Akitio Unveiling Thunderbolt 3 External PCIe SSD NVMe Storage System

Akitio unveiled the Thunder3 PCIe SSD, an external storage solution designed to unleash the speed of Thunderbolt 3.

Developed for high-speed transfer of large files, the Thunder3 PCIe SSD combines the PCIe Gen3 x4 bandwidth of Intel Corp.‘s 750 NVMe SSD with Thunderbolt 3’s 40Gbps port, giving an performance of 2,500MB/s with a storage capacity of 1.2TB.

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“The Thunder3 PCIe SSD is designed for creative professionals that truly value their time and need to transfer files as quickly as possible,” said Richard Wright, VP, sales and marketing, Akitio. “The revolutionary 40Gb/s bandwidth is essential for anyone looking to increase workflow productivity by reducing the time it takes to transfer media content, whether it is for audio, photography, video or large data files.“

About 8x faster than USB 3.1 Gen 1, the Thunder3 PCIe SSD is for consumers and professionals who desire high capacity external storage with unmatched data transfer speeds.

It features two Thunderbolt 3 Ports as well as a DisplayPort video output to connect the latest 4K displays. The second Thunderbolt 3 port operates the same as a Thunderbolt 3 computer port by supporting USB 3.1 (up to 10Gb/s), DisplayPort monitor or up to five daisy chained Thunderbolt 3 devices. The rugged all-aluminum housing provides reliability and consistently performance under demanding conditions.

“Thunderbolt 3 delivers industry standard connectivity for external PCIe-based NVMe flash storage,” said Jason Ziller, director, Thunderbolt marketing. “This simple port breaks through the performance bottlenecks to unlock a productivity boost that photographers, videographers and gamers need.“

Thunder3 PCIe SSD gives Sony Vegas, Adobe Premier, Photoshop and Lightroom, Corel VideoStudio, Pinnacle Studio and other users the ability to edit and playback multiple streams of HD and/or 4K content or manage thousands of RAW photographs. Up to six Thunder3 PCIe SSDs can be daisy-chained together for increased storage capacity.

This Thunder3 PCIe SSD will be available in early Q2’16 for $1,299.