OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE 400GB Solid State Drive (SSD)

2010-07-11 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: Other World Computing, RAID, RAID-0, SSD

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE enterprise SSD

Just on the market is the new OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE 400GB solid state drive.

Laptop users looking for a single drive should be looking at the 480GB model, but anyone looking for the ultimate MPG Pro Laptop will want two of these puppies installed for an 800GB double-speed volume (I currently run dual 200GB models = 400GB in my MacBook Pro, which is plenty of space for me).

I received two samples for testing, and I tested them both as single drives, and in a RAID-0 stripe.

Readers have inquired about Apple’s 512GB SSD. My response is “caveat emptor”. Solid state drives are definitely not equivalent (though all of them are expensive), many of them start slower, degrade quickly and some just fail outright.
Read my report.

The OWC Mercury Extreme line is the best choice on the market today for Mac users.

400 vs 480GB

Like the other 50/100/200GB Mercury Extreme Pro RE models, the 400GB version is a RAID-ready model with 28% over-provisioning that supports intensive 24 X 7 usage in heavy duty environments.

Mercury Extreme Pro RE = RAID-0 ready for extreme heavy duty usage, 28% over-provisioning
Mercury Extreme Pro = not intended for RAID, 7% over-provisioning with 20% higher capacity

The 60/120/240/480GB Mercury Extreme Pro line has 7% over-provisioning, which is still 7% more than most brands, and still very robust. With 20% more capacity, that’s the smart move for single-drive use (prices are similar). But if you are thinking of moving to RAID-0 striping for more performance or capacity, then stick with the RE line.

Performance

Read the review of the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE 400GB.

OWC Extreme Pro RE 400GB vs 200GB single drive speed on Mac Pro Nehalem