OWC Mercury Elite-Al Pro: Wrap Up
I’ve had a pair of the OWC Mercury Elite-Al Pro Quad interfaces connected to my Mac Pro for about a month. During that time I have used both the eSATA and FireWire 800 connections. In day-to-day use, I can’t say I see a significant difference in performance, but then again, I am not taxing these drives with large continuous data transfers, such as would be seen in video or audio work.
The drives are quiet, something I appreciate. The only noise is the sound of the hard drive itself, when it is spinning up or accessing data. This sound level is of course dependent on the specific drive mechanism installed in the Mercury Elite-Al Pro case.
The cases also don’t seem to get especially warm. Because there’s no fan, I wondered how hot the cases might get, but it seems there is sufficient surface area to dissipate any heat buildup.
The cases can be used in the vertical or horizontal position; OWC provides a stand for vertical alignment. I chose the vertical alignment since I am using two of these cases. This allows me to place them very close to each other, but still have sufficient air space around them for cooling. I could have stacked them horizontally, but thought better of it as the heat from one case could be easily transferred to the other.
The Mercury Elite-Al Pro Quad Interface case is versatile, easy to set up, and a pleasure to use. It’s difficult to find any fault with it; even the use of Torx screws is a minor issue, since OWC provides a Torx screwdriver. Based on performance, ruggedness, and ease of use, the Mercury Elite-Al Pro Quad Interface earned 5 stars.
