Severe duty test: OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 240GB vs Intel 160GB G2

Solid state drives (SSDs) vary widely widely in performance, but the real stick in the eye is the poor performance with use that some of them have— science fair projects sold to a gullible public.

Following up on my previous longevity test (Crucial vs OWC), just added is a similar test, this time using the new OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 240GB SSD comparing it to the Intel 160GB G2. Read the report.

The 240GB Mercury Extreme Pro is a new model (May 2010), very similar to the 200GB Mercury Extreme Pro RE. The main difference is 28% over-provisioning for the Extreme Pro RE model, and 7% over-provisioning for the Extreme Pro model, the idea being that intensive RAID use under 24 X 7 heavy duty applications deserves more set-aside for error correction and bad blocks.

For the vast majority of users with a single SSD, 7% over-provisioning is ample, yielding 20% more usable capacity at a slightly lower price eg 240GB instead of 200GB. Remember, 7% over-provisioning is 7% more than most SSDs!

Either the Pro or the Pro RE models are great choice for the MPG Pro Workstation or MPG Pro Laptop, depending on workload and/or whether RAID-0 striping is used.

Click to read the report.

Click to read the report