Other World Computing today announced the OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD Trade-Up Program. The program enables owners of the original Accelsior PCIe card to trade up to a new Accelsior_E2 card and get a cash rebate or upgrade storage capacity up to 960GB with higher capacity Accelsior SSD blades. The new Accelsior_E2 card features two bootable 6Gb/s expansion interfaces for connecting eSATA external drives for the highest possible internal and external storage performance.
Three Step Card Trade-Up Program
1. Purchase a $199.99 0GB Mercury Accelsior_E2 card. Customers who purchased the original Accelsior from 1/1/2013 and later can trade in the original card until May 15 and receive a $150 rebate. After May 15 and for customers who purchased the Accelsior 12/31/2012 and earlier, OWC will offer a $100 rebate.
2. Transfer the original Accelsior’s SSD blades to the new E2 card. The original Accelsior SSD blades are 100 percent compatible with the Accelsior_E2 and are Plug and Play easy to install by following OWC’s ‘how-to’ video and ‘how-to’ guide.
3. Send in the original card to receive rebate check. Visit www.macsales.com/rebates for complete details.
Upgrade Blade Capacity to Maximize Original Accelsior Investment
Originally introduced at the 2012 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show, the Accelsior has been well received by computer users, praised on technology performance sites like macperformanceguide.com and barefeats.com, and awarded a Gold Stevie at the 2012 American Business Awards.
A key feature of the Accelsior is the ability to utilize larger Mercury Accelsior SSD blades when capacity needs increase. The OWC Accelsior Trade-Up Program provides an easy blade upgrade path of up to 960GB of SSD capacity and offers a cash back rebate up to $300 for the original blades. Accelsior SSD Trade-Up blades are immediately available in the following capacities:
Accelsior_E2 Also Available as Complete Solution
A Plug and Play, ready to run Mercury Accelsior_E2 PCIe SSD card is also available for immediate ordering in the following dual Mercury Accelsior blade SSD capacity configurations:
- 120GB (2 x 64GB for 128GB total flash) $319.99
- 240GB (2 x 128GB for 256GB total flash) $479.99
- 480GB (2 x 256GB for 512GB total flash) $749.99
- 960GB (2 x 512GB for 1.0TB total flash) $1,329.99
Speeds Up Booting, App Launches, and Intensive Processes
By utilizing the fastest data interface currently available in a Mac Pro or PC — the PCIe slot — the Accelsior_E2 offers nearly 3x the performance vs. a SSD in a SATA 2.0 3Gb/s drive bay with data rates up to 820MB/s. With speed well beyond 6Gb/s, owners of PCs and Apple Mac Pros can stop waiting for I/O-intensive apps like Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, or Avid Pro Tools to render, capture or process, as well as experience near instantaneous booting and application launches.
Adds Faster Than Factory Interface to Mac Pros
Featuring two 6Gb/s eSATA expansion interfaces, the Accelsior_E2 offers file transfer and backup speeds up to 6x as fast—600MB/s—than the fastest Mac Pro factory offered interface of FireWire 800, which offers up to 100MB/s speed. The two eSATA ports are fully bootable and ideal for a variety of application requirements, enabling up to 32TB or more of additional external drive capacity.
Use with Thunderbolt Equipped Apple MacBooks, iMacs, Mac mini, and PCs Too
The Accelsior_E2 isn’t just for Mac Pros. By utilizing an external PCIe expansion chassis equipped with Thunderbolt technology, such as the OWC Mercury Helios, the performance benefits of the Accelsior_E2 can also be enjoyed by customers with Mac or PC machines with the Thunderbolt interface.
Connect Single Solutions or Create RAID Array
Fully compatible with 1.5Gb/s, 3Gb/s, and/or 6Gb/s external drives, the Accelsior_E2 offers two eSATA storage expansion interfaces. Each interface can connect to a variety of OWC and NewerTech single and dual drive RAID solutions and other brand eSATA interface equipped solutions. By using Apple Disk Utility or SoftRAID with Macs, or various software RAID applications for PCs, customers can even create a RAID array between two connected drives.
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The restriction on the Accelsiors is only present if you plan on installing Windows onto the Accelsior. If you are installing Windows onto another drive in the MacPro than you can have more than 1 Accelsior installed without issue.
Thank you for offering the upgrade/rebate program.
I have 2 of the original Accelsior cards, purchased day 1.
I have also purchased a new Accelsior_e2 card & have all 3 cards installed for OS X.
I am considering another upgrade but the “Compatibility” details posted give me cause to ask for clarification first:-
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Dual Accelsior_E2 Usage
The use of two or more Accelsior_E2 SSDs requires OS X 10.6.8 or later.
Bootcamp
To boot Windows via Bootcamp on Accelsior_E2, only one Accelsior_E2 SSD can be installed.
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As I understand it, the only difference expressed between the original & the e2 version of the card is the addition of the2 eSata ports. Performance/compatibility wise we should expect at least the same from the e2 cards as the original Accelsior cards.
However, I can, & do run Windows on my Mac Pro almost daily – have been since the first day of installing the 2 original Accelsior cards. (I also reboot & run OS X on the Mac Pro daily.)
To be clear, contrary to the “Compatibility” notes for the e2, I *am* currently able to boot into Windows (hosted on an internal SATA SSD) via bootcamp whether I use the 2 original Accelsior cards or the new e2 card plus an original Accelsior card.
If I upgrade one or both of the original Accelsior cards to e2 cards if the “Compatibility” restriction is accurate then I will no longer be able to boot Windows.
Is this a real restriction specific to the e2 revision?
Depending on your response I will either upgrade the whole card+SSD modules or just upgrade SSD modules to retain my existing functionality, or perhaps leave things alone at this point.
Thanks for any clarification you can provide.
The restriction on the Accelsiors is only present if you plan on installing Windows onto the Accelsior. If you are installing Windows onto another drive in the MacPro than you can have more than 1 Accelsior installed without issue.