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OWC Dual-drive Features

2011-01-31 • SEND FEEDBACK •

Related: backup, hard drive, Other World Computing, RAID, SSD, storage, USB

For users that need the maximum space, note that the Mercury Elite-AL Pro supports 1TB + 1TB drives, but the GMax Mini maxes-out at 750GB + 750GB.

My recommended hard-drive configuration for best value and best performance is the 750GB + 750GB.

For maximum performance and truly silent operation, the SSD option is slick.

	Guardian MAXimus Mini	Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual Mini
Max capacity	750GB + 750GB	1.0TB + 1.0TB
RAID-0, RAID-1	yes	yes
Power switch	no	yes
Drive status	via front-panel LED readout	via blue/red LEDs
Menu system	via front-panel LED readout	none
Bus powered	Firewire 800/400 port (USB and eSATA cannot be bus-powered)	Firewire 800/400 port (USB and eSATA cannot be bus-powered)
External power supply included	yes	NO, but FW800 power cable included
Fanless	yes	yes
Noise level	silent with SSDs drive noise with hard drives	silent with SSD, drive noise with hard drives
Stacking friendly	yes, but form factor not as stable for stacking	very stable flat form factor
LED front readout and menus	yes	no
Weight (dual Seagate 750GB)	693g	809g
Weight (dual 200GB SSD)	did not check this configuration	746g

There is room for future improvements:

Both units would be more compelling with USB 3.0 instead of sluggish USB 2.
For SSD performance, SATA 6G would be a huge boost in performance; SATA 3 Gb/sec can just barely support a single SSD, let alone dual SSDs.
A port multiplication interface would allow the computer to see independent drives for a variety of other possibilities (eg two independent drives, software RAID, etc).
Would be nice if the Elite-AL Pro Mini also included the external power supply.
The Elite AL-Pro Dual Mini had no documented way in the printed manual to switch between RAID-0 and RAID-1 (the GMax Mini has it in its menu system and printed manual). I was able to make it switch modes by deducing the position of the DIP switches internally, but this should be properly documented in the manual (update: OWC says the manual will be updated to address this).

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