Iodyne has unveiled its Pro Mini SSD, designed for professionals who require sustained maximum performance in all conditions. This external drive leverages Frore’s AirJet cooling system, which provides active cooling without relying on fans.
Pro Mini is an external SSD made for creative professionals needing a powerful storage solution on the go. The brand advertises a sustained speed above 3GB/s via the universal USB 4 / Thunderbolt Type-C connection. That’s enough bandwidth to record high-definition video without slowdowns due to thermal throttling.
Talking of which, while competing drives could suffer from reduced performance under long heavy loads, Iodyne’s solution leverages Frore’s AirJet solid-state cooling system. The latter uses a vibrating membrane that pushes air at high velocities, allowing it to go through the boundary layer and pick up more heat from the surface, unlike a basic fan air stream. Better yet, the AirJet’s lack of fans makes it more compact and silent, with Frore announcing under 24dBA of noise, even when operating at peak performance.
This solution is so effective that Zotac selected it for its Zbox Pico mini-PC. In other words, the Pro Mini SSD should be adequately cooled, explaining the brand’s confidence in its performance figures. Though palling against internal solutions, which hit 12GB/s with ease, 3GB/s is as fast as they get in the external SSD world. Plus, with the 8TB capacity, you can be sure enough space is available for even the longest workdays.
But that’s not all, the Pro Mini also includes device passkeys, NFC tap to unlock, device tracking, RAID-6 data protection, and XTS-AES-256 encryption. The cherry on top is a screen showing various information about the drive. We love a good arbitrary display.
Unfortunately, this feature set comes at a hefty price as Iodyne demands $1,500 for the 4TB model and $2,200 for the 8TB. A non-issue for professionals, but not ideal for personal use where solutions like SanDisk’s Professional SSDs are perfectly suited at a quarter the price. Pro Mini external SSDs are scheduled for Q1 2025, though early backers can get their hands on these in Q4 2024.