Other World Computing 200GB enterprise grade SSD

I’m happy to report that I just received a batch of 200GB OWC Mercury Extreme solid state drives (SSDs) for evaluation from OWC. I’ll be testing various configurations in the Mac Pro and new MacBook Pro— RAID and non-RAID.

I’m also pleased to report that the sleep issue previously reported is now completely resolved with the Sandforce firmware (never was a show-stopper as a work-around existed), and that OWC has resumed shipping the Mercury Extreme after extensive testing of the new firmware. Contact OWC if you already have the Mercury Extreme— they stand behind their products and will arrange for an update or replacement.

Today I installed a pair of the 200GB Mercury Extremes in my Mac Pro Nehalem MPG Photo Workstation as a Boot + Scratch arrangement. More on that coming sometime next week, as well as putting two of them into a MacBook Pro as per my MPG Pro Laptop setup.

These drives are fantastic, and as yet they are the only SSD that I recommend for RAID. Just two of them can match or beat four of today’s fastest SATA hard drives for Photoshop scratch.

The Mercury Elite Extreme SSD kicks some serious butt with Photoshop, and when you realize just how awful most other brands are with some use, your smart move is the OWC Mercury Extreme SSD. Especially if you have big Photoshop jobs on a MacBook Pro.