The benefits of Thunderbolt 3 and its 40 Gbps link are best realized in a daisy-chain configuration involving multiple high-bandwidth I/O peripherals. The Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controller in a host connects to the CPU using a PCIe 3.0 x4 link. From the perspective of a single device that is not a huge drive array, it is likely that a PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD is best suited to fully utilize the available bandwidth. AKiTiO recently started selling their Thunder3 PCIe SSD. It puts a 1.2TB Intel SSD 750 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe add-in card in a standard two-port Thunderbolt 3 aluminum chassis along with a dedicated DisplayPort output.

Introduction and Setup Impressions

AKiTiO is one of the first vendors to come out with Thunderbolt 3 peripherals. We have already reviewed their first offering - the Thunder3 Duo Pro 2-bay DAS. It turned out to be a great introduction to the Thunderbolt 3 peripheral market (especially considering that it was the first one out of the door). A 2-bay DAS was never going to make the Thunderbolt 3 controller sweat, even with a couple of SATA SSDs in it. AKiTiO's second Thunderbolt 3 product, the Thunder3 PCIe SSD, goes all out in search of the performance crown.

The Thunder3 PCIe SSD is meant for desktop use and needs an external 72W power adapter (12V @ 6A). In addition to the main unit and the power adapter / cord, the package also includes a Thunderbolt 3 cable (capable of 40Gbps data transfer). A cable-tie, quick setup guide, warranty terms and a reminder to update to the latest drivers / firmware for the host PC are also included. The detailed specifications of the unit are provided in the table below.

Akitio Thunder3 PCIe SSD Specifications
Internal Storage Media 1x Intel SSD 750 1.2TB PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe Add-In Card
Interfaces 2x Thunderbolt 3 + 1x DP 1.2
RAID Modes N/A
Cooling Aluminum Chassis + Fan
Power Supply 100-240V AC Switching Adapter (12V @ 6A DC)
Dimensions 23.8cm x 15.2cm x 7.6cm
Product Page Akitio Thunder3 PCIe SSD
Price $1299

The gallery below takes us around the aluminum chassis and the internals. There is a LED indicator in the front panel to indicate power / access status (doesn't light up unless both the power adapter and Thunderbolt link are active). There are perforations in the front panel, and a fan directly behind it. The opening mechanism is similar to the Thunder3 Duo Pro - loosening the two tool-less screws in the back panel allows the chassis to slide out. It is possible to replace the fan, if needed. However, the installed PCIe SSD (add-in card) can't be taken out without voiding the warranty.

The main board seems to be based on the inXtron Thunderbolt 3 Hardware Development Kit. The board also contains Alpine Ridge in its dual-port form (Intel DSL6540).

Unlike the Thunder3 Duo Pro, the setup process is plug-and-play. There are no RAID buttons on the unit. However, it is necessary to install the Intel NVMe drivers in order to get the best performance out of the product. The Intel SSD Toolbox also allows users to monitor the health of the SSD 750 inside the Thunder3 PCIe SSD.

Hardware Analysis

A bus-powered enclosure would have been nice, but AKiTiO has opted to go for a more versatile solution with a dual-port design. The second port can also be used to connect another Thunderbolt 3 or USB 3.1 Gen 2 or any other Type-C peripheral. That device can sink power too - which leaves no option for AKiTiO. An external power adapter is definitely needed.

The Intel SSD 750 inside the enclosure is visible as a physical disk on the host. SMART attributes can be tracked, and, for all practical purposes, the SSD 750 is a PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe drive connected to the host.

The specifications of the Intel SSD 750 1.2TB drive in the Thunder3 PCIe SSD are summarized in the table below.

Intel SSD 750 Specifications
Capacity 1.2TB
Form Factor PCIe Add-In Card (HHHL)
Interface PCIe 3.0 x4 - NVMe
Controller Intel CH29AE41AB0
NAND Intel 20nm 128Gbit MLC
Sequential Read 2,400MB/s
Sequential Write 1,200MB/s
4KB Random Read 440K IOPS
4KB Random Write 290K IOPS
Idle Power Consumption 4W
Read/Write Power Consumption 10W / 22W
Encryption N/A
Endurance 70GB Writes per Day for Five Years (~128 TBW)
Warranty Five Years
MSRP $1018
Direct-Attached Storage Performance
Comments Locked

28 Comments

View All Comments

  • samer1970 - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link

    When you buy SSD look for TBW rating

    intel 750 is bad it has ONLY 219TB writes

    intel P3700 however has 36500TB writes !!!

    for just double the price (3700) you get 166 TIMES the writes of 750 .. so it is NOT EXPENSIVE AT ALL TO GET P3700

    intel 750 is a bad choice ... for double the price you get 166 times better
  • Impulses - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link

    This would actually be pretty sweet for someone heavy into content creation but who prefers a laptop over a desktop... You can obviously make the argument that nobody should have that preference (certainly not at a professional level), but still...

    Having an external 750 that can house say, your Lightroom library, Premier scratch space, and a bunch of photos or 4K video you're currently working on is certainly gonna see some benefits over many internal laptop SSD solutions... If nothing else it gives you more space (w/o a perf. sacrifice) than what most laptops would come with, even if it's an SM951.

    A niche product for sure, but it's actually priced a lot more aggressively than many of LaCie's DAS.
  • invinciblegod - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link

    Is it possible to use an adapter to attach a thunderbolt 1-2 device downwards on the chain?
  • ganeshts - Monday, June 6, 2016 - link

    Should be possible.. I am getting hold of an adapter shortly, and will be able to tell one way or the other pretty soon.
  • poohbear - Saturday, June 4, 2016 - link

    What are these reviews of obscure products? Where's the GTX 1070 review??
  • lmcd - Saturday, June 4, 2016 - link

    Given that different editors do different pieces this is one of the most ignorant Anandtech comments of all time.
  • jabber - Sunday, June 5, 2016 - link

    How many reviews do you need to 'convince' you to buy a product you are already going to buy? Some of us only need to read a couple and then like something else to read about.
  • jbrizz - Monday, June 6, 2016 - link

    One would think this is targeted towards people doing video editing, but 128TBW (70GB per day) seems a bit low for that kind of use case.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now