OWC Acquires Popular Thunderbolt 3 Accessory Maker Akitio

[DonkeyKongForPresident]

They most definitely are rebadged, and tweaked enclosure, Akito boxes. Look closely at the position of the LEDs and the lock. (every single one of which take the same exact key BTW)

Doesn't quite look that way to me:

Akito Thunder3 Quad X: $379
OWC Thunderbay 4 (w/ TB3): $399

(Admittedly, that OWC price is a price reduction from originally $449.99.)

 

[monokakata]

I haven't been following this, but DonkeyKong is correct. Yes, the aluminum enclosure Akitio uses for the TB3 one isn't the same, but the drive trays, the power, the front door . . . there can't be any doubt about it.

 

[jimthing]

I haven't been following this, but DonkeyKong is correct. Yes, the aluminum enclosure Akitio uses for the TB3 one isn't the same, but the drive trays, the power, the front door . . . there can't be any doubt about it.

The Akitio is a rather naff kitch-esque designed enclosure, being as it's essentially trying to be a mini look-a-like old grater Mac Pro – seemingly with very little to no reason for the 'flares' on the top & bottom! Sure handle points, but how often do you need to use them, and for the rest of the time they're just in the way. It's just going to take up more room in a cupboard than is necessary, and make stacking anything near/on it (even temporarily) a pain in the backside.

One reason I skipped it and went with an OWC ThunderBay (though the larger 6-bay unit) instead, recently.

 

[monokakata]

I won't argue with your design criticism at all.

I chose the Akitio because mine sits on the floor under the back edge of a height-adjustable desk. That old Mac Pro style top handle lets me secure the TB cable so it has no chance of pulling out when I adjust the desk. My old OWC was very sensitive to cable motion.

 

[jimthing]

I won't argue with your design criticism at all.

I chose the Akitio because mine sits on the floor under the back edge of a height-adjustable desk. That old Mac Pro style top handle lets me secure the TB cable so it has no chance of pulling out when I adjust the desk. My old OWC was very sensitive to cable motion.

Haha, know that issue! I bought some of the OWC "Cling-Ons" for the USB-C style TB3 cables, accordingly. Which largely avoids securing the cable to the device by other means. But each method would be effective. ;-)

 

[bdrolshagen]

Too bad. I bought a Mini Quad quite a few months ago. Dropping drives every now and then, after stand-by, during using it, and all on mojave .3 and .4. Big unusable. Firmware update - once they finally admitted it was a device, not a disk problem - was flagged red on every virus platform. They retracted their shubba in March 2019. Brought back a new release in May just to have that flagged again red by any AV platform on the planet. They insist on shutting down SIP and any other AV solution in order to... implement their trojans or what?!?

Do NOT buy this stuff! Either their hardware is bad (we had to send back units because of lacking usable bore-holes for the drives sleighs) or their software is potentially infecting your Mac! Good to know for me, that this is another OWC product (again) causing trouble. Let's see, what they have to say (keep you posted here).