OWC's Mercury Elite-AL Pro "Quad Interface" 1TB external drive

We're pretty impressed by OWC's "gotta plug 'em all" collection of ports on this new external drive, the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro, which features a "Quad Interface" and 1TB of 7200RPM storage in a Mac-friendly enclosure. The drive can handle FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA, and OWC is claiming speeds up to 80MB per second on FireWire and 150MB/s on eSATA, thanks to the Oxford 924 chipset. The $600 pricetag is a wee bit steep, but OWC is nice enough to include FireWire, USB and eSATA cables in the box, along with various backup softwares for Mac and Windows. We're getting a little tired of the Mac Pro-style cheese grater look, but you can find 1TB drives with a whole lot more ugly, that's for sure, so we won't complain too much. The drive should be available now, in capacities on down to 250GB if you're not quite ready to make the 1TB plunge.

[CharlieX @ May 1st 2007 2:38PM]

I'd like to see a youtube clip of someone using a Mac Pro to grate cheese.

[Chris @ May 1st 2007 2:44PM]

You could use it to strain pasta and then grate cheese right after. If only it could grate a tin can or a shoe, Mr. Popeil might have some competition.

[Chris Anderson @ May 1st 2007 2:45PM]

Actually i don't think that will even run on a Mac...

[Preston @ May 1st 2007 2:55PM]

I prefer the My Book World Edition from Western Digital. It has an ethernet port for network access, plus it runs about $100 less.

[Erwos @ May 1st 2007 3:04PM]

The Oxford 924 is a high quality chipset - definitely one of my favorites for external enclosures, even if it isn't cheap.

[ark_v2 @ May 1st 2007 3:18PM]

Damn...I was thinking of getting one of those until I read $600.

[Bruno @ May 1st 2007 3:23PM]

Unfortunately the stated transfer rates are completely outside the specifications for any hard drive you can install in this case. You'll need a striped array to get rates to justify the numbers and a Firewire 800 connection.

[Rick Lyon @ May 1st 2007 3:33PM]

Anyone familiar with OWC drives? I've used their memory, but never their drives. I'm interested in a 350gb+ maybe 500gb drive that is G5 friendly.

[Rick (the original Rick) @ May 1st 2007 6:12PM]

This is a great little ext HD - $50, see links:
http://www.american-media.com/product/external/ds/DS_2316SU2BK.pdf
bought her at NewEgg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145657

Just throw in whatever drive you have lying around....

[Dustin @ May 1st 2007 4:40PM]

I have an OWC 300 GB and a 500 GB (got the 300 around 3 or 4 years ago). Both work great. One is for doing a total image backup (SuperDuper!) of my system, the other is just extra storage space (well, it was. My iMac has the 500 GB drive, heh).

I have the Neptune http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/owc-neptune-drives/

Not as "cool" looking, but cheaper and all I need is FW400. I've recommended them to others in the past. Hope that helps.

[Dustin @ May 1st 2007 4:41PM]

Oh, guess I should also mention that I've used both of those drives a G4 iMac, G4 iBook and an Intel iMac. So They should work just as well with your G5 :)

[bdo @ May 1st 2007 3:43PM]

You can get a cheaper enclosure at cooldrives.com and install your own 1TB drive (or 750GB) to save $100. or more

http://cooldrives.com/fi800andusb21.html
http://cooldrives.com/esata-firewire-800-enclosure-case-external.html

[Rick Lyon @ May 1st 2007 5:13PM]

Excellent man, thanks for the info :)

[Jamus @ May 1st 2007 5:37PM]

That Oxford 924 chip is about the only one I trust for boot drives, so I can understand some of the expense. I have been stung by the chips in the Bytec cases especially.

[rp @ May 1st 2007 7:28PM]

I wonder if this thing will get all dusty and overheat, causing fun crashing times like with my G5. Worst rev 1 ever?

[James @ May 1st 2007 11:54PM]

I've had a bunch of OWC external hard drives. Usually firewire 400 plus USB flavor but lately they've had 800. None have failed and I gift them to family members as I buy bigger for myself (currently 400 without SATA). I use them on PPC and Intel macs and Dell PC's. I've used carbon copy cloner and superduper and Ghost. They are quiet.