OWC Refreshes Mercury Elite Pro DAS: Up to 16 TB over USB 3.2
by Anton Shilov on March 25, 2020 2:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- OWC
- DAS
- HDD
- Mercury Elite Pro DAS
OWC has announced a new version of its Mercury Elite Pro DAS, the company's entry-level external storage box. The refreshed DAS can house one 3.5-inch hard drive, allowing it to provide capacities of up to 16 TB using today's HDDs.
The OWC Mercury Elite Pro DAS is available in 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB, 6 TB, 8 TB, 12 TB, 14 TB, and 16 TB versions. The devices can be stacked, so those who need greater capacities can easily get it. All the SKUs are powered by 7200 RPM hard drives, so they offer a rather decent level of performance, up to 283 MB/s, which is good enough for music, videos, photos, and business files. Externally, the DAS has a USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface with up to 5 Gbps throughput.
The Mercury Elite Pro DAS comes in a brushed aluminum chassis with venting, so it does not rely on active cooling, making the hard drive inside the only major noise source.
OWC’s new entry-level DAS is compatible with Apple macOS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Sony PlayStation 4, Xbox consoles, and Smart TVs. In addition, they are support Apple Time Machine and Windows File History backups.
OWC has already started sales of the Mercury Elite Pro. Just the enclosure itself is priced at $49, a 2 TB SKU costs $129, whereas the top-of-the-range 16 GB module carries a $579 price tag.
Related Reading:
- OWC Launches ThunderBay 4 Mini DAS: 4 SATA Bays With SoftRAID, Up to 1.5 GB/s
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dock / DAS Combo: TB3, up to 28 TB, USB 3.0, DP, GbE, SD
- OWC’s Intros Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock with 10 GbE, USB 3.0, eSATA, Card Readers & More
- OWC Unveils Second-Gen ThunderBlade External SSDs: 2800 MB/s Starting at $799
Source: OWC
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Freeb!rd - Wednesday, March 25, 2020 - link
"OWC Refreshes Mercury Elite Pro DAS: Up to 16 TB over USB 3.2"but still Gen 1 = 5 Gb/s, which equals my 3 year old usb 3.1 drive caddy, now maybe if they had Intel throw some 16GB Optane cache drives embedded in for "free" it would be a decent "Refresh".
AdditionalPylons - Thursday, March 26, 2020 - link
I came here to write that as well.Suggestion for AnandTech: skip the USB version and write USB 5Gbps instead.
genzai - Wednesday, March 25, 2020 - link
And this is a shining example of how bad the new USB-IF naming is and how it can be abused. The only update here is to the marketing material. No USB-C, no speed improvement- in fact its probably the exact same chipset. but now its USB 3.2!! F-off!g\
repoman27 - Wednesday, March 25, 2020 - link
No, this is an example of AnandTech having a completely crap headline.Look at the linked page from OWC’s site. The single mention of USB 3.2 in the Quick Specs section clearly states “USB 3.2 (5Gb/s)” and is in smaller text following the actual sequential performance numbers for the drive.
Garbage reporting and a lack of style guides—even from otherwise first-rate sites like AnandTech—are the primary factors leading to consumer confusion.
It’s unreasonable to cite abuse by OWC or the USB-IF in this instance.
Qasar - Thursday, March 26, 2020 - link
ever think that like other pipe line stories, AT can only report and write up, what they are given ? i think this has been stated in other pipe line stories, like the lack of pricing info, for examplerepoman27 - Thursday, March 26, 2020 - link
The headline should clearly indicate the actual device capabilities or not include the USB specification version number at all, just as the page that the article links to does.AnandTech should have a style guide that determines how its writers refer to device capabilities for the sake of clarity and consistency. I realize the pipeline pieces are often quick takes based on press releases, but I imagine AT still has editorial control of the copy they publish.
damianrobertjones - Thursday, March 26, 2020 - link
Good God man! Please use capitals at the start of your meanderings.Destoya - Wednesday, March 25, 2020 - link
Still can't fathom why some of these external bays dont use USB-C PD, especially ones like here that are targeted at Mac owners. It's more than enough to power a 3.5" drive but there are literally none on the market at the moment.The requirement of an external barrel connector power brick seems like such a step back.
Zertzable - Wednesday, March 25, 2020 - link
Probably because USB-C is an unfortunate mess?extide - Wednesday, March 25, 2020 - link
I don't think I have ever seen a laptop that supports USB-PD as a "host" -- afaik they all only supply 5V out. Although, yes, it would be a great idea otherwise.