INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   If you're a professional who uses computer systems for work or if you're just an enthusiast then chances are that you will have at least a couple of hard disk drives laying around which once used to inhabit the inside of your PC case but as expected are long replaced with higher capacity models. This is something I’ve seen a lot lately and it seems that most people actually keep these drives stored someplace rather than using them for backup purposes. Still there are always those who are continuously seeking ways to make use of those drives and what better way solution than to mount them on an external USB 3.0 enclosure? Now what's really nice is that although roughly 4-5 years ago there were only single bay external HDD enclosures in the market (excluding server products) nowadays you can find external enclosures with up to 8 available drive bays. Today’s review is about one such product and so on our test bench is the latest dual-bay 3.5" HDD RAID enclosure by Akitio, the NT2U3 (NT2 USB 3.0).

 

   At Akitio we believe in creating cutting-edge products that are both easy to use and also reliable. We believe that our products should last and that you should enjoy using them. We strive to create the most user-friendly experience possible with the most reliable and long lasting materials and parts available so that you will continue to enjoy using our great products for a long time to come. Akitio’s US headquarters are located in Santa Fe Springs, California. Since 1992, we have been designing, creating and marketing our storage solutions. We now have a full range of direct attached and network attached storage products to satisfy the needs of a wide range of customers. We strive to create products that match our core values, products that are easy to use, reliable, innovative, environmentally friendly and also affordable. We believe that the future of storage products lies in network attached storage (NAS), and that NAS products need to be as easy to use as possible. For those reasons we have created our Cloud Hybrid and MyCloud lines of network attached storage solutions. Our web login portal, UPnP/DLNA support, free iPhone, iPad and Android apps, friendly and attractive user interface and 45 second setup are just a few of the features that set our products apart from traditional NAS units. We are committed to providing exceptional customer service and support. We believe in creating high quality, reliable products, but we also know that occasionally things can go wrong and we are dedicated to providing Akitio customers with the assistance and support necessary to keep our customers satisfied with our products.

 

   Although for some unknown reason to me we don't see many dual HDD enclosures complete with drives in them (NAS devices excluded) standalone dual bay external HDD enclosures are not really hard to find anymore (although still somewhat limited), what is somewhat hard to find however are dual bay enclosures capable of both JBOD and RAID 0/1 modes which is also the main reason as to why the Akitio NT2U3 ended up on our test bench today. Of course in order to achieve the maximum possible data transfer speeds by two 3.5" drives in RAID 0 the NT2U3 features USB 3.0 connectivity while an 40mm 4000RPM exhaust fan is used to cool both drives. So the task of finding out just what you can expect in terms of performance from the product at hand falls upon us once again and all you need to do is read on.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two product pictures can be seen at the front of the box along with the main product features such as USB 3.0 connectivity, RAID 0/1 modes, screwless design and support for drives up to 2TB and over (since we used 3TB drives to test the unit it should be compatible with anything you can throw at it).

 

 

A list of features is present on both sides above two product images (front/rear).

 

 

At the rear of the box the specifications and features of the unit are both listed and showcased with the help of several product pictures.

 

 

The unit is safely packed inside a plastic bag and between two foam spacers.

 

 

Aside the NT2U3 enclosure inside the box you will also find the AC power adapter, power tip (depends on your country), USB 3.0 cable and the user’s manual.

 

 

 

THE NT2U3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a dual 3.5" bay enclosure the all black NT2U3 couldn't be any smaller and so it measures just 182mm in length, 81mm in width and 123mm in height.

 

 

The entire housing is made by aluminum and as you can see the Akitio logo is present on both sides.

 

 

The front fascia is perforated allowing air to enter and leave the interior with the help of the rear exhaust fan (thus better airflow).

 

 

As usual all of the connectors are placed at the rear of the enclosure and so here we see the 40mm exhaust fan, RAID switches (and the button which you need to press when switching modes), RAID instructions sticker, USB 3.0 host port, power plug, on/off power switch and an Kensington lock.

 

 

The enclosure sits on top of 4 round rubber feet.

 

 

As stated already the NT2U3 features an screwless design so in order to mount the drives you need to unlock the lock found at the bottom and pull the front fascia upwards.

 

 

Once you do that you can see both 3.5" drive bays and the 3 activity LEDs (power on, drive A, drive B).

 

 

Both drives need to be installed with their top facing inwards.

 

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

   Complicating things is not really our way so once again our testing procedure will be almost identical to the one we use with external docking stations. However since we are talking about an dual bay 3.5" external enclosure this time over we will be using two Seagate Constellation ES.2 3TB SATA III hard disk drives (instead of the Kingston HyperX 120GB SATA III SSDs we use with docking stations) so we can max pretty much max out the performance of the onboard controller. Our standard selection of benchmark suites is used here as well for both single and RAID 0 testing including the famous HD Tach RW (Long Bench 32mb Zones), HD Tune Pro (read/write -when possible- speeds), Sisoftware Sandra Pro (Read/Write -also when possible- speeds), AIDA64 (Linear Read/Random Read), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (100MB/1000MB read/write speeds) and finally the quite outdated yet highly reliable ATTO 2.46 (Max Read/Max Write speeds). Temps as usual were recorded using the latest version of Hard Disk Sentinel along with the sensors provided by AIDA64. Every test was repeated for a total of 6 times and after that the average (not peak) performance numbers were recorded into our graphs. As always every test was performed in a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 with every update installed up to August 8th 2012.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA 64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - TEMPERATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Before we start on the conclusion some of you may wonder as to why we stopped performing RAID 1 tests and the simple truth is that this was done in order for us to keep the length of our charts into a minimum (testing a product for a couple of hours more is not something hard). We just feel that it's better to compare more products in our charts and not perform RAID 1 tests (besides performance-wise it's essentially the same as in single mode) than the other way around. Of course this can easily change in future reviews if your feedback is not the expected one. Leaving RAID 1 tests aside the NT2U3 excelled in almost every single test in both single and RAID 0 something which actually took me of guard considering that Akitio is not amongst the well-known brands in the market (honestly i don't know why with such products). The screwless design is also a plus since you can mount both drives in under 10 seconds while the 40mm exhaust fan is whisper quiet (or at least it was during testing).

 

   It seems that Akitio also has a very aggressive product pricing in place since as we speak the NT2U3 USB 3.0 Dual Bay RAID Enclosure retails for USD83 inside the USA (Amazon) while inside the EU you can find it for around 70Euros (mainly through EBay). So we are basically talking about a very fast, small and rather low-cost dual bay USB 3.0 RAID Enclosure and since numbers don't lie there's really not much to add. Bottom line if you are looking to get such an enclosure then look no more (at least something better finds its way onto our test bench) since i doubt there's something faster at this moment in time and that's also why the NT2U3 USB 3.0 Dual Bay RAID Enclosure gets our Platinum Award.

 

PROS

- Build Quality
- Performance (Fastest in our charts)
- Single/RAID0/RAID1 Modes
- Size
- Screwless Design
- Price (For Some) 

 

 

CONS

- Availability