OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro takes longer to say than to boot

One of these days, SSDs will hit a price point that doesn't require a second mortgage to buy one. Until then, we can just gawk at things like OWC's latest, which is a portable version of Crucial's still relatively new line of affordable SSDs, built around the familiar Indilinx controller and Samsung NAND flash. Coming in sizes from 64GB ($280) to 256GB ($730), the new Pro devices can transfer data and get their power from either a Firewire or USB port. Alas, that means you'll be limited to 100MBps read rates -- as opposed to the 250MBps you could get from an eSATA connection -- but that's a small sacrifice to make if you care about losing the moving parts in your portable storage.

[Via Electronista]

[The Shadow Posted Sep 11th 2009 7:56PM]

No e-SATA... Meh.

[tampa03cobra Posted Sep 11th 2009 7:59PM]

I hardly see the point without an interface that isn't taxed by the drives throughput.

[Professor Kaos Posted Sep 11th 2009 8:13PM]

This is a ridiculous hard drive option given the lack of e-SATA. I'm sorry but the lack of moving parts does not justify this outrageous price.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 11th 2009 8:27PM]

Given that the Mac has no eSATA port by native, and that OWC external drives are highly popular among Mac based video professionals. I don't see this as an issue. This drive will double their file transfer rate (critical for video scratch disks) as well as add in extra durability. I think it's a rather wonderful thing to lust after.

Of course, for guys like me, I'd rather store movies on it. Which rules out the SSD as it is low capacity and expensive ..

[Information Central Posted Sep 12th 2009 2:14AM]

Given the stupidity of eSATA with its lack of power, the sooner it dies the better. Then we can move on to a high-speed bus with some common sense.

[Weet Posted Sep 11th 2009 8:32PM]

The lack of eSATA isn't as big of a deal as it may seem. The fastest platter based hard drives tend to max out at read speeds of just over 100mb/s anyway so you're not loosing much... assuming you're not transferring from SSD to SSD.

[daytripper Posted Sep 11th 2009 8:50PM]

Another great example of things people with more money than brains can buy. This thing will never let the use take advantage the performance boost NAND offers. Also looks a little Mac G4.

[CL Posted Sep 11th 2009 9:49PM]

While eSATA may be faster, I think it's far more convenient for a portable drive to be bus powered.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 11th 2009 10:09PM]

except that it's very easy to power an external 2.5" SSD drive off a usb port in addition to the esatat port.

sure it's another cable, but it can still be done.

i do it with a 500GB external on my laptop.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817348027

[nikster Posted Sep 11th 2009 11:52PM]

I have this enclosure for a 2.5" HD. It's rock solid but it has a huge aluminium cooling block. It gets extremely hot too. I am not sure why - it seems to be the logic board?! Or FW? I tried it with different hard disks inside.

[Judd Sandage Posted Sep 12th 2009 1:38AM]

well judging by the picture and what I have seen with OWCs products I believe that had 2 1394b ports on the back end of it, so 800mb\s max transfer, so double that 100mb/s to 200 and your about right... as long as your using a firewire 800 capable system. most power macs in the last oh I would say 6 years have had that on them.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 12th 2009 9:58AM]

Firewire 800, yeah! Price is still ridiculous, but I like this thing.

[aarond12 Posted Sep 12th 2009 12:13PM]

Can someone explain why Firewire 400 (I'm assuming the slower of the two versions of Firewire) that has a 400Mbps interface is limited to 100Mbps? Why is USB 2.0 (a 480Mbps interface) limited to 100Mbps? Since when is eSATA limited to 400Mbps?

Is the author of this article full of s--t?

[KAL326 Posted Sep 12th 2009 8:02PM]

MBpsMbps
So unless there was a post edit, I am not thinking the author is the one that is full of shit.