Monday, December 9th 2024
Akasa Launches USB-C NVMe SSD Enclosure with Supercapacitor
Over the past few months, we've seen an explosion of magnetic NVMe SSD enclosures on the market and now Akasa has joined the fray with its own take on the topic and the accessory maker has of course added its own twists to the storage enclosure. The AK-ENU3M2-08 as it's known as, houses a standard M.2 2230 NVMe SSD and it's compatible with Apple's range of iPhones for direct video capture to the drive in ProRes 4K resolution and it does of course attach to the MagSafe connector on recent iPhones.
However, what makes the Akasa product stand out is the inclusion of a supercapacitor, which the company says takes 5-6 minutes to charge and it's included as a data loss safeguard in case of a sudden power loss. That said, it's a bit hard to figure how useful this would be in real world scenarios, since if the drive lost power, it most likely also lost its data connection to the host device. Another neat feature is that Akasa allows for 100 W USB PD passthrough, something we haven't seen on similar devices. The downside is the 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 data interface, which is slower than some competing devices, but the other features might make up for the slower speed, depending on your use case. No pricing was announced.
Source:
Akasa
However, what makes the Akasa product stand out is the inclusion of a supercapacitor, which the company says takes 5-6 minutes to charge and it's included as a data loss safeguard in case of a sudden power loss. That said, it's a bit hard to figure how useful this would be in real world scenarios, since if the drive lost power, it most likely also lost its data connection to the host device. Another neat feature is that Akasa allows for 100 W USB PD passthrough, something we haven't seen on similar devices. The downside is the 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 data interface, which is slower than some competing devices, but the other features might make up for the slower speed, depending on your use case. No pricing was announced.
22 Comments on Akasa Launches USB-C NVMe SSD Enclosure with Supercapacitor
The reason for my comment about the supercapacitor, is that the data "in flight" is never going be so large that it would need 5-6 minutes of power, if the data connection is lost. Since the drive is bus powered, it seems like a somewhat odd addition, but there might be some odd scenario where it saves your data from corruption.
and a need for a PD power supply to use 2TB??? what the heck is that, it's hilarious since the Sharge Disk 2230 enclosure (and the copycat from Satechi) can run a 2TB and a 10k rpm fan without needing that...
unless it's a 4.5W SSD (a SN770M 2tb use 3.45W on average, 4.40W max and is one of the more "hungry" 2230 ), well Hagibis and Eaget have the same requirement tbf.
no pricing announced, well, if that thing offer nothing much that was is seen with other magsafe 2230 enclosure ... and it would be priced higher than 40$ i would consider it DOA (Hagibis and Eaget are 33chf and 26chf respectively at lowest.)
www.techpowerup.com/327927/digiera-launches-usb-3-2-gen-2x2-portable-ssd
However, the capacitor could still be useful. It works roughly the same way as capacitor-based power loss protection in many enterprise SSDs. It doesn't prevent the loss of unwritten data after power failure. It prevents data corruption which, in the worst case, is not repairable.
and all external enclosure with a 10Gbps ( equal or less than 0.8 GB/s roughly ) will not go above that, i tested also with enclosure that need an extra power supply
you'd never get the full speed of the SSD ofc ;) a SN770M is 5150 mb/s even with a 20 Gbps which is 2000 mb/s (well ... equal or less than 1.6GB/s )
i intend to get the Hagibis one later, since i have a spare SN770M 1tb and a Magsafe capable case for my S23 :)
The cable looks removable/replaceable, and the PD pass-thru is a nice inclusion.
'Love the full-aluminum enclosure too. Round isn't my first choice but it's fine; looks industrial. Also, very 'attachable' to a steamdeck or other UMPC. Added weight/bulk being tolerable.
10gbps is pretty limited, but hopefully that makes the price more broadly-attractive.
Amazon Hagibis original 2230 enclosure that sit in my wishlist since a few month now ;)
i doubt the Akasa will be less than 50eur
ofc you can find it also cheaper on AliExpress (the one i saw was 29chf)
Now, to find a 2242 compatible version... like this
www.amazon.com/QIQIAZI-Magnetic-Enclosure-Aluminum-External/dp/B0DFWFHY3Q
Optionally, the End User could reconfigure the drive to MLC, TLC or QLC, but with no warranty and a full cell-by-cell R/W test required.Unironically, a 'modular m.2 module' would be kinda neat.
Pick what controller and DRAM cache you want, then just attach NANDcards to the M.2 board for capacity.