The Axus FiT 300 came in a reasonable sized box with a huge picture of the storage device itself. A detailed list of specifications is printed on the sides. The box has a very handy carrying case at the top to make transportation easier.

Opening the box up we can see that Axus has a done a good job in protecting the storage device. All sides of the inside are lined with foam and everything is bagged in plastic to prevent scratches during shipment or handling. Each drive bay is removed from the chassis of the device and individually packaged. This, in theory, saves you time as you can install the hard drives directly to the drive bay without having to first remove it from the device. The drive bays are pretty basic in design; the front has a latch for installation and two LEDs for drive activity. The body of the cage is made from sheet metal. The corners are perforated to provide a bit of ventilation.

Included in the package is a box of accessories. Inside this we’ll find the power pack, eSATA cables, USB cable, auxiliary fan, screws for drive installation and a drive disc. I’m disappointed that there is no integrated power supply in the device to eliminate the power brick. Likewise, I’m baffled by why the fan is not integrated into the device.

The exterior of the chassis is made out of plastic. On the inside we can see a steel frame for the three drive bays and installation of a circuit board.

On the top edge you’ll see a few symbols that will illuminate depending on the status of the storage device. With the exception of the back, the rest of the sides are fairly plain. The bottom feet provide remarkable good grip to prevent the FiT 300 from sliding around and will dampening any vibration the device makes.

The back side of where the business happens. We have all the connection ports here: USB, eSATA, power, K-lock and fan. It’s nice to see the toggle switch to completely kill the power to the device. At the same time, this could allow someone to tamper with the device and flip the power off when you least expect it. The rotating dial controls how the drives are configured. I think this is brilliant as not everyone will want to install software to manage the device. If you do want to use the software, leave the setting on GUI. However, for anyone interested in setting the drive upon purchase and forgetting about it, the steps are simple. Once all the drives are installed, turn the dial to what RAID configuration you want then press and hold the Set/Mute/Backup button while flipping the powering up the device. After a couple seconds let go of the Set/Mute/Backup button and the drive will configure itself.

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