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Vote for TUAW’s Best of 2011 Products

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

The Unofficial Apple Weblog is currently collecting nominations for their TUAW Best of 2011 Awards. We were quite tickled when even in their post asking for nominations they first mused, “Will one of OWC’s fast SSDs take home the award?” With your help, our loyal customers, we think that is a great possibility.

However, it got us thinking… proud as we are of our super-fast 6Gb/s Solid State Drives, there are so many other new products that we’ve released this year that could certainly be “Best of 2011″ worthy.

As aforementioned, we introduced several 6Gb/s capable SSDs this year:

But there were so many more contenders as well, such as the:

And who can forget all the great Newer Technology brand products that were introduced in 2011: Article Continues…

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Category: Product Spotlight, Random Thoughts & Topics
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Apple’s Latest 2011 MacBook Pro Refresh & Using SATA Revision 3.0 6Gb/s Drives

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 | Author: OWC Larry

As we mentioned last Monday, Apple has released new “speed bumped” MacBook Pro 13″, 15″, and 17″ model laptops. These units all show 6Gb/s link capability for both the main drive bay and the optical bay. Right out of the gate all of these models are proving 100% reliable for use of a SATA Revision 3.0 hard drive or OWC 6G SSD installed into the main drive bay.

Just like the Early 2011 models, while we continue to see reliability with 6Gb/s in the optical bay of the 13″ model - the optical bays of the 15″ and 17″ models remain too unstable for 6Gb/s drive use. Although still unstable in the 15″ and 17″, the optical bay SATA signal has improved considerably and we are looking into possibilities that might make 6Gb/s in this bay reliable. Article Continues…

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Category: Benchmarking/Performance, Fresh from Apple
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Upgrade Your 06-08 Mac Pro’s Internal Bays to SATA 3.0

Friday, October 14th, 2011 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Most of the time, your average Mac has a longer useful life than its PC counterpart. Unfortunately, the fast evolution of technology means that, after a while, that older Mac may seem a little slow and may not be able to take full advantage of current tech.

Such is the case for earlier Mac Pros. As they currently sit, they only move data at SATA 2.0  speeds, roughly three gigabits per second. If you wish to put the drives in to a RAID array, you are limited to either a mirrored RAID 1, losing half your capacity, or a RAID 0, which is faster, but increases the risk of data loss. On top of that, those RAID levels are all software-based, which can reduce overall performance.

Fortunately, if you happen to have a 2006-2008 Mac Pro, you can improve the performance in those bays, with only one small thing to lookout for. Article Continues…

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Category: Product Spotlight, Tech Tips
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OWC’s FireCracker Specials Through July 4th Independence Day!

Friday, July 1st, 2011 | Author: OWC Larry

Four days of 4th of July Savings!

First off – delivery options start as low as $1.95 with free delivery available for orders $159.99 and up. Customers that use the Amazon Checkout option offered on our site also qualify for an OWC Exclusive of up to $50 of instant savings!

All our Featured Specials are good through July 4th, 2011

Specials include:

And more…

And there are also our ‘regular’ featured specials with more too:

The July 4th ‘FireCracker’ Specials end after July 4th – Limited time only…

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!

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Category: Special OWC Deals
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MacBook Pro 2011 Models and SATA 3.0 (6.0Gb/s) – Update – 5/27/2011

Friday, May 27th, 2011 | Author: OWC Larry

Since we first looked at a potential fix for problems with SATA 3.0 operation in the main bay of the 2011 MacBook Pros on April 15, we’ve learned much more.

It’s not so sweet at this point, but I will at least try to keep it as short as possible.

Before going any further, I do want to be clear that, while I believe the issues noted should be and will be resolved, Apple makes no advertisement—in specification or otherwise—that creates any obligation for them to fix the issues noted. Again, I do believe they will… I also believe it is in everyone’s best interest that they do fix it, with respect to the incredible performance that our SSDs unleash in these fantastic MacBook Pro 2011 models. If we’re lucky, it will be a fix handled via some software update; it would seem more likely to require a hardware adjustment, but we’ll see. FWIW, our shielding kit does make a difference for some, but not all, as there is just significant enough variability in the issue which means it ultimately needs to be resolved by Apple themselves.

Ok… To the details… Article Continues…

This post has 197 comments.
Category: Benchmarking/Performance
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NewerTech Announces AdaptaDrive Bracket For Installing 2.5″ SATA HD or SSD In 3.5″ Drive Bay Equipped Desktop Mac, PC, or External Enclosure

Monday, May 23rd, 2011 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Newer Technology, Inc. announced today the NewerTech AdaptaDrive converter bracket for installing any capacity size 2.5″ SATA hard drive or Solid State Drive in a 3.5″ SATA drive bay equipped desktop Mac, PC or external enclosure.

The NewerTech AdaptaDrive is available immediately from NewerTech’s exclusive distributor, Other World Computing, as well as through the retail channel.

Works With All 2.5” Drives, Including Latest SATA ‘6G’ 6Gb/s SSDs
The AdaptaDrive supports Article Continues…

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Category: New @ OWC, Press Releases
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Which OWC SSD Is Right For You?

Friday, May 6th, 2011 | Author: OWC Grant

With the recent announcement of the new OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSD, you may be wondering whether you should go with this latest addition to our SSD line or whether to stick with the original Mercury EXTREME Pro SSD. They both sound great, have won various awards, and are built with the highest quality components and processes available.

The question is: which should you to choose?

OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro:
Extraordinary Speed For All Types Of Users

Whether you’re a ‘regular’ or ‘power’ user, the original Mercury EXTREME Pro handles multiple needs extremely well. From opening and working with multiple apps in a blink of an eye to saving large Photoshop files, the speed and productivity gains will simply amaze you. This drive is based on the SATA 2.0 Revision (3Gb/s) bus interface, so it offers the highest level of performance attainable with most Macs and PCs. We even offer a Legacy model line based on the IDE/ATA data bus so you can ‘tune up’ that tried and true desktop or notebook and have it running better than when it was new! Article Continues…

This post has 42 comments.
Category: Product Spotlight
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Firmware Update Enables 6Gb/s in 2011 iMacs.

Thursday, May 5th, 2011 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Well… that was quick! Just two days after they were released, the 2011 iMacs have a firmware update.

While iMac EFI Update 1.6 is described as including “fixes that improve performance and stability for Thunderbolt,” it would also seem that an unadvertised benefit is that it also unlocks the full 6Gb/s, SATA 3.0 capabilities of two of the internal drive bays.

Unfortunately, the optical bay remains at 3Gb/s.

We’ll be doing some testing and posting some numbers to show the speed differences, and posting them as soon as we get them, so hang tight.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, it appears there’s also an update for the 2011 MacBook Pros, which includes “fixes that resolve an issue with Turbo Mode in Boot Camp, and improve performance and stability for graphics and Thunderbolt.” No word on if it addresses any issues with 6Gb/s SATA in the main hard drive bays of the 17” model.

This post has 34 comments.
Category: Fresh from Apple, Tech Tips
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