Akitio Launches $150 Aluminum USB 3.0 HDD Enclosure

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There is a new way to dress up external hard drives.

Akitio just announced their SK-3501 Super-S3 desktop hard drive enclosure, which wraps a 3.5-inch drive in an aluminum shell.

The stackable enclosure comes with a combination interface for eSATA, Firewire 800 (x2) and USB 3.0. Akitio uses a heat sink for passive cooling and integrated a perforated front panel to dissipate hot air. The design and support for USB 3.0 does not come cheap: Akitio charges $150 for the pretty aluminum case that may even look nice sitting next to an iMac.

For those who couldn't care less about the industrial design of the enclosure, but simply want the USB 3.0, there are options from about $30 on the street.

Douglas Perry
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • abdussamad
    Rip off!
    Reply
  • jamie_1318
    The variety of plugs is kind of nice, but that doesn't seem like it's worth the premium over normal ones.
    Reply
  • jsheridan
    agreed, seems over priced to me
    Reply
  • nforce4max
    If it is very well built and with a speedy controller for me it may very well be worth the price and am sick of the cheap plastic crap that is sold for hardware these days.
    Reply
  • lordstormdragon
    I've had titanium enclosures, steel ones, aluminum ones, and plastic ones. So far the only one that's withstood multiple drops and kept running was the plastic Mybook from Western Digital. Industrial-looking design or not, I'd love to see this thing crash after one drop.
    Reply
  • Marco925
    The case costs more than most hard drives....
    Reply
  • drumsrule786
    My $30 USB 3 rosewill enclosure is fast, cheap, and it looks pretty nice too. Why would anyone buy this? Then again people seem to like paying for overpriced aluminum bodied things these days (cough cough)
    Reply
  • halcyon
    This is way overpriced. Maybe $70-$80...but $130. LOL.
    Reply
  • eddieroolz
    Personally, for something like an external drive I'd much rather prefer utility over anything else.
    Reply
  • halcyon
    Now, if they'd added ThunderBolt $130 would have still been a lot but at least understandable.
    Reply