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Upon initial inspection, Other World Computing's Mercury Elite-AL Pro RAID hard drive seems pretty heavy duty. Perhaps that's due in part to its design, which makes it look like Mini Me when stacked next to the bigger PowerMac tower. On its own, though, its weight (3lb) implies that it means business.
What may be the most revealing about this drive's ambitions, though, is the two FireWire 800 ports, compared with only one FireWire 400 port. FireWire 800 connections, which appear only in the rear of Apple's PowerMac line (not even the MacBook Pro has it), are geared towards pushing professional quantities of data around in a hurry. As displayed in the name, the Mercury Elite is technically a RAID drive, which means it pools from two separate 7,200RPM internal drives. Despite the horsepower, the beauty of this item is how easy it is to use. There is no software requirement, so you can just plug it in and begin to transfer files.
And what does Mercury imply if not speed? Through the FireWire 400 connection we transferred 1GB in 55 seconds from our desktop—not the most stellar rate we've seen. Moving a 5GB folder over to the hard drive, however, took only 3 minutes, 13 seconds, which reiterates the drive's professional capabilities. When we hooked up the FireWire 800 and backed up 10GB, it took 9 minutes, 4 seconds. We were expecting a little higher with such a powerful connection.
The Mercury Elite is conveniently available in sizes ranging from 160GB ($240) to 1TB ($950), all of which have a footprint of 9.0"x2.8"x5.8". A cute, little blue light emanates from inside the front grill to let you know when it's cooking. But the Mercury Elite cooks using low heat, which is ensured through a rear fan that blows through the front grill (sound familiar?) It does make a somewhat eerie hissing sound at times, we noticed.
The drive also comes with not only the standard EMC Retrospect back-up software, but also Intech SpeedTools utilities, which include benchmarking and partitioning capabilities. Overall, the 600GB drive should satisfy both consumers and professionals, with a price that should make everyone happy.
–COLIN MORRIS
600GB Mercury Elite Pro-AL Dual RAID: 
Other World Computing | www.macsales.com | 800-275-4576 | $440
Pros: 2-year warranty, useful for both consumers and professionals.
Cons: No USB 2.0 port, watch your fingers with the fan.
Requires: OS10.1 or later, FireWire 400 or 800
macHOME recommends: Lining it up next to a PowerMac and rehashing all of your favorite Austin Powers lines
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