NewerTech's Guardian MAXimus: 1TB, RAID, ports aplenty

Not that there's some dearth of external RAID devices on the market or anything, but few and far between are those that have FireWire 800 and 400 ports, as well as USB 2.0. NewerTech's Guardian MAXimus -- which appears to be a rebadged Mercury Elite-AL Pro -- comes in with up to 1TB, two FireWire 800 ports, and one 400 and USB 2.0 port. Prices start at $320 for the 250GB version, or you can snag a BYOD $180 enclosure, if that's what suits you.

[vasu @ May 17th 2007 7:20PM]

You're right in that there are many RAID0 (stripe) enclosures on the market, and this might look like a rebadged Mercury Elite Pro, but it's neither of these things. This is a hardware level RAID1 (mirroring) device, and there aren't that many of them on the market. The few hardware RAID1 boxes that are around, also cost at least twice this.

Personally, I think this is a ground breaking product. Hardware RAID1 with autorebuilding for the same cost as many HD and RAID0 enclosures!

[derek @ May 17th 2007 7:28PM]

a lot of expensive stuff in that pic... macbook pro running mac os x.4 server, mighty mouse, and that $1,800 drive

[Joseph @ May 17th 2007 8:03PM]

So isnt this the OWC case with a paint job?

[Joseph @ May 17th 2007 8:04PM]

I guess my point is... why is this tech news?

[Tim Garrison @ May 17th 2007 8:35PM]

maybe im continuously overlooking the article, but whats with the two docks on that MBP/powerbook?

and why cant they do 2 firewire 800 AND 2 firewire 400?! jimany christmas!

[cronick @ May 17th 2007 10:09PM]

That's my rig LOL. It's NOT running XServe (derek). It's running the stock Mac OS with the XServe Utilities installed for remote management of your XServes. The second dock is another box being remotely controlled as seen through Apple Remote Desktop. Now, if you installed VPN you'd be golden... you could run all your XServes and remotely fix all your whiners'... er, clients' boxes from your villa on the French Riviera. The 1TB raid is just to store all your porn - that's why they call it a "Maximus"!

[[e-mail] @ May 17th 2007 8:43PM]

To Tim Garrison, I think the computer is using the remote desktop client to control another computer on the network, that's why there is two docks.

[Jamus @ May 17th 2007 11:24PM]

My big question is: Bootable?

I have been stung by some enclosures that just will not boot. Data transfer? Sure, works great, just don't try to boot from them.

Now this dark little jewel, seems pretty sweet, so I am hoping they have a good bridge in it without any boot issues.

[joseph @ May 18th 2007 1:19AM]

it is bootable. I have the OWC model. Its silver. but it boots better with fw400 than 80 for some straqnge reason.

[tiuk @ May 18th 2007 10:22AM]

I've been pricing out NASes for at least a year, and this is probably the best deal I've seen thus far. Very tempting.

[GadgetGav @ May 18th 2007 10:34AM]

Or you could get the Fantom Drives version of the same drive for around $300 for the 1Tb model. The hardware mirroring is provided by the Oxford chipset in the bridgeboard, so they all do the same thing.
I got the Fantom 1Tb model and it's two 500Gb 7200rpm, SATA, 16Gb cache drives inside. Configurable RAID settings with a jumper on the board inside. FW800, FW400 and USB2.0 ports. It's hooked up to my iMac for HD video editing via the FW800 and it works great.

[Jim @ May 21st 2007 4:33PM]

You are indeed correct, there is a similar housing between the Mercury Elite and the NewerTech Guardian Maximus. That is where the similarity ends.

The Guardian Max is a hardware based RAID 1, whereas the Mercury is software based, either via included software or the software of your choice.

The Guardian Max, as a result, your processor will not take on the load of mirroring your data, because the built in controller handles that for you.

In addition, front panel LEDs provide you with an accurate representation of drive activity, always handy for peace of mind.

The Guardian Maximus also is available in 1TB configurations, whereas the OWC Mercury is not currently offering such, and the NewerTech Guardian Maximus is actually at a better price point. Hope this helps!

OWC Jim
Other World Computing
www.macsales.com
800-275-4576

[Robert @ Dec 8th 2007 8:29PM]

Jim, just in case of an internal hard disk failure - is the Guardian Maximus a BOOTABLE hard disk?

Thanks, Jim!