want to use a spare PC for.
bobj3832 - Saturday, April 23, 2016 - link
I've worked in small offices with 6 people and huge corporations with over 100,000 employees. In every company we always had file servers on the network. Virtually no one kept data locally (except travelling sales people) If your workstation goes down just log in somewhere else and continue working.For my personal stuff at home I have a 10 gigabit network. The SATA interface (even for the SSDs I have in the file server) is the bottleneck.
I just don't have any need for Thunderbolt with a 10G network.
bobj3832 - Saturday, April 23, 2016 - link
And before someone complains of the cost I got used SFP+ cards for $20 each and a switch with 4 SFP+ ports for $520. It also has 24 1G ports.JHBoricua - Saturday, April 23, 2016 - link
Umm, and I had to log to the site to point how your comment on software raid was even more silly.What happens if the machine running a software RAID dies, you ask? Simple. Since it is software RAID, you simply mount the RAID volume on another PC running the same Os. That's the beauty of software RAID, it is not tied to the hardware.
Let me ask you this. What happens when the failed device happens to be this enclosure with its 'hardware' RAID? Well, you better have a spare one of the same make/model lying around or you won't be able to recover the data. But hey, you'll probably be able to use the same cable.
Seriously, did you even pause to think before commenting on the merits of software RAID vs this device?
damianrobertjones - Thursday, April 14, 2016 - link
I recall, all those years ago, that USB was supposed to feature daisy chaining.HideOut - Thursday, April 14, 2016 - link
Never. But I think firewire was. USB has always been hub + spoke layout. FW could chain I think.DanNeely - Thursday, April 14, 2016 - link
You could fake daisy chaining in USB by connecting hubs to each other; and in theory there was no reason you couldn't make a device with a 2port hub that used 1 port internally and exposed the 2nd for daisy chain type usage. Aside from a few higher end keyboards I've never seen anything like this done.FW had direct proper support for daisy chaining; but neither of the FW HDD enclosures I owned supported it.
hrrmph - Friday, April 15, 2016 - link
That's how most high-port-quantity USB hubs do it. They internally daisy chain. A "normal" USB hub is typically 4-ports. Use the last of those 4 ports to daisy chain to 4 more ports. The user sees a physical 7 ports on the outside of the hub.Vidmo - Thursday, April 14, 2016 - link
Waiting on the eight drive version to replace my current USB 3.0 local DAS backup solution. Backing up 36TB of data takes a long time over USB 3.0.