Other World Computing today announced it’s increasing production of its SandForce Driven OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSD line in 120GB and 240GB capacities to meet consumer and retailer volume deliveries. The 480GB capacity model is expected to begin shipping in volume within ten days. By utilizing the proven, industry leading SandForce 2200 Series processors, OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSDs offer consumers and prosumers a “total package” of highest performance and reliability backed by an industry leading five year warranty.
SandForce: When Only The Best Will Do
Ordinary SSDs offer fast read/write performance during first initial uses, but can then experience significant write speed degradation over repeated, long-term usage. Utilizing SandForce processors, OWC Mercury series SSDs benefit from ultra-efficient Block Management, Wear Leveling technologies, and real-time data redundancies to enable incredibly high performance and extreme reliability, both of which are maintained over the long life of the product.
Speed doesn’t matter if it can comprise data integrity. Thanks to SandForce DuraClass technology, the OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G is able to provide up to 100X higher data protection than provided by ordinary SSDs as well as leading enterprise class hard disk drives. By combining the highest level of Error Correction Code (ECC) and SandForce RAISE (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) technology along with 7% over provisioning, the OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G provides RAID like data protection and reliability.
“We truly appreciate SandForce as a valued partner and their contributions in helping establish OWC as the most comprehensive U.S. manufacturer of industry leading SandForce processor based SSDs,” said Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. “It’s just an awesome processor and I’m glad we took the appropriate time to develop our 6G line, thus ensuring the ongoing quality, performance, and reliability reputation synonymous with OWC products for the past 23 years.”
Quality Components Make The Difference
The OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G is designed and built in the USA with the highest quality components and engineering processes available for best utilization of the leading edge performance SandForce processors deliver. Only Tier 1/Grade A NAND components are used in OWC Mercury series SSDs. The Synchronous NAND utilized in OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G provides the highest sustained data rates delivered by an SSD today.
“I know choices in engineering design and component utilization make a substantial difference in both short and long term performance and reliability. SandForce has provided us with an exceptional processor and we’re proud to have it at the core of the exceptional SSD line-up we’ve designed and built in the U.S.,” said O’Connor. “There is a difference which has been noted enthusiastically by both end user reviews as well as professional media reviews, neither of which have reported any ‘bluescreen’ issues experienced with other brands.”
Benchmark Expert Tested To Nearly 3,000MB/s
Noted benchmark performance testing site Barefeats.com recently tested eight OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSDs configured in a RAID 0 configuration installed via the NewerTech AdaptaDrive 2.5″ to 3.5″ Drive Converter Bracket in a Stardom ST8-U5 8-bay mini-SAS drive enclosure connected to a RocketRAID 2744 SAS RAID controller. The SSDs were subjected to the most demanding disk intensive testing routines available: QuickBench, DiskTester, Kona System Test, and Black Magic Disk Speed Test. The tests revealed sequential read speeds as high as 2976MB/s (3.0GB/s) and writes speeds as high as 2386MB/s write (2.4GB/s). With these speeds, the OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G is ideal for “extreme” applications like HD video editing because it delivers speeds well in excess of suggested rates to avoid dropping frames when capturing footage or during playback.
Three Capacity Models Available Starting From $297.99
Ideal for use in demanding performance-intensive applications such as Audio/Video editing, HD-video, digital photography, professional music, and graphics, the OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G line is qualified for use in consumer/prosumer single drive production workstations as well as multi-drive RAID 0/1/10/SPAN configurations and is available in the following capacities:
- OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G 120GB $294.99
- OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G 240GB $549.99
- OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G 480GB $1279.99
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Hi I have purchased this drive and the newer technology adaptadrive and have tried to install this on a Mac Pro 2008. But it does not detect the drive. Any ideas? I am trying to set this up as a boot drive? Does the fact that the Mac Pro has a SataII and this is a Sata II drive have anything to do with it? Very frustrated!
The SATA Revision 3.0 drive being installed in a SATA Revision 2.0 machine should not be the cause of any issue. Speeds will be bottlenecked to the SATA Revision 2.0 speeds, but it shouldn’t have any effect on the drive not showing up in the first place.
Our Technical Support Team would be happy to assist in troubleshooting. You can contact them by phone at 1(800)275-4576 via email or live chat.
Any word on wether the SandForce chip issues are affecting your drives?
As I pretty much answered in other reply….but will do so succinctly here…NO OWC SSD is affected…and frankly no other SF based SSD from a manufacturer that has not DEVIATED from standard design parameters will be affected either. Appears two manufacturers, one of which we pointed out awhile back was using NON Tier 1 NAND (SpecTek), didn’t follow “the rules” and now are paying the price…
Awesome!!! I’ve seen posts on GS of people swapping out the crap stock drive in the newest macbook pro’s w/ OWC SSD’s and having no problems (lately).
Anyways, I have two questions:
1. I have four of these for my “legacy” 3G OWC SSD RE’s http://eshop.macsales.com/item/IcyDock/MB982IP1S/
I absolutely love them but I was wondering if I put a 6G SSD in one of those, will it bottle neck at 3G? Are these things capable of 6G speeds?
2. Would it work to take two of my OWC 3G SSD RE’s that are in the icy docks (above link) and put them in one of my OWC Mecury Elite Al Pro Dual Bay Raid 0 enclosres? Seems like it would be okay as the icy docks say they are exactly 3.5″. Then again, I’d imagine I’d hit a bottle neck w/ the enclosure itself. How do I get around this? Also, are there such thing as SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) capable eSATA cables?
Thanks!
O-Dub Scott
The Icy Dock Full Metal 2.5″ to 3.5″ SAS & SATA HDD & SSD Converter Case is rated by the manufacturer for drive speeds up to 6Gb/s – so an OWC 6G SSD should not be bottlenecked by the adapter itself.
As for the OWC Mecury Elite Al Pro Dual Bay Raid 0 Enclosure, you would be bottlenecked in speed by the enclosure itself (The Mercury Extreme Pro RE 3G SSD would be a better fit for the setup you’re describing), but the Icy Dock adapters would work for the physical installation.
What about the “Mecury Elite Al Pro Dual Bay Raid Enclosure Raid 0” that has only eSATA. Isn’t this a straight pass-through w/ no chipset? Or does the chipset have nothing to do w/ it.
Just wondering if the eSATA only versions of the product I listed above would suffer from the 3G bottleneck.
Oh yeah- eSATA 3.0 6Gb/s cables? No such thing?
Thanks,
O-Dub Scott
The “RAID Ready” Dual units are passthrough only and have been tested with our 6G SSDs. They are indeed rated for eSATA 3.0 6Gb/s drives. (Our website should be updated shortly to reflect that).
As far as the cables go, there are rating scales on those and some cables are rated for 6Gb/s speeds while others are not. We’ll be going through our eSATA cables that we carry and the site will reflect the updated ratings soon.
Thanks so much for bringing that to our attention.
Dear OWC
Has the firmware cap on the random 4K – that anand going on about been adressed
i’m really tempted to cop one of these babies – but not if the 4K-random is capped due to firmware
when i called a few weeks back – sales said that there is currently no new firmware to address the 4K cap – i for one will not be looking to cop an owc ssd until this firmware shamble has been addressed.
All production units shipped since May do not have “capped” version of the firmware.
wow i cant wait to get my hands on one. cant wait much longer
I see you now have started to release DIY Kits for the 6G SSDs, but strangely no USB 3 DIY kit.
I would love to get one to put in the second bay of my 2011 iMac, but I don;t want to install it myself. When do youguys think that service will be available?
I don’t have any experience in SSDs…
Can I use this in a Mac Pro 3,1 (early 2008)? Or is it better to take the 3G version?
I am still making a decision before OS X Lion is being released. All I want is to have one SSD for the OS and apps, and storage in HDDs
And is it possible to connect the SSD in my Mac Pro’s slot 1? (I have 4 slots)
Thank you
Yes, you certainly could use our 6G SSD in your Mac Pro, but the internal bus speed of the MacPro3,1 models would bottleneck the 6G SSD to 3G SSD performance in most computing applications. For a little more detail see our post on Which OWC SSD Is Right For You?
For physical installation, you do need something to adapt the 2.5″ drive size of the SSD to be installed in the 3.5″ bay of the Mac Pro. For that I suggest the Newer Technology AdaptaDrive. It can be installed in any of the four bays.