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Review – Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSD in MacBook Pro

Monday, February 6th, 2012 | Author: Guest Blogger

by Gerd N., OWC Customer

There are very compelling reasons to upgrade your current MacBook Pro. While my MacBook Pro is still a 2011 model with 8GB of RAM, I always felt that it could be a bit faster. Even with the 7200RPM Toshiba drive fitted, IO operations felt sluggish (even more so after installing the OWC) and I wanted to see if a SSD would make a big difference.

The 30-day return promise from OWC made the choice of the Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSD 480 GB drive an easy choice. When it comes to SSD options, not many companies provide reasonable pricing like OWC, let alone a 5 year warranty on their products – pricing is steep at USD 1,000.00 but the results are overwhelming and worth it.

My MacBook Pro supports 6Gb/s SATA out of the box, and although the System Profiler does not show TRIM support, this is not an issue, as the OWC SSDs have TRIM support built-in.

Installation of the drive is as simple as Article Continues…

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Category: Product Spotlight
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OWC Radio #63 – The Post-CES Show

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 | Author: OWC Michael, OWC Mike H., OWC Grant, and OWC Chris S.

We’re home from the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show and while some might be a little worse for wear, it was a great show. Join us as we discuss what we introduced, what we saw, and what we think this year in electronics is going to bring.

OWC Radio is a monthly, forum-based podcast focused on the events and happenings in the Mac community. This week’s hosts are: OWC Grant, OWC Chris S., and OWC Mike H.

Article Continues…

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Category: OWC Radio
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CES 2012 Rewound, Recapped, and Reviewed

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 | Author: OWC Grant

Our second year at CES was a big success and while you may have read other sources’ accounts of the show, I thought you might (since you likely are a regular reader and interested in all things OWC) like a summary from our perspective.

Now, if you’ve never been to a show of this magnitude before, I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s not the party some lead you to think it is! We’re up early and reviewing info on all our new product introductions. Then we’re on the floor for eight hours straight (we don’t take lunch break – we’ve got an adoring public to serve!). Then, after dinner, it’s back to our “regular” work until we get the necessary three hours of sleep. ;-)

So, while some perhaps party every night until dawn, you can rest assured that Team OWC doesn’t lose its focus.

CES itself experienced a record year… the 2012 show was the largest in the event’s 44 year history with a record number of more than 3,100 exhibitors across the largest show floor the convention has ever had — 1.861 million net square feet of exhibit space. It’s a good thing that the show floor was bigger, as CES drew record attendance with 153,000 seekers of gadgets and gizmos. Article Continues…

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Category: Product Spotlight, Random Thoughts & Topics
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Ship Your Computer Safely

Thursday, January 12th, 2012 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

You know it’s happened to you. Your laptop starts acting up and you need to send it in, but you got rid of the original box years ago. Perhaps you got it as a hand-me-down or off of Craigslist and never had the box in the first place. So what are you going to do?

Sure, you could go and get a box from the post office and fill it with styrofoam peanuts or bubble wrap, but when it comes down to it, the protection you get with that is “okay” at best.

Well, we have a solution for you: the OWC Universal Laptop Carton. With all the upgrade services, refurb units, and general repair of laptops over the years, we’ve learned a few things about the best way to pack a laptop for shipping. We’ve taken that info and put together a shipping carton specifically designed for the transport of laptops.

A durable singlewall corrugated box (capable of withstanding the Edge Crush Test up to 44lbs/in) to protects against the rigors of transit. Next, three layers of foam cushion your laptop during transit, and can be custom sized to fit both the computer and any accessories you may have. Finally, a heavy duty plastic sleeve is there to protect against any remaining environmental hazards that may have made their way through.

Nobody likes having to ship their laptop somewhere, but with the OWC Universal Laptop Carton, at least you can be sure it’s protected while it travels.

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Category: Product Spotlight
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OWC Gives a Sneak Peek at new PCIe SSD Card

Thursday, January 12th, 2012 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

While we are not in the habit of announcing products before they’re ready to launch, we decided to let the lid off of this one a little early, as it is quite exciting. We’d like to introduce you to our new PCIe-based SSD.

This card has a “stackable” design, allowing you configure the drive in sizes between 60GB and 2.oTB. This is done using individual miniPCIe daughter cards that attach to the main card. There’s no requirement for all the daughter card slots to be filled at once, which means you can easily expand capacity over time as you need it.

The main card is based around the Marvell 88SE9445 SATA RAID Controller and the individual daughter cards will feature a SandForce 2200 Series controller. It’s compatible with both Mac and PC, and as such, will be the first Mac supported PCIe SSD solution of its kind.

We’ve got more details and performance numbers in the works; stay tuned to the OWC Blog for more information on pricing, performance, and a projected release date in the very near future.

 

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Category: New @ OWC
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OWC Announces Mercury Elite Pro mini as Industry’s First eSATA 6G and Bus-Powered USB 3.0 Portable Storage Solution

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Other World Computing announced today it has expanded its OWC Mercury Elite Pro mini line to include the industry’s first eSATA 6G and bus-powered USB 3.0 portable external drive. Available in 13 different hard drive or OWC Mercury SSD-equipped capacity configurations up to 1.5TB, the new USB 3.0/2.0 and eSATA 6G “triple interface” model delivers up to 600MB/s data rate storage/backup performance to Mac and PC users in a Plug and Play, mobile footprint. The new Mercury Elite Pro mini and other OWC storage solutions will be shown in Other World Computing’s booth #5231, LVCC North Hall, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which begins today in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Portable and Bus-Powered for Mobile Lifestyles

Measuring a compact 5.5″ L x 3.8″ W x 1.1″ H, the Mercury Elite Pro mini offers portable storage capacity up to 1.5TB – enough space for up to 1.5 million JPEG photos, 750 DVD movies, 115 hours of digital video, or 526,000 MP3 songs – in its fanless, aircraft grade brushed aluminum enclosure. Because it’s bus-powered, the Mercury Elite Pro mini doesn’t require an AC adapter, so it’s ideal for in-the-field business professionals, creative/entertainment professionals, students, and anyone else needing to back up data, transport large files between computers, gain additional storage capacity, and even perform video editing and live music recording.  Article Continues…

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Category: New @ OWC, Press Releases, Product Spotlight
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First Garage Sale of the Year!

Monday, January 9th, 2012 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Well, it’s a busy, busy, busy time of year for us. We’re winding down from the holidays, we’ve got a lot of products being released/announced at CES, and we’re looking forward to Macworld, too. However, we’ve always got time for a great deal, and our Garage Sale Page is chock full of them.

So without any further ado, let’s take a look at what you can find this month:

Act quickly – items are “first come, first served” and of varying limited quantities. Quantities are limited to that which is on hand and items automatically count down and ‘disappear’ as sold out. Sorry… no rain checks.

 

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Category: Special OWC Deals
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New OWC Jupiter mini-SAS Redefines Shared SAN Storage by Harnessing the Simplicity and Performance of mini-SAS Direct Attached Storage

Monday, January 9th, 2012 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Other World Computing announced today its new OWC Jupiter mini-SAS scalable storage solution for small businesses and enterprises utilizing mission critical and creative applications. Built upon the proven mini-SAS interface for speeds up to 24Gb/s using just a single cable connection, the Jupiter family of racks, towers, and hubs combine the highest levels of data sharing performance with the simplicity of direct attached storage (DAS) at up to 5x lower cost of fibre channel infrastructures. The OWC Jupiter mini-SAS will be available by the end of March in a variety of configurations with 8TB Enterprise solution pricing starting at $3,995.00. During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which begins tomorrow in Las Vegas, Nevada, OWC will demonstrate the high performance of the Jupiter mini-SAS in its booth #5231 in the LVCC North Hall.

Centralized Storage = Higher Productivity

Jupiter mini-SAS is a centralized storage solution, which means data is stored in a single location and can be accessed by multiple workstations simultaneously. Sharing content streamlines workflows, eliminates bottlenecks, and the need to duplicate files. By eliminating the need to copy data to multiple users on DAS solutions or searching for files in multiple locations, Jupiter mini-SAS can dramatically increase productivity. Additionally, Jupiter mini-SAS can be configured to provide zoned/allocated drive access privileges so specific workstations and/or servers have exclusive access to specific drives or sets of drives. Article Continues…

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Category: New @ OWC, Press Releases, Product Spotlight
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