Review: OWC Mercury Elite and On-The-Go Firewire+USB 2.0 Hard Drives

Remember how much of a pain it was (and still is) to manage a SCSI device, or chain of devices? Performance was great, but it took a very careful ballet of cables and IDs to make a chain happy... and of course, nothing could be changed once everything was in place. Want an external hard drive for storage or backup? No problem. Want an external hard drive for storage, file transfer, or secure backup? Well, as long as you are willing to risk the stability of your SCSI chain and machine... no problem. But if you want true portability, SCSI wasn't gonna cut it.

Of course, now we have Firewire and USB 2.0. Both offer high speed transfer rates (400 Mbps for Firewire and 480 Mbps for USB 2.0), like SCSI but unlike SCSI, Firewire and USB 2.0 are hot swappable and easy to manage. Each format has it's own unique advantages over the other. With Firewire, you have the ability to power the device through the cable... so only one cable to the device and you are set. Firewire also has some nifty networking capabilities and just about every Mac sold for the last couple of years has Firewire, so there's a high chance of device compatibility. USB 2.0, is the next generation of USB. It's great advantage is that it can utilize any machine with USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 (transferring at the speed of the port it's plugged into), so while you may not be able to get great performance out of every machine, there is an even greater chance of compatibility than the Firewire device across platforms and with older Macs. Since no Macs come with USB 2.0 standard right now, you either have to be happy with the comparatively glacial performance of USB 1.1 and wait for USB 2.0 support from Apple or forget about USB 2.0 and stick with just Firewire.

We received a couple of OWC Mercury external hard drives from Other World Computing that are both Firewire and USB 2.0... the best of both worlds in a manner of speaking. This brings you high compatibility and performance across the platforms.

What Are You Looking For?

What are your needs? Are you looking for a drive for backing up your data, transferring your data from one machine to another, or for additional storage? Given your choices, your needs do indeed make a difference. If you are looking for transferring data from one machine to another, then a smaller, more portable drive could be for you. If you are just looking into storage or backup, then performance may be a more important factors. The two drives we'll be looking at are the OWC Mercury On-The-Go drive and an OWC Mercury Elite drive. Both drives come with USB 2.0 and Firewire cables, power adapters, and Initech SpeedTools software. Both drives also come with an assortment of Mac freeware, shareware, desktop pics, and Apple movies on the drive.

At Home...

Mercury Elite sitting on it's edge

The Elite has two Firewire ports and one USB 2.0/1.1 port on the back.

Drive: Mercury Elite Combo
Capacity: 40 GB - 120 GB
Ports: 2 Firewire, 1 USB 2.0/1.1
Price: $179.99 - $319.99
Drive Mechanism: ATA 100 7200 RPM, 2 MB buffer (all except the $319.99 120 GB model which features an 8 MB buffer)
Dimensions: 1.5 in (W) x 9 in (D) x 5.5 in (H) (when standing vertically)
Power: External AC Adapter

The Mercury Elite is a gorgeous external drive that could be everything you want in a drive... especially if you are looking for more storage or just to backup your files. We tested an 80 GB model (OWCME2FW7080GB), which sells for $219.99.

When looking at the figures for this drive, the first thing I thought was that this was a no-compromise drive. What I was getting was the capacity and performance of one of my internal hard drives, but with the added advantages of an external device. For someone with an iMac or an eMac who is looking for a second drive for additional storage, or for someone looking to backup their files in a drive that they can keep safely locked up, this drive has a lot of potential.

One majorly cool thing about this drive is how cool it is... not just in looks, but in heat dissipation. Having owned external drives in the past, I've always considered what parts of the drive get hot and where the vents are so that it operate effectively. The Mercury Elite drive contains no fan, and stays incredibly cool. Of course, power brick is completely external of the drive, and this has a lot to do with it, but it is impressive nonetheless.

When testing, my initial assumptions of the performance to expect from a 7200 RPM drive though Firewire showed true in the tests. Read performance was pretty much on par with my internal 7200 RPM ATA hard drive. While write performance was significantly slower, it was only noticeable when backing up large amounts of data to the drive. When just utilizing the disk in normal fashion, it felt zippy.

QuickBench Benchmark tests for the OWC Mercury Elite Drive. Compare to my internal Maxtor 7200 RPM ATA/66 hard drive (Chubbs) below.

On The Go...

The Mercury On-The-Go

The On-The-Go has one 6-pin Firewire, one 4-pin Firewire, and one USB 2.0/1.1

Drive: Mercury On-The-Go
Capacity: 20 GB - 60 GB
Ports: 2 Firewire (1 6-pin powered, 1 4-pin unpowered), 1 USB 2.0/1.1
Price: $189.97 - $419.97
Drive Mechanism: 4200 or 5400 RPM with 2MB or 8 MB buffer depending on model
Dimensions: 3.5" (W) x 5.5" (D) x 1" (H)
Power: External AC Adapter, Firewire/USB powered (on compatible machines)

The Mercury On-The-Go drive lives up to it's name, being small enough to fit in your pocket, in fact, it's volume is nearly one fourth of the Elite model. We tested a 60 GB model (OWCMOFWU60GB) which sales for $359.97.

Immediately, you should note that there is a price for the added portability. While it is significantly smaller than the Elite drive we tested above, it spun at a slower rate (4200 RPM vs. 7200 RPM) and had a smaller capacity for a higher price.

But the portability advantages go beyond just the smaller size. For one, this drive is capable of being powered just through the bus on the 6-Pin firewire or USB (if the machine supports it)... so you can leave that AC adapter at home too to save some space.

Also, the On-The-Go drive comes with a cool carrying pouch to toss it in when you are heading out the door. And with the drive comes much shorter Firewire and USB 2.0 cables... that are much easier to stuff away for transportation.

Read performance for the OTG was slower than both the internal drive and the Elite, but for my personal use, it wasn't noticeable at all. Write performance was virtually identical to the Elite drive.

Conclusions

What is the cost of portability? The OWC Elite model is certainly portable to a point but nowhere near as portable as the On-The-Go model. With the On-The-Go model, you get a more compact design, a cool carrying pouch, and a drive capable of powering itself (no lugging the adapter around). With the Elite model, you get more hard drive space, a higher transfer rate, and a lower sticker price.

Both are very capable drives and in the end it all comes down to budget and need. Forget need... I want them both!

- Marc Messer

What do you think? Talk about it in our Forums...

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