Review: OWC Mercury On-The-Go 64GB SSD drive
updated 04:50 pm EDT, Fri October 16, 2009
High speeds balance high cost-per-GB ratio
MacNN has reviewed OWC's Mercury On-The-Go Pro SSD drive. The unit is now available in three sizes: 64GB (reviewed), 128GB and 256GB. The drive utilizes FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 connections, and comes with cables and a carrying case -- an optional AC adapter is available, though the drive generally runs on bus power. Models have no moving parts, storing data in flash memory.
Testing shows the drive to be extremely fast, even compared to an internal SATA-connected Mac Pro hard disk. Sequential reads and writes are competitive, while random reads and writes are exponentially faster.
Due to the newness of the SSD technology, the price-per-gigabyte ratio is much higher than that of a conventional hard drive. Speed and reliability are the general focus of current efforts. Versions of the drive are available from OWC for $300 (64GB), $480 (128GB) and $800 (256GB).
