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OWC

Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini
480GB Bus-Powered Storage Solution

Mac / PC / Chrome / USB 3.1 Gen 2
Portable RAID Powerhouse
Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini is the latest high-performance portable RAID from OWC. Packing dual-drive, USB 3.1 Gen 2 performance into a portable, bus-powered form factor, this is the perfect drive for high demand applications on the go. With ample capacities, no matter where you are, Elite Pro Dual mini delivers the performance and flexibility to meet the most extreme workflow requirements for pros working with rich media content.
RAID for Redundancy. RAID for Performance.
Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini features easily user selectable modes RAID 0 and RAID 1. Choose the configuration that suits your needs. In RAID 0, experience blistering data transfer speeds up to 989MB/s. Or select RAID 1 for greater data redundancy from mirrored disks.
Main Image
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  • Gallery Pic 2
  • Gallery Pic 3
Good Looks meet Great Design.
A rugged aluminum chassis designed for near silent fanless, cooling, keeps your drives protected, cool and quiet everywhere you go. The slimline, side-by-side configuration means Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini fits easily in your laptop or gear bag. And because it's fully bus-powered, Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini is the perfect solution for your portable creative workflow.
Quality You Can Trust
Like all OWC drives, Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini is built to the highest standards of reliability and performance. Because 100% reliability is always the goal, Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini is rigorously quality tested and backed by award-winning U.S. based Technical Support.
  • Sequential read/write (max) performance numbers are based on testing with AJA System Test (4K-Full resolution, 64GB file size, ProRes 4444 (XQ) codec, single file test) on a 2017 iMac Pro (iMacPro1,1).

Product Specifications:

Software Requirements

  • OS (USB 3.1 Gen 1)
    • OS X 10.7 or later
    • Windows 7 or later
    • Chrome OS
  • OS (USB 3.1 Gen 2)
    • macOS 10.12 or later and Thunderbolt 3 interface
    • Windows 8.1 or later
    • Chrome OS
  • Driver
    • Driver not required for OS X
    • Driver not required for Windows
    • Driver not required for Chrome
  • Driver
    • Driver not required for OS X
    • Driver not required for Windows

    • Hardware Requirements

    • Minimum
      • Mac or PC with a USB 3.1 Gen 1 port (Standard-A or Type-C)
    • Recommended (Best Performance)
      • Mac or PC with a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port

    Bootability 1, 2

    • OS X 10.7 or later

    Interface (Chipset) 3

    • (1) USB 3.1 Gen 2 / SATA RAID Controller (ASMedia ASM1352R)

    UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) Compliant

    • Yes

    Standard Mechanism

    • Release Candidate (RC) firmware set

      There are two kinds of firmware for SSDs Mass Production (MP) and Release Candidate (RC). Prior to an MP firmware release, there are beta firmware releases and an RC firmware release. Often, the RC is the same as the MP release, however there can be small changes and bug fixes made between the two. OWC has evaluated the RC for the 6Gb/s SandForce 2281 Processor and found it to be stable with no issues reported during our testing. However, as with any evolutionary product, issues may surface as different usages and configurations are employed and it is important to understand that there will be further updates and revisions.

      Since no firmware update is currently offered for the OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSD, no update page exists. To see the typical steps involved with a self performed field firmware update, please visit our 3Gb/s product update page at: http://eshop.macsales.com/Customized_Pages/Framework.cfm?page=sf_firmware.html

      It is important to note that the current firmware update tool requires the use of Windows XP/Vista/7. OWC is currently working on a Mac OS based update tool, but we do not have an exact availability date.

      240GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD Specifications:

      Specifications

      Controller
      Phison PS3112-S12 with 7% over-provisioning
      NAND
      Synchronous Triple-Level Cell (TLC) 3D NAND Flash
      Form Factor
      2.5-inch 7mm
      Interface
      SATA 6.0 Gb/s
      Capacity
      240GB useable capacity
      Total Flash Memory Components – 256GB
      16GB allocated to real-time data redundancy & error correction
      Formatted Capacity
      224GiB
      RAID Support
      Yes
      SMART Attributes
      Standard attributes supported
      Native Command Queuing
      up to 32 commands
      Manufacturer Model Number
      S3D7P6G240
      RoHS Compliant
      Yes
      Format
      Unformatted (Instructions on formatting here)

      Physical

      Height (max)
      0.7 cm (0.3 in)
      OWC 7mm – 9.5mm Adapter
      1 included (buy additional)
      Width (max)
      7.0 cm (2.8 in)
      Length (max)
      10.0 cm (3.9 in)
      Weight
      77.0 g (0.17 lbs)

      Reliability

      Data Reliability
      Built-in BCH ECC: Up to 66 bits correctable per 1024 bytes
      Nonrecoverable Read Errors
      Less than 1 sector per 1016 bits read

      Performance

      Sequential Reads (Max)
      Up to 550 MB/s
      Sequential Writes (Max)
      Up to 530 MB/s
      Sequential 4K Read
      Up to 100,000 IOPS
      Sequential 4K Write
      Up to 90,000 IOPS

      Power

      Active
      Write: 2000mW (2.0W) Maximum draw

      Environmental (Operating)

      Altitude
      -304.8 m to 3,048.0 m (-1,000 ft to 10,000 ft)
      Temperature (°F)
      32°F to 158°F
      Temperature (°C)
      0°C to 70°C

      Environmental (Non-Operating)

      Altitude
      304.8 m to 12,192.0 m (-1,000 ft to 40,000 ft)
      Temperature (°F)
      -40°F to 185°F
      Temperature (°C)
      -40°C to 85°C

      Acoustics

      Idle (Typical)
      0.0 bels
      Seek (Typical)
      0.0 bels
      • 1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending upon operating environment (typically 5-10% less). The actual total capacity will depend on your own defined file settings/preferences. 
      • In terms of standard gigabytes, 1GiB ≈ 1.074GB and refers to the actual formatted capacity of shown under Mac OS 10.5 or earlier and Microsoft Windows OS.
      2 x 240GB* OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G Solid-state Drives**
      • *1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending upon operating environment (typically 5-10% less). The actual total capacity will depend on your own defined file settings/preferences.

        **OWC reserves the right to replace or upgrade to equivalent or better components.

    RAID Modes Supported

    • Hardware
    • RAID 0, 1, SPAN, and Independent drive mode

    Initial Configuration

    • RAID 0
    • Included Drive Guide software will format the drive for either OS X or Windows

    Power 4

    • Power Supply
      • External UL-listed universal auto-switching
      • AC input: 100 ~ 240V, 50/60Hz
      • DC output:, 12V @ 3A
      • Replacement power supply sold separately
      • Adapter plugs for international use sold separately

    Environment

    • Environmental (Operating)
      • Temperature (°F) 32° — 107°
      • Temperature (°C) 0° — 42°
    • Environmental (Non-Operating)
      • Temperature (°F) &min;40° — 185°
      • Temperature (°C) &min;40° — 85°

    Dimensions

    • Height: 28 mm (1.1 in)
    • Width: 155 mm (6.1 in)
    • Length: 144 mm (5.7 in

    Weight (without drives)

    • 0.6 kg (1.25 lbs.)
    1. Booting in RAID 0, RAID 1, and SPAN mode are supported without limitation.

    2. The following limitations apply when booting in Independent mode: only the disk connected to Port 2 is bootable when both drives are installed. If only one drive is installed, the disk will boot regardless of which port it is connected to. Please check the Assembly Manual & User Guide for more details.

    3. If connecting from a computer with USB 3.1 Gen 1 via Standard-A to USB-C adapter cable, the device will function at USB 3.1 Gen 1 speeds. Currently the Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini is not compatible with the USB-C port on the OWC USB-C Dock. Please connect to one of the USB Standard-A ports instead. Performance is identical on all USB ports on the USB-C Dock.

    4. If your USB-C host supports the USB Power Delivery 2.0 specification, it can bus-power the Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini. Other USB hosts may be able to bus-power this device as well. If you find that your chosen host does not bus-power the device, please use the included power supply.
    Manufacturer provided specifications for Other World Computing p/n MEMDC2SSD0.5 UPC#: 812437023930

    Gallery


    Gallery Pic 1 Gallery Pic 2 Gallery Pic 3

    Includes

    • Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini portable high-performance enclosure
    • 0.5m (18 in) USB Type-C to Type-C cable
    • 0.5m (18 in) USB 3.1 Gen 1 Standard-A to Type-C cable
    • External power supply and power cable1
    • Quick Start Guide
    • Assembly manual & user guide (Download Only)

    1. May be required for certain older (pre-2012 Macs and various PCs) USB 2.0/3.0 Type A models which may not provide the necessary power via bus.

    Customer Ratings

    Write a Review 4.8 / 5 14 out of 14 (100%) reviewers would recommend this product
    Verified Buyer
    Reviewer: skiptv
    Rating: 5/5 Always a Great September 29, 2021 I have purchased many products from OWC, all come with great pricing, and return policy's. I could not be happier with the 1TB Portable Raid Drive, its perfect for my work, allowing me to take a portable high speed drive back an fourth between multiple computers and with the safety of the data because of the Raid.

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 1.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID SSD External Storage Solution.

    Response from OWC, Support September 30, 2021 Very glad to hear! :) Often times there is a problem/issue with having to move information at work from one location to another, and many enclosures can be very bulky. That is why we design a large variety of solutions for people who need something stationary or solutions that can be more mobile. Again we are glad to hear this is working good and hope it continues to work well in the future.
    Verified Buyer
    Reviewer: Don
    Rating: 5/5 Does Just What It Says July 14, 2021 The Mercury Elite Pro Dual is an excellent product for someone looking for simple SSD storage to back files up quickly. Mine holds 1TB and 2TB drives which back up all and parts of my 2TB Mac Mini drive. Installation is simple and took about 20 minutes.

    My one wish is that they made the power switch longer. As it is, it barely protrudes from the back of the case, necessitating a fingernail to switch on/off. It should have been trivially easy to change that design, as I have two other OWC SSD enclosures with easy to reach switches.

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Enclosure.

    Response from OWC, Support July 15, 2021 We are so happy to hear that you are pleased with your new Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini! At this time we are happy to forward on your feedback to our product development team in regard to the power switch in which we would like to thank you for that feedback and for your great review! Thank you for being a OWC customer!
    Verified Buyer
    Reviewer: ajacobs2
    Rating: 5/5 Worked and performed as expected July 8, 2021 Easy Install, fast and does the job period!

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Enclosure.

    Response from OWC, Support July 9, 2021 Glad to hear of your experience, thanks for taking the time to leave your thoughts for us! Enjoy the drive!
    Verified Buyer
    Reviewer: ajkandy
    Rating: 5/5 Low profile, fanless dual-SSD enclosure at a great price June 8, 2021 As an owner of a new Mac mini, I needed an external drive enclosure to add SSDs for work files and Time Machine. I had tried a budget SSD enclosure with a fan that could not be switched off, that was so loud it would be impossible to have Zoom calls without hearing its whine. I went to OWC - which I should have done in the first place - and found this enclosure.

    Sleek, all-metal, fanless, low-profile, and USB bus-powered, it sits on top of my Mini and just...does its job.

    It's as advertised - simple to disassemble and install two 2.5" SATA SSDs inside. A simple rotary switch lets you select between different RAID settings where data is striped across both disks for speed and safety, or to use them as two independent disks.

    It includes an AC adapter but you don't need it if you're using SSDs, only if you're using old-style 2.5" mechanical hard disks.

    I will say I have a few suggestions that would make the design better, and I'd gladly pay $20 more if they implemented them.

    1) I wish it *looked* like the Mac mini. It's nice, but it doesn't really look Apple-y. 2) If the enclosure were the same size as the Mini, maybe it could include a convenient USB-C hub and SD card reader? 3) The blue LEDs are REALLY annoyingly bright and if you're trying to cut your blue light exposure before bedtime, this doesn't help. I kinda wish they'd switch to tiny white lights (again, like Apple uses, laser-drilled into the aluminum) 4) There's a fair number of tiny fiddly screws you need to remove and reinstall to open the case and mount the drives. I rather wish they had gone with a fully toolless design, using snap-in drive mount rails like other makers of RAID enclosures (like QNAP, for instance), and a case that simply spring-latches or has a thumb screw (using captive spring-mount screws) to pop off the lid or slide out the tray.

    As a separate product wish: A) I'd love to see a USB-4 / Thunderbolt version so that I could daisy chain additional enclosures as needed. B) And if we go to Thunderbolt, a Mac mini-sized enclosure could hold 4x NVME PCIe SSDs, which would be awesome for speed-dependent read-write things like audio and video editing.

    That's not to criticize what this little enclosure does AT ALL though. It's solid, excellent value for money. Don't waste your dollars on anything else - go OWC.

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Enclosure.

    Verified Buyer
    Reviewer: Crrraaig Location: State College, PA Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: 3-4 months
    Rating: 5/5 Hidden Jem! October 17, 2020 About to buy my third one of these enclosures. What a great little jem of a external enclosure. I've loaded mine up with affordable 1tb ssd drives in RAID1 (a total price of around $250), for a VERY SAFE storage solution. Speeds are some of the fastest I've ever seen for a RAID1 setup at ~380MB/s for compressible data. Drives are easily read outside of the enclosure - no special formats or filesystems. Solid unit, runs off USB power. Using Windows 10.

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Enclosure.

    Verified Buyer
    Reviewer: Rlay Location: Hawaii Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
    Rating: 5/5 Life saver August 12, 2020 I was running out of room on my MacBook Pro, and this drive solved my problem. Fast reliable drive.

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Solution.

    Reviewer: Onewave Age: 45-54 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
    Rating: 5/5 Thank you OWC! August 5, 2019 This drive is an excellent performer for those who want SSD performance at a reasonable cost. The main concern you should have if you want the maximum speed that this product offers is to have a Thunderbolt 3 port or a USB 3.1 port on the computer you wish to use at the higher speed, many older machines will need a way to utilize USB 3.1, maybe there is a way to convert TB2 to USB 3.1 but I do not know of any at the moment, nor do I see any internet solution... Reason being, you get basically double the speed of a standard USB 3.0 SSD drive! Wonderful Value for $70. I intend to use this drive for Music Recording and Video work on my 2018 Mac Mini, it runs like a champ hooked up to one of the thunderbolt ports.

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Enclosure.

    Verified Buyer
    Reviewer: RobA Location: Orlando, FL Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 3-4 months
    Rating: 5/5 Great Little Enclosure July 29, 2018 I recently bought a USB 3.1 Gen 2 PCI-e card for my aged MacPro tower and with this enclosure housing a couple of SSD's the transfer speeds are really excellent!

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Enclosure.

    Verified Buyer
    Reviewer: John4G Location: Richmond, VA Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: 1-3 months
    Rating: 5/5 great compact RAID external HD January 8, 2018 The device is compact, and runs off my Macbook USB-C port. Very good write speeds, and the RAID 1 capability gives me great security against single drive failure. It also comes with a comprehensive suite of backup and maintenance software. An excellent deal for the price!

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Solution.

    Verified Buyer
    Reviewer: whitby Location: Austin, Texas Age: Over 65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
    Rating: 4/5 Nice product with excellent performance July 15, 2017 This is a tricky product to set up, but once you work through the configuration it works exactly as advertised.

    Fast and will actually work bus powered even though you are warned against it.

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Enclosure.

    Verified Buyer
    Reviewer: pcsnet Location: St. Louis Age: Over 65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: less than a month
    Rating: 5/5 Great product and Great Customer Service June 29, 2017 I received an email yesterday about the garage sale. I saw the drive enclosure. There was only one available. Ordered yesterday morning and it arrived today at noon.

    It was easy to setup. I added my own drives.The enclosed instruction sheet said that OWC software should pop-up. It didn't. I formatted it using Disk Utility. All set for Raid 0. Ran speed tests. Great results.

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from (*) OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Enclosure.

    Verified Buyer
    Reviewer: lastcookie Location: Sarasota Age: 55-65 Experience Level: IT Professional Owned Product: over 6 months
    Rating: 4/5 Very good - one portability issue June 7, 2017 This is a very nice, compact, raid solution. The case is very well built and performance is excellent. My only criticism is the power switch: it is very tiny and recessed making it a real challenge to reach behind and get a fingernail to catch it. No fingernails and you will be reaching for a tool to power it down.

    This is only an issue, IMO, if you plan to move the drive frequently, which I do. Since it is described as being portable I think this is a fair criticism. With a more accessible switch this drive would get my 5 stars,

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 2.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID 7200RPM External Storage Solution.

    Verified Buyer Top 50 Contributor
    Reviewer: joevt Location: Langley, B.C. Age: 35-44 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: less than a month
    Rating: 5/5 Excellent quality and performance March 8, 2017 I wanted to buy a drive that can perform faster than 5 Gb/sec. This USB 3.1 gen 2 device does just that.

    I've tested this in macOS Sierra. The Apple drivers in Mac OS X El Capitan do not support 10 Gb/sec.

    I've connected this device to a AlpineRidge Thunderbolt 3 controller. No issues there.

    I've connected this to a ASMedia 1142 PCIe card from Startech. Half the time, System Information.app would say the speed was "Up to 480 Mb/sec". When this happened, the drive performed at USB 2.0 speeds. The other times, it says "Up to 5 Gb/sec" but the benchmarks I tried showed that it was doing more than 5 Gb/sec. Windows 10 had similar issues, but would sometimes show the connection as 10 Gb/sec. I tried two different USB-C cables (one was a Thunderbolt 3 cable). This may be an issue with the ASMedia chip in general, my PCIe card specifically, Apple's XHCI driver, or a combination. I only have one PCIe card and this one USB 3.1 Gen 2 device to test.

    I used Black Magic Disk Speed Test.app to test the speed. This will get you some quick ballpark numbers:

    USB 2.0 speed: 41.5 MB/s Write, 41.8 MB/s Read USB 3.0 speed: 411.2 MB/s Write, 428.0 MB/s Read USB 3.1 Asmedia 1142: 710.1 MB/s Write, 784.3 MB/s Read USB 3.1 AlpineRidge: 756.3 MB/s Write, 836.5 MB/s Read

    Those numbers were from a Skylake PC (4.6 GHz). The USB 3.1 speed was slightly slower in a Mac Pro 2008 using the Asmedia 1142 PCIe card: 660.3 MB/s Write, 740.5 MB/s.

    For the SSD's, I used two 1.0TB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G.

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Enclosure.

    Verified Buyer Top 250 Contributor
    Reviewer: shortimer Location: Ellington, Connecticut Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: 1-3 months
    Rating: 5/5 RAID done right (USB-C) February 1, 2017 Another well designed product from OWC. Returned two tries with a LaCie Rugged RAID 4TB, which is TB2. This USB-C product from OWC just works. The price AND speed w/ RAID is the best per gigabyte compromise available at this moment. Obviously, this is in conjunction w/ the new MBpro design that only has USB-C ports. Highly recommended, because there just aren't many/any choices out there for bus powered 220mbps speed @ 4TB of memory.

    I would recommend this item to a friend! This review is from 4.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini Portable, Bus-Powered High-Performance USB-C RAID External Storage Solution.

    OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual mini 480GB Bus-Powered Storage Solution Mfr P/N: MEMDC2SSD0.5 OWC SKU: OWCMEMDC2SSD0.5 Dual bay USB 3.1 Gen 2 equipped bus-powered RAID solution 3 Year OWC Limited Warranty Ships: Same Day
    Reviews (14)
    Only $329.99Cyber Saver $229.00
    Add to CartOther World Computing MEMDC2SSD0.5 In Stock, Click to Buy Now
    Additional Capacities: DIY Enclosure
    • 0TB
      • Ships: Same Day
      • Only $84.99
      • Cyber Saver $74.75
    Hard Drive Models
    • 2TB
      • Ships: Same Day
      • OWC Price $249.00
    • 4TB
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      • OWC Price $259.00
    Solid-State Drive Models
    • 480GB
    • 1TB
      • Ships: Same Day
      • Cyber Saver $299.00
    • 2TB
      • Ships: Same Day
      • Cyber Saver $499.00
    • 4TB
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    • 8TB
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