The Enterprise Class SSD For The Rest Of Us

Being in the Product Development Department at OWC means I get my hands on a large amount of product you see listed on our site (as well as some you don’t). Any loyal OWC blog follower will be quick to realize that this is my first blog post. The reason for that is here in Product Development, we’re BUSY  testing, documenting, benchmarking, researching, and most importantly…brainstorming products! All done in an effort to be sure you get the highest quality products priced competitively.

Now, I’m no stranger to Solid State Drives (SSD). I’ve spent many long hours putting various manufacturers’ drives through their paces and let me assure you, not all SSD’s are created equal. We knew going into this project that only the fastest, longest lasting, and most power efficient SSD could bear the OWC name. After spending months and months testing our new OWC Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD, I am excited to finally say: we have that drive!

Install one of these as your boot drive and you’ll instantly fall back in love with your Mac or PC. Booting in mere seconds, applications launch instantaneously, and your machine will run quieter and cooler then ever before. Graphics/Web design firms, Audio/Video recording studios, IT/Data Center environments, and day to day users all stand to gain an enormous performance boost using this drive.

After we installed it in a 2009 Mac Pro 2.93GHz Quad Core with 8GB OWC RAM using an Icy Dock 2.5″ to 3.5″ Converter Tray, we recorded consistent over 260MB/s write and 270MB/s read tranfer rates, making this one of the (if not THE) fastest SATA II 2.5″ SSD’s on the planet!!! Have a look at the performance benchmarks for yourself.

So, I know what you’re thinking: “speed is great but, I’ve read about (or experienced) major performance degradation over time with current SSD technology or even worse, data corruption.”

This is where SandForce® DuraClass™ technology steps in. It incorporates a number of technological advancements including ultra-efficient block management, state-of-the-art wear leveling, intelligent “recycling” for advanced free space management, RAISE™ (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) technology, and the highest level of Error Correction Code (ECC). These technologies work together in unison to give you maximum performance and reliable data protection for years to come. They also attribute to the amazing 10 million operating hour overall life rating of this drive.

We are so confident in these new technologies that we back every Mercury Extreme Enterprise SSD with a 5 year warranty. With prices starting at $229.99, Enterprise class performance and reliability is more affordable then ever!

One last thought, these drives are certified for use in all RAID configurations and if I might make a suggestion…two of these drives Stripped (RAID 0) together inside any Mac Pro using the Icy Dock 2.5″ to 3.5″ Converter Trays will give you UNREAL performance…over 540MB/s read and 529MB/s write transfer speeds!

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