AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review

The Thunderbolt and Intel SSD powered Neutrino storage enclosure from AKiTiO graces the lab and we put it to the test.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: AKiTiO
2 minutes & 22 seconds read time
AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 99

As Thunderbolt begins to take center stage in the external storage market, many manufacturers have jumped on-board, one of which is AKiTiO. AKiTiO specializes in creating professional storage options targeted for the most part, at Macintosh users.

The latest product to come out of the camp at AKiTiO is the Neutrino Thunderbolt Edition, and as the name suggests, it is a Thunderbolt equipped external storage device. This isn't your standard Thunderbolt storage device, as AKiTiO has stepped up their game offering the Neutrino with solid state storage over the traditional spinner.

The Neutrino Thunderbolt is equipped with the Intel 330 Series SSD for the 120GB capacity and the SanDisk U100 SSD for the 256GB capacity. AKiTiO backs their Neutrino Thunderbolt with a two year warranty.

AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 02

Adding to the scope of delivery, we found AKiTiO to include the Thunderbolt cable with the device, making this a true plug and play storage solution.

AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 03

If you have seen any of AKiTiO's Neutrino devices in the past, then it would come as no surprise that the Thunderbolt edition shares the same design characteristics. The outer shell is a single piece of aluminium, which you can see at the bottom houses a heat sink to aid in cooling the drive.

AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 04

The backside of the Neutrino houses the single Thunderbolt port.

AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 05

Opening up the enclosure, we found the drive inside protected by a second aluminium shell.

AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 06

Disassembling the unit further, allowed us to get down to the PCB. The front side houses the Marvell 9182 SATA 6GB/s controller.

AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 08

On the flip side of the PCB, we find the ARM Cortex 32-bit microcontroller operating at 50MHz to the left, and under the grey thermal pad, we find the Intel DSL2210 2-channel Thunderbolt controller.

AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 11

As I alluded to in the beginning of the review, the 120GB capacity Neutrino Thunderbolt houses an Intel 330 Series SSD. Here we see our drive was packaged by AKiTiO in November 2012 with firmware 300i.

To test external storage platforms, I utilize two of the most well-known and respected benchmark applications. ATTO Disk Benchmark is the first and is recognized as the industry standard for marketing specifications. Through DiskBench, we offer real-world testing as it offers a custom data set that can be controlled by the user. For our testing I use a 10GB directory of mixed data that includes, pictures in both the RAW and JPEG file formats, AVCHD video and documents in both the XLS and DOC formats.

AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 20

The AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt is formatted in the NTFS file system, carrying 111GB of useable capacity.

AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 21

ATTO allowed the Neutrino to stretch its legs a little, with results coming in at 452 MB/s read, followed by 313 MB/s write.

AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 23

In our DiskBench testing we found the AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt to be quite a capable drive. In fact, it is the quickest single drive external storage solution we have tested so far.

With the Neutrino Thunderbolt, AKiTiO has taken external storage to the highest of tiers. The single cable design powered by Intel's Thunderbolt technology allows for the utmost in portability, all housed in a very durable aluminium enclosure.

In terms of performance, the Neutrino was very quick to take the top spot in our DiskBench testing coming in at 281 MB/s. ATTO proved even further the performance of the drive, where we saw numbers near 455 MB/s in read testing.

The price of the AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt in the 120GB capacity tested here today is set at $199.99 and can be found at many online retailers.

What do TweakTown.com awards mean? Click for details!

AKiTiO Neutrino Thunderbolt 120GB Aluminium SSD Enclosure Review 100

PRICING: You can find products similar to this one for sale below.

USUnited States: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.com

UKUnited Kingdom: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.co.uk

AUAustralia: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.com.au

CACanada: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.ca

DEDeutschland: Finde andere Technik- und Computerprodukte wie dieses auf Amazon.de

Tyler joined the TweakTown team in 2013 and has since reviewed 100s of new techy items. Growing up in a small farm town, tech wasn't around, unless it was in a tractor. At an early age, Tyler's parents brought home their first PC. Tyler was hooked and learned what it meant to format a HDD, spending many nights reinstalling Windows 95. Tyler's love and enthusiast nature always kept his PC nearby. Eager to get deeper into tech, he started reviewing.

Newsletter Subscription
We openly invite the companies who provide us with review samples / who are mentioned or discussed to express their opinion. If any company representative wishes to respond, we will publish the response here. Please contact us if you wish to respond.