If you need extremely fast read and write speeds while on the go than the new Netstor NA622TB3 enclosure may be what you need.
The NA622TB3 is the World’s first Thunderbolt 3 external enclosure that lets you use M.2 SSD drives rather than spinning disks or SATA SSD drives. Using NVME SSD drives, which currently come in a maximum capacity of 2TB, you can add up to 8TB of blazing-fast storage with data rates up to 2750 MB/s in RAID 0 or RAID 1.
Since it uses Thunderbolt 3, it has more than enough throughput at 40 Gbps, approximately 2.8GB/s.
Metal Enclosure
The NA622TB3 definitely looks solid, with an aluminium housing, it weighs 1.5kg (3.3lbs) which holds the four M.2 NVME drives built-in power supply and two cooling fans.
If you have a few Thunderbolt 3 devices, the enclosure does have two ports so you can daisy chain your devices.
A switch on the back of the device lets you toggle between three fan speeds depending on the working environment.
What drives can I use?
Netstor has provided a compatibility list of drives on their website to let you know which drives will give you the best performance.
PCIe 3.0 Switch
The NA622TB3 uses a Broadcom PEX 8714 PCIe switch which allows for RAID 0/1 configurations. If you set up two RAID volumes, you can use them both at full speeds.
JBOD & RAID Configurations
The NA622TB3 can be configured in the following configurations:
JBOD (Just a bunch of disks) – Each single NVMe SSD can be configured as individual volume
RAID 0 – Each dual NVMe SSD can be configured as a group volume (as RAID 0 / 1 by O.S.)
RAID 1 – Four NVMe SSDs can be configured as a group volume (as RAID 0 by O.S.)
The setup manual provides instructions on setting up the various RAID configurations in your OS.
Pricing & Availability
Pricing should be available soon with the device shipping in the coming weeks. You will need to factor in the price of the drives as well.
