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Review of OWC Mercury On the Go Portable Disk
I plugged it into my PowerBook using the included USB cable Since the device didn't immediately mount, I guessed I needed power too- I was disappointed, but not exactly surprised. Another dive into the box revealed a firewire and power cable. Oh, and a one page "Manual" and CD. Seconds later I was off and running.
The back of the the drive tells the story: 2 FireWire 800 ports, one USB 2.0 Port, a power switch, and a power plug. The case is transparent. Of course that means all you see is a boring old hard drive. I sorta wanted to just use it upside down- the bottom of a hard drive is more aesthetically interesting than the top.
The drive arrived Mac formatted, and shipped with a bunch of wacky stuff on it, including the old Ellen Feiss Apple ad, and a directory with a slew of high quality disk icons. I'll be honest- I'm obsessive about things like drive icons. I make sure that my iPod icon is the correct version of the iPod on my desktop, or when I mount my digital camera or PSP, the icons match the device. So while I'm sure the vast majority of users would simply blow away the folder, I find touches like this very nice.
The Mercury comes with a little carrying case too. Nothing to write home about really. The unit itself is quite small- almost exactly the same size as my Nintendo DS. Unfortunately the case must also carry the power supply which makes the whole thing much larger.
I've used a number of external storage devices, and performance was roughly as I would expect. Since it's an external drive, read/write performance is really more about cabling than anything else. It took 3:36 to copy 3 gigs of data over USB, and 2:24 to copy the same 3 gigs over FW800. The upside is that the FW800 cable provides power- I was able to mount the drive without use of extra power cables.
So without further ado, I present to you my executive summary:
- It looks nice. Nothing spectacular, just nice.
- USB2 is slower and requires an external power supply
- A good choice for FW800 support.
- $150 for the 40GB version up to $450 for the 160GB version.
My struggle with this drive is really the "Why"? It occupies an incredibly expensive niche between "Portable" and "Large".
If vast storage is what you need, with less portability, a 320GB external USB drive can be had for around $150-200. Less mobile to be sure, but twice the storage for just over a third the price. I've included a photo of the Mercury with a Gameboy DS and iPod just to give you a sense of the scale of the whole thing.
The Mercury On-the-go isn't going into your shirt pocket: especially if you are using the USB connection and lugging the external power adapter. If what you really crave portability, a 60GB iPod is way smaller, doesn't require an external power supply, and runs like $400.
On the other hand, if you need 100-160 gigs, and plan to use a FW800 cable, this is a reasonable, but pricey option. It does exactly what you would expect in an external hard drive. It's quick, easy, and simple. It just doesn't seem cost effective to me.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oi d=145402&cm_keycode=85
A bigger, yet cheaper option for anyone that is willing to do a mail-in rebate and doesn't need to put it in their pocket.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
The G-Drive may look cooler with its "Rugged Aluminum Enclosure" and leather carrying case, but the OWC has FW800+USB2.0 and the G-Tech only has FW400+USB2.0. I wasn't able to find cache sizes, but I'm willing to bet G-Tech only has 8MB available. Here are some prices comparisons I put together (correct me if I made a mistake):
40GB(5400)
- OWC (16MB Cache)- $149.99
- GTech - $149.00
60GB(7200)- OWC - $219.99
- GTech - $249.00
80GB(5400)- OWC (16MB Cache)- $219.99
- GTech - $219.00
80GB(7200)- OWC - $249.99
- GTech - $299.00
100GB(5400)- OWC - $249.99
- OWC (16MB Cache) - $259.99
- GTech - $269.00
100GB(7200)- OWC - $299.99
- GTech - $359.00
160GB(5400)Pretty damn good if you ask me!
--
"Man Bites Dog
Then Bites Self"
Capitalism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called fascism.
Aside from previous posts alluding to this, was the audience considered when doing this review? Don't many /.ers go out of their way to buy something that they can put together themselves? The obvious /. answer (as covered in other posts) is to buy a cheap drive and corresponding enclosure.
Now, if the drive did something else cool, say was a combination drive/electric shaver, IMHO, we would start drooling over something like this. However, run-of-the-mill junk like this is something that could just as easily be bought at Wal-Mart, CostCo etc. by someone too afraid and unknowledgable to do it themselves.
With all that said, let's see some stuff that matters...like a combo drive/electric shaver.
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
...to use the enclosures with combinations of certain higher-power laptop drives and certain computers that don't supply enough power to a single USB port. As most laptop drives are ~1A and the USB spec is 500mA this can end up being quite a few. I know I have to use the Y cable with my laptop (as the USB2 port is on a PC card) and my Shuttle, but don't need to use it on a computer in work.
With a Y-cable you will never need an external power supply, which is very handy and the key difference between a 2.5" and a 3.5" drive - far less to lug around.
Of course the point is moot if you are using Firewire which provides enough power for any laptop drive.
As someone who has done business with OWC for the last eight years I just want to say that they've been great. I've ordered everything from software to RAM to processor upgrades from them and never had a problem. Once I got a couple of bad sticks of RAM (in an order of 50) and they were replaced promptly and without a problem.
Just buy an external IDE enclosure for $15 bucks anywhere.
Where are you buying these for $15? I'm paying $17 just for a decent drive sled at NewEgg and the decent enclosures are in the neighborhood of $35 there.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)