OWC Intros Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 and 2TB miniStacks

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OWC Intros Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 and 2TB miniStacks
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Posted by: Glenn

Other World Computing today announced the release of their Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2, a new desktop storage solution for Macs and PCs. The Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 comes equipped with FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA ports. It also features four SATA hard disk drive bays that offer up to 8TB of total storage capacity and four user-selectable hardware RAID settings. This includes RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and Span (NRAID). Prices for the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 start at $679.99.

Other World Computing also announced price cuts for the miniStack, as well as the availability of 2TB models. Prices for the new 2TB models start at $399.99.

http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/1188.html

Texark · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:55 am Post subject:

That's a nice looking enclosure. Do they have a barebones kit? OWC always seems to have them, but I don't see one listed.

James T Kirk · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 12:26 pm Post subject:

Pretty steep prices and I wonder what an amount of noise that fan wil make...
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g5g5 · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:38 pm Post subject:

Glenn · News Moderator Joined: 23 Jan 2005 Posts: 175

A contact at OWC said they will likely offer a 0GB kit in 30-45 days once they have a better supply. No word on the pricing though.
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AssetBurned · New Member Joined: 14 Apr 2009 Posts: 10

that pretty much looks like the MacPower Hydra Super-S Combo

I hope that this model doesn't have a 2TB limitation like the normal 800+ version.

CaliforniaMini · Veteran Member Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Posts: 857

Wow, a bit pricey there. Makes a Drobo look like a better buy...and better looking too. Glad I saw this though. I've been considering a Guardian Maximus for a while. Just followed the above link and saw OWC has some refurbished Guardian Maximus right now. Scored one for $100 shipped! Smile

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Ben Tex · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:20 pm Post subject:

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ashok77 · New Member Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 7

hi,

does anyone have anything more to say about this enclosure? does anyone own one?

i'm seriously considering it right now but there isn't that much info out there. i would like to hear from someone that has used it and their impressions of it.

i like the drobo but i don't like being tied to their "beyondraid" as my only option...i like the idea of having some choice. although, i do like the idea of drobo apps but this will be connected to my mini so i should be able to do just about anything anyhow.

please let me know your impressions of it.

thanks!

hackersmovie · Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 7:16 am Post subject:

MacDSmith2 · Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 12:38 am Post subject:

As I understand it, this is not a server. This is a RAID configured multiple hard disk enclosure that connects directly to your Mac Mini. The HP Media Servers are MS Home Servers that connect to your router and thus are available to your entire network. Two different animals.

ashok77 · New Member Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 7

hey,

i've been considering this lately myself. I have read a couple of reviews (macobserver and sventech [or something like that]) but there's not much else out there on this device.

I emailed their tech for some answers and this is what i know so far (posted in macrumors.com as well). (forgive my ignorance on some of these things, i'm not familiar with raid or how these devices work so my comments may seem like no-brainers)

1. RAID 5 - if you have a 4x500gb setup and want to upgrade it to 4x1tb you gotta back up the 4x500gb array, add all 4 drives and create a new array and then copy your data over. I think this is quite common but i was hoping to just add 1tb drive at a time, let it rebuild and so on. Not a big deal but something to consider since you'll need to have a back up drive(s) big enough to copy your data to.

2. You can't just use it as an enclosure. if you set the raid switch to 0 ("not in use", described in manual) then it sounds like it defaults to span. So it seems there's no way to just add 4 drives without some sort of raid setting

3. this may sound silly but one of the options on the raid switch is for mirroring or striping with 2 drives so i thought maybe you could use that setting, add 2 more drives and they would just appear as normal drives not associated with the raid. as i'm sure you guessed, the other 2 drives would not appear. naive...maybe, but thought i would ask them anyhow.

anyhow, that's all i know...i'm still on the fence with it as of right now but still leaning towards it...i know i can't have everything but this seems to be pretty close given the price range (qnap 419 seems to have it all but is 2x the price)

hope this helps and hope someone else could chime in with their experience with it.


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