Review of OWC Mercury On the Go Portable Disk

Long have Slashdot Editors made known the fact that we'll review pretty much any interesting gadget shipped our way. This week we have the OWC "Mercury On-The-Go", a 2.5" external hard drive featuring FW800 and USB2 ports and available in 40 to 160gb flavors. Read on for my review of the drive.

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.

Comments

Screw That

[brunes69]

Just buy an external IDE enclosure for $15 bucks anywhere. You can pop a 320 GB drive in that for a fraction of the price of this thing. Plus it is upgradeable.

If you want a smaller drive just do as above but with a 2.5" laptop drive enclosure.

My version of on-the-go data

[dada21]

I love my T-Mobile EDGE wireless network service (via my phone to my laptop). It doesn't work well for huge files, but I work with mostly small files and if I need to access a large database or app, I just VNC into my office PC.

I see no purpose in my life for huge files anymore -- most everything I do is web oriented. Rather than spend $450 for a gigantic drive, that $450 pays for almost 2 years of service which is always getting faster.

Do other people see the time preference and money savings in slimming down their data and finding better ways to access it on-the-go as needed? There are more open WiFi points and the $40 it costs for me to drop a user WiFi point at my various places of work is still much cheaper than buying a portable drive, let alone the hassles of carrying yet another dongle/fob/accessory.

Re:My version of on-the-go data

[dada21]

You've discovered some amazing new way to compress porn?

One of the benefits of having a gorgeous lady of the house is the lack of need for porn :)

On the other hand, I have heard from many married men that the absolute opposite is true, but I have my own opinions why that's the case.

Not to sound like an asshole

[Donniedarkness]

I'm not trying to complain here or anything, but how is this special? It's just an overpriced external HD, right (and it is DEFINATELY overpriced, if that's all it is).

Why not just buy an external IDE enclosure? Do it yourself, that way you can change the HD and upgrade it later (if you need extra space).

power

[Qwavel]

I've bought quite a few 2.5" HD's and put them in cheapo USB enclosures. They all work fine without any external power. Why would I pay much more money for a unit that's much less portable (because it requires me to carry around a power supply)?

Here's a better solution

[Rob_Bryerton]

Get a MacAlly 2.5 enclosure from NewEgg (or your favorite vendor) for ~$30, and use a 2.5 HD of your choosing. This is a very nice aluminum enclosure, supports FW400 & USB 2, and is powered off the connector you use (FW *OR* USB)...no external power needed. Affordable, sturdy, attractive (for a HD case), dissipates heat, no power adapters.

I carry one in my laptop bag, and it constantly comes in handy. As far as FW800 goes, why would this be useful for a run of the mill 2.5 IDE drive? Thay can only transfer ~20MB/s from the platters, so FW800 is overkill. USB2 & FW400 are just fine for this application.

FWIW, I'm not affiliated w/these companies I mentioned, just a happy customer.

Roll your own?

[retro128]

A power adapter? You've got to be kidding - Most external 2.5" HD enclosures can be powered by the USB bus itself. Plus, you are paying some company to take a drive, put it in a case, and slap their name on it. Why does this unit have Firewire 800 anyway? FW400 is faster than any laptop drive can go...And, besides, is Firewire REALLY necessary when just about every computer under the sun has USB 2.0 now? Besides, USB2.0 can also sustain transfer rates greater than most single hard drives can dish out. So why not roll your own enclosure?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16817145329
$18.99

Or if you really, really want firewire:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16817146035

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16822148073
How about a 160GB for $329

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16822146047
Or a 7200RPM 80GB for $145?

So ask yourself - Is a clear case and a Firewire 800 interface really worth the extra $100?