Akitio Thunder Dock

[yashrg]

I just read about this product today and am thinking it is a better option than my Belkin express dock because of the addition of eSata.

http://www.akitio.com/accessories/thunder-dock

Please chime in if you have bought it or are considering it. There are currently no reviews of it on amazon.

 

[esskay]

Looks interesting, look forward to input from anyone who has one too...

 

[paulrbeers]

I just read about this product today and am thinking it is a better option than my Belkin express dock because of the addition of eSata.

http://www.akitio.com/accessories/thunder-dock

Please chime in if you have bought it or are considering it. There are currently no reviews of it on amazon.

I will say, if it works as advertized the ability to not only do eSATA but with Port Multiplier is really nice. So far the only dock I am aware of that does Port Multiplier is the yet-to-be-released Sonnettech. All other eSATA ports on Thunderbolt are just basic eSATA. I might consider one of these.....

 

[fhall1]

Looks very promising and the price is decent.....I'd like to see some site do a detailed review.

 

[Richdmoore]

Looks interesting as well. I purchased the Caldiget dock to get USB 3 on my 2011 iMac, this device is actually more suited to my needs (extra firewire & sata is more useful than the extra sound card & gigabit ethernet for the iMac.)

It is a bit more than the caldiget, but it may be worth it, depending on the reviews.

 

[yashrg]

I will say, if it works as advertized the ability to not only do eSATA but with Port Multiplier is really nice. So far the only dock I am aware of that does Port Multiplier is the yet-to-be-released Sonnettech. All other eSATA ports on Thunderbolt are just basic eSATA. I might consider one of these.....

Can you explain the feature of Port Multiplier to a novice like myself?

 

[paulrbeers]

Can you explain the feature of Port Multiplier to a novice like myself?

Basic esata ports allow you to hook up a single hard drive to the single esata port. Some multiple hard drive external enclosures will allow you to out in up to 5 hard drives into if with only one esata port. This will only work if the controller esata port understands port multiplying. All 4-5 drives can then share the bandwith of that one esata port. The Lacie thunderbolt esata device does not recognize port multiplication.

 

[yashrg]

Ah. So if you don't have a dock with port multiplier, esata raid enclosures wouldn't work?

 

[danny_w]

So does anybody actually have one of these? How does it compare to the CalDigit dock? I just ordered the CalDigit but am thinking that this may be a better fit for me.

 

[theSeb]

Ah. So if you don't have a dock with port multiplier, esata raid enclosures wouldn't work?

No, eSATA enclosures with hardware raid do not need port multiplication.

 

[photosmike]

So does anybody actually have one of these? How does it compare to the CalDigit dock? I just ordered the CalDigit but am thinking that this may be a better fit for me.

I bought the Thunder Dock about a month ago. It works as advertised for the features I use. I use eSATA and USB3. Port multiplier does work.

The eSATA setup is:

1) Home made disk array using a collection of hard disks. I get a range of speeds, max 150 mb/sec.

2) Mediasonic HF2- SU352 set up as software RAID' stripped, about 150mb/s

I don't have any knowledge of the CalDigit unit.

I am satisfied with the unit but it was expensive, $249 plus tax.

Mike

 

[hfg]

So does anybody actually have one of these? How does it compare to the CalDigit dock? I just ordered the CalDigit but am thinking that this may be a better fit for me.

I bought the Akito Thunderdock about 2 weeks ago to add eSATA capability to my Mac Mini Server which has Thunderbolt, but only USB 2.0 and Firewire 800. I haven't had a lot of time to spend with it, but it seems to work fine with my eSATA RAID-5 external storage. I haven't used the USB 3.0 capability as yet.


-howard

 

[danny_w]

Received my CalDigit dock in the mail today. Haven't had a chance to try it out to any degree but I am cloning my SSD to an external bus-powered USB drive right now.

 

[yashrg]

I bought the Thunder Dock about a month ago. It works as advertised for the features I use. I use eSATA and USB3. Port multiplier does work.

The eSATA setup is:

1) Home made disk array using a collection of hard disks. I get a range of speeds, max 150 mb/sec.

2) Mediasonic HF2- SU352 set up as software RAID' stripped, about 150mb/s

I don't have any knowledge of the CalDigit unit.

I am satisfied with the unit but it was expensive, $249 plus tax.

Mike

Thanks for providing input. Although, I need help understanding how your 'home made disk array' is set up. Could you post pics with some explanation?

 

[photosmike]

I attached a parts list. The 5 hard drives were ones I collected over time.

 

[yashrg]

Thank you.

 

[photosmike]

If I had a do-over, I would use a pico fan-less power supply.

The fan on the power supply is noisy.

 

[APlotdevice]

Personally I think the USB and thunderbolt ports should be the other way around. It seems awkward having the thunderbolt on the front, especially if you're going to plug a video adapter into the second port. Other than this it looks pretty nice.