This week two new drives were announded. One by Sonnet and the other by Akitio  and both combine Thunderbolt 3 and the latest PCIe SSD technology.

.Sonnet's CEO Robert Farnsworth said:

"The Fusion Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Flash Drive can sustain the ultra-high file transfer speeds required for just about any 4K workflow – whether users need an ultra-fast shuttle drive or a take-anywhere scratch drive for editing high frame rate 4K video at offsite shoots." 

The 512 GB storage unit is compatible with Windows 7 and 10 machines, and features the latest PCIe Gen 3 flash memory technology and a 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 3 interface on the end of an included 0.5 m (1.6) cable. Sonnet claims it can manage data transfer speeds of up to 2,100 MB/s.

The drive is 2.8 in (70 mm) wide, 4.1 in (103.2 mm) deep and 1.25 in (31.5 mm) high, and placed in an aluminum enclosure. The Fusion Thunderbolt 3 PCIe Flash Drive is available at the end of this month for a suggested retail price of $799.

Akitio's Thunder3 PCIe SSD is not as portable. It is 9.17 x 5.96 x 2.99 in (233 x 152 x 76 mm) dimensions and will need to be powered via the an adapter. However it has 1.2 TB of storage capacity using a PCIe Gen 3 Intel 750 Series SSD. It has two Thunderbolt 3 ports and a DisplayPort video output for connection a 4K monitor. It claims to ahve a data transfer speeds of a 2,500 MB/s.

The Akitio drive is housed in an aluminum enclosure, comes with a 40 Gbps cable included and is compatible with Windows 7 or newer computers. It can also be daisy chained to up to six other units.