Anyone have experience with the brand Akitio? Looking to buy a Thunderbolt Drive...

[Icaras]

Last night I somehow discovered the brand Akitio and that they sell a very slick looking single bay SSD thunderbolt external drive called the Neutrino Thunderbolt Edition which I'm very interested in buying. I am only interested in single bay SSD thunderbolt drives. I just really like the design aesthetics of the Akitio drive compared to Lacie's Rugged drive or Elgato's drive.

http://www.akitio.com/portable-storage/neutrino-thunderboltedition

However, I have never heard of this brand until now and I've tried searching for user reviews, YouTube clips, and tech site reviews, but not much comes up. I haven't really seen big respectable sites like Engadget, CNET, Arstechnica, Anandtech, or even Mac Rumors mentioning much (other than their MyCloud drives).

What's funny is that while searching here on MR, I came across two separate threads, each with a different newbie user that had exactly the same posts, word for word, cut & paste, promoting an Akitio product, so it's clear that there are paid posters on here, which in my eyes, makes a company look shady. Here are the two threads:

Post #5:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1098094/

Post #11:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1122840/

Anyway, just wanted to ask anyone on these forums if they've ever had experience with Akitio and if they are reliable? Want to be sure before I put my money down.

 

[whooleytoo]

Bumping an old-ish thread.. but yeah, I'd love to know too. I just found them while looking for SSD options, and it's a lovely looking case, cheap price and it even includes a short Thunderbolt cable.

I'm considering using it as an external boot drive, so I'm a little wary of issues. Would love to know if anyone has any experience with the company/drive yet?

 

[williamh]

I'm currently using akitio's neutrino thunderbolt duo (house 2SSD) and extremely happy with it. Never had problem with it! Akitio is a brand from Taiwan, they used to OEM and now they sell with their won brand.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Akitio is InXtron, and InXtron was MacPower (founded 1992).

I use two FW800 SK-3500 enclosures from InXtron. They are very reliable. No problems with the power supply or the transfer speed in 5 years. However, this cable increased the transfer speed around 2x:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neet®-FireWire-Cable-IEEE-1394b/dp/B003173ZBK
(I bought the same cable under a different brand name.)

That was certainly a problem with the cable, not with the enclosure. Their USB 3.0 enclosures SK3-U3AS use the ASM1051E controller, which supports UASP and SATA 6 GBit/s. I think they use also a chip from ASMedia for the Thunderbolt enclosures.

 

[Icaras]

Thanks for bumping it. And good to hear people have had positive experiences!

However since I made the thread, I've also started looking at the Oyen Digital drive, which looks almost identical as the Akitio drive except for the front mirror finish and logo. This one however has had more customer reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D2YMK86...olid=DF7V5TWPO2A9&coliid=I37VVN168JI5SB&psc=1

Anyway, so the Akitio drive uses a SanDisk U100, which if I understand correctly, is a bit aged and not at the top of it's class in SSDs today. Not sure what the Oyen Digital houses, but my guess is something comparable. Although I think it will hardly matter if coming from an HDD. The Akitio 256GB one is currently $319 and the Oyen is $329. Not sure which I will go for yet...

 

[campyguy]

I checked out both products, passed on both. 2-year warranty for the Akitio and 3-years for the Oyen but the OEM warranty on the drive is 1-year (from SanDisk's own website).

One of my partners bought an Akitio drive with an SSD, and the disk died when the drive got hot and fried itself a little over a year after buying it. Getting an RMA was a PITA - it's a nice-looking paperweight now.

 

[whooleytoo]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

2 positive reviews, 1 negative. Too close to call.

 

[Icaras]

I checked out both products, passed on both. 2-year warranty for the Akitio and 3-years for the Oyen but the OEM warranty on the drive is 1-year (from SanDisk's own website).

One of my partners bought an Akitio drive with an SSD, and the disk died when the drive got hot and fried itself a little over a year after buying it. Getting an RMA was a PITA - it's a nice-looking paperweight now.

Thanks for sharing that. I still want a thunderbolt enclosure though so I'm probably just going to plunge for the Oyen Digital enclosure. The extra year warranty over the Akitio, plus the over dozen 4/5 star Amazon customer reviews (versus 0 for Akitio!), and the all aluminum enclosure (mirrored finish of Akitio looks nice, but maybe a bit tacky to me) wins me over.

If problems are about overheating, then I'll make sure to keep it went ventilated anyway.

 

[campyguy]

FWIW, I went for a Lacie Rugged with the 256 SSD. USB 3 and TB interfaces, it shipped with short versions of both cables, and I don't mind the rubber bumper (they also come in black, gray, and blue). It's a screamer, and I read that there's a 500GB version now. 2-year warranty, with my credit card adding another year.

I'm needing a bit more portable storage soon, but I'm going to wait for TB2 enclosures in this configuration to hit the street and feed it an EVO!

 

[Peace]

I'm currently using akitio's neutrino thunderbolt duo (house 2SSD) and extremely happy with it. Never had problem with it! Akitio is a brand from Taiwan, they used to OEM and now they sell with their won brand.

I'm using the exact same enclosure with my nMP..The only downside I've seen so far is the fan does make some noise.

 

[Icaras]

FWIW, I went for a Lacie Rugged with the 256 SSD. USB 3 and TB interfaces, it shipped with short versions of both cables, and I don't mind the rubber bumper (they also come in black, gray, and blue). It's a screamer, and I read that there's a 500GB version now. 2-year warranty, with my credit card adding another year.

I'm needing a bit more portable storage soon, but I'm going to wait for TB2 enclosures in this configuration to hit the street and feed it an EVO!

Interesting. Now do those other colored rubber bumpers come inside the box? Because I just checked the bumper separately on Lacie's site and it says it's not compatible with the Rugged USB 3.0/Thunderbolt series drive.

 

[campyguy]

Interesting. Now do those other colored rubber bumpers come inside the box? Because I just checked the bumper separately on Lacie's site and it says it's not compatible with the Rugged USB 3.0/Thunderbolt series drive.

Well, crap. My bad. I bought my extra sleeves at the time I bought the drive, and I don't see what I bought on LaCie's web site any longer. Well, you could also just use a Sharpie... I leave the orange bumper on my SSD anyway - I can always find it right away!

 

[Icaras]

Well, crap. My bad. I bought my extra sleeves at the time I bought the drive, and I don't see what I bought on LaCie's web site any longer. Well, you could also just use a Sharpie... I leave the orange bumper on my SSD anyway - I can always find it right away!

No worries! I didn't even know about the different bumpers till you mentioned them. Would be nice if they did make some for the rugged series too.

Anyway, I went ahead and purchased the Oyen Digital last night and it'll be arriving tomorrow. It actually uses the same SanDisk U100 SSD as the Lacie Rugged. It also won't be portable since I will be keeping this drive permanently tethered to my iMac anyway.

 

[campyguy]

Cool, and be sure to mention how you like the device when you get it unwrapped. One of my partners has been monitoring this thread - he likes the look of anything-not-orange!

 

[matreya]

I'm currently using akitio's neutrino thunderbolt duo (house 2SSD) and extremely happy with it. Never had problem with it! Akitio is a brand from Taiwan, they used to OEM and now they sell with their won brand.

I have the Akitio Neutrino Thunderbolt Duo also, running 2 x 1TB Samsung 840 EVO SSDs in RAID 0 (using disk utility) and it screams along nicely. I've had it for 7 months (only recently upgraded the SSDs tho) and it's working very nicely and barely gets warm.

 

[Icaras]

Alright, so I've had my Oyen Digital for about a week now and of course, the speeds are very impressive. Enclosure is a nice looker, matching the aluminum on Macs exactly and having a design aesthetic very similar to that of a G-Technology G-Drive mini which I think are pretty looking drives too.

The only consideration is the heat, as mentioned in reviews. It does in fact get pretty hot during usage, and warm even in simple idle states, which I really don't quite understand. But going back to the design, I both like the look and functionality of cheese-grater holes at the front, since it should give more air flow to the internals. It's also fanless, and I really appreciate zero noise.

So far, really liking this drive a lot and the three year warranty is good peace of mind.

 

[matreya]

Alright, so I've had my Oyen Digital for about a week now and of course, the speeds are very impressive. Enclosure is a nice looker, matching the aluminum on Macs exactly and having a design aesthetic very similar to that of a G-Technology G-Drive mini which I think are pretty looking drives too.

With the exception of the face plate, it looks identical to the Akitio

http://www.amazon.com/Akitio-Neutrino-Thunderbolt-Edition-Transfers/dp/B00D4D6LJ4/

 

[Icaras]

With the exception of the face plate, it looks identical to the Akitio

http://www.amazon.com/Akitio-Neutrino-Thunderbolt-Edition-Transfers/dp/B00D4D6LJ4/

Yea, it uses the same SanDisk SSD too. Campyguy did mention earlier in the thread that akitio has a 2 year warranty, versus 3 on Oyen. But yea, beyond that, they do look like identical drives.