Sonnet Technologies ECHO-3R-TB3 3-slot Thunderbolt 3 rackmount PCIe drive enclosure

Sonnet Echo III Rackmount 3-Slot Thunderbolt 3

The Sonnet Echo III Rackmount is a 3-slot Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that adds up to three full-length PCIe cards to a Mac, Windows or Linux workstation. It targets creative professionals who need additional video capture, audio DSP, high-speed networking or storage controllers in a 19-inch rack format. The unit delivers 2750 MB/s of PCIe bandwidth over a 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 link. It ships with a .7-meter Thunderbolt cable and ThunderLok 3 retainer clips.

Replaces Direct Card Installation When Slots Are

This enclosure replaces the need for internal PCIe slots on computers that lack them, such as laptops, compact desktops or Apple Silicon Macs. The upgrade is worth it when a workflow requires professional PCIe 1.1, 2.0 or 3.0 cards for 10Gb or 25Gb Ethernet, 6Gb or 12Gb SAS or SATA host bus adapters, SSD storage or transcoding hardware. It does not support GPU cards, so buyers needing graphics acceleration should look elsewhere.

Verify Host Ports Card Drivers

Confirm the host computer has a Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 port; Thunderbolt 2 or 1 ports require an Apple adapter. Check that each intended PCIe card has a driver for the host operating system, especially on M1, M1 Pro or M1 Max Macs. Ensure the rack provides at least 16.50 inches of depth and 3.60 inches of height for the 23.15-lb unit, and that a C14 power connection is available for the 400W universal supply.