Recording - April 2021 - 22

REVIEW

OWC Mercury Elite Pro
Dual USB-C Drive Enclosure
with 3-Port Hub
A plethora of storage options and connectivity
abound in a well-designed USB-C enclosure
REVIEW BY PAUL VNUK JR.

his past November, we looked at the Thunderbolt 3 Dock, Envoy Pro
EX Thunderbolt 3 SSD, and the ThunderBay 4 from OWC (Other
World Computing). OWC has a 30-year history as one of the premier
destinations for your computer upgrade and storage needs. This month we
bring you the latest OWC storage solution: The Mercury Elite Pro Dual.

OWC Mercury Elite Pro

The OWC Mercury Elite Pro series offers both single and dual-bay aluminum
enclosures. It provides a wide selection
of connectivity options that range from
old-school eSATA and FireWire 800, to
USB 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2/USB-C, as well
as Thunderbolt 2 and 3-if you need to
connect it, OWC has you covered. The
standard Mercury Elite Pro models are
thin single-bay types, while the 9 3/8 " x
3 3/8 " x 5 5/8 " Mercury Elite Pro Dual
enclosures are dual-bay designs made
to house a pair of 2.5 " or 3.5 " HDD or
SSD drives.

Loaded or Bare

The OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual with
3-Port Hub can be ordered as an empty
enclosure that you can fill with your
choice of drives, or pre-loaded with
7200 RPM HDD drives with a combined
capacity from 2TB up to 36TB, or SSD
drives from 1TB to 8TB.
Populating a bare enclosure is a
straightforward procedure, and OWC
offers installation videos on its website,
including RAID setup suggestions. The
enclosure cannot be bus-powered and
utilizes an included external 12v DC
power supply.
22 RECORDING April 2021

To RAID or not to RAID

One primary benefit of a dual enclosure
/ dual drive setup is the RAID option. The
OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual includes a
choice of RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD or Span.
Setup is as simple as turning a recessed
rear dial with a small flathead screwdriver,
and push/holding a recessed button. Front
located LEDs let you know when both
drives are ready and functioning correctly.
RAID 0 is best for speed and offers the
largest capacity. A pair of 2TB drives would
be seen as a single striped 4TB drive. RAID
1 is best for file security and redundant storage, as it mirrors the data equally to both
drives; a pair of 2TB drives will show up on
your computer as a single 2TB drive. Span
is similar to RAID 1 in that a pair of 2TB
drives will be seen as a single 4TB drive, but
rather than spanning the data to each drive
(best for speed), it writes to them sequentially. Finally, JBOD stands for 'just a bunch of
drives' where you can mix and match sizes
and styles; for example, a pair of 2TB drives
will show up as two separate 2TB drives.

Hubba-Hubba

The OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual also
includes a 3-port hub. The USB-C model
OWC sent me includes one USB-C and
two USB 3.2 USB 10GB/s ports.

Also, note that the OWC Mercury
Elite Pro Thunderbolt 2 and Thunderbolt
3 Mercury Elite Pro Dock models also
include port options.

In Use

I formatted the 16TB 7200 RPM model
I was sent for use on my 2013 27 " iMac
and 2019 Mac Mini as a RAID 0 set up
for high-resolution audio streaming and
video work. It's been working flawlessly
for three months now with zero issues,
hangups or glitches.
The unit is equipped with a fan that, if
you're tracking music or producing video
in the same room, could cause slight audible noise, but compared to other drive enclosures I own, I was pleasantly surprised
by how quiet it is. I have mine on a shelf
under my desk, and when editing and
mixing music in Cubase 11 or producing
videos in Final Cut Pro X, I usually forget
that it's there. One thing that did take a
bit of getting used to, however, is that the
drive heads on 7200 RPM drives are a bit
more 'percussive' than many 5400 RPM
consumer drives I'm used to using.
All in all, I'm quite pleased with the
speed, performance and reliability thus
far of the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual
USB-C, and I like that I can connect other drives to it and eliminate yet another
USB hub in the process.
Price: $149 (enclosure only), $599
(16TB HDD model, reviewed)
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Recording - April 2021

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