review – In the digital world, one of the most important assets we have are the files on our computers. They can be family photos, spreadsheets with our budgets, school papers, or a thousand other things. Whatever they are, we don’t want to lose them. Part of protecting our data is backing up our files. Today, you can back up your files to the cloud and to a local drive, each with their pros and cons.I’ve been looking for another local drive to back up some of my data, so I’ve been testing OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini See how it performs.
What is it?
The OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini is a bus powered external hard drive Used to store files. It can be purchased with an SSD, HDD, or no drive at all. Drive options range in size from 500 GB to 4 TB. What’s unique about this gadget is that it includes an enclosure that allows you to swap out one SATA drive for another. OWC is an American company that believes in “creating a better world where technology inspires the imagination and anything is possible”.
What’s in the box?
- housing with drive
- USB-C to USB-C cable (USB-A dongle included)
- Formatting Guidelines
- Subscribe to Acronis Cyber Protect
Hardware Specifications
- Hard Drive: 5400 or 7200 RPM, 1 to 2 TB
- Solid State Drive: 480 GB to 4 TB
- Read/Write: 542 MB/s
- Power: Bus
- Drive interface: SATA
- Supported drives: 5″ SATA, up to 12.5mm
- Operating System: Windows, macOS, iPadOS, Android or Chrome
- Material: Aluminum
- Cooling: Fanless
- Ports: USB-C (on Mini) to USB-C or USB-A (on computer)
- External interface support: Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.2
- Dimensions: 5 x 3 x 1 inches
Design and Features
First things first: OWC actually makes two different but similar products with the exact same name.This old version Features an external eSATA port, USB-C port, on/off switch and DC power port.This newer version All of this has been condensed into a single USB-C port.So the newer version is less flexible but also easier to use because it is bus powered instead of needing a DC adapter. It also supports a slightly newer version of the USB-C specification.
The OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini has a silver case made entirely of aluminum. The front and back are covered with hard edges, probably because it’s a case that can be opened. There’s a blue LED on the front, next to OWC’s logo, and a USB-C cable sticking out the back. There are no vents for cooling, nor any fans. There are long radiator-like grooves on the bottom along with four small rubber feet to keep it from sliding around on my desk. While not huge, this drive is bigger than I expected. This may be due to the SATA interface. Overall, it’s a pleasingly sparse and functional design.
installation and setup
The Mini comes in a small box and is well protected with a custom cardboard insert. There’s no owner’s manual; instead, there’s just a small piece of paper telling me that I have to format the Mini before I can use it. It provides steps to do this and how to contact OWC technical support if I need any help. I plug one end of the included cable into the USB-C slot on the back of the Mini and the other end into the back of the Mac mini.
Using Finder, I found and opened the drive. Inside is a readme file and two programs for formatting the drive. The readme says: “If you are using a Macintosh computer running OS X 10.11 “El Capitan” or later, double-click its icon to launch the “OWC Drive Guide” application. If you have any questions, please contact our technical support: https://www.owcdigital.com/support/contact. I ran the setup app and it quickly formatted the new drive and allowed me to rename it to Mercury. There are a few options in the installer worth mentioning. One, it can install a user guide PDF file, which I do , and I don’t have Acronis’ data protection plan installed (more on that later). At this point, my drive is formatted and ready to go. OWC graciously sent me a 2 TB SSD drive, and Finder tells me I now have 1.92 TB available.
I copied the manual to my hard drive and read it through. For most people, this manual is unnecessary, simply because the drive is so simple to use. I format it and then I copy the file to it. Perhaps the most helpful thing I’ve read is that when the front LED is solid blue, it means the drive is powered on and communicating with my computer. When it flashes, data is being read or written.
If I just bought the enclosure and added my own drives, or if I wanted to swap out the drives, the manual would be more helpful as it has a section on how to install the drives.The same information is available at This detailed YouTube video By OWC.
Performance
I tested the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini by running a series of tests.The first test is to have the Mini as a spare drive apple time machine. I found Time Machine in System Preferences. It can see the drive, so I added it as a backup drive. It immediately wiped the drive, which is why I copied the manual to my Mac drive earlier and started copying files to it. There’s no easier way to make a local backup of your drive than Time Machine, and the Mini works perfectly with it. I had it running for about a week and Time Machine never had a problem writing files to it.
The second test is to be a backup drive ChronoSync for Econ. ChronoSync is a backup and synchronization application that offers more customization than Apple’s Time Machine. I configured it to sync the Documents folder on the Mac mini with the corresponding Documents folder on the external drive. I choose to have it sync every day at 8am, it’s one-way (from my mac to the drive), no more than two archived copies of any file, any archived copies are terminated after 180 days, email me if something goes wrong Mail happens. This is a lot of customization not available in Time Machine. Even better, Econ has a policy of not leaving users behind. I first purchased a license for ChronoSync 11 years ago and it’s still great today! marvelous! My first sync copy processed 10,063 files totaling 55.8 GB and copied them to the Mini in less than two minutes. OK! I decided to keep ChronoSync using the drive – it still does as I write – and it works flawlessly every day. This is a good use of the OWC driver.
My third test was to manually copy a set of my photos from the Mac mini’s hard drive to the Mini. I copied 338 images totaling 6.8 GB in less than 15 seconds.
On the back of the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini, it says it supports 10 GB/s throughput, but on the box and on the MacSales website, it says the actual read/write speed is only 542 MB/s. Which one is it? If this port really supports USB 3.2, then it should support 20 GB/sec, not 10, while Thunderbolt 3 supports 40 GB/sec. In real-world testing, drives rarely reach these maximums. Various interface and controller and host limitations can affect performance.
I tested the Mini using Black Magic Design’s disk speed test and found it to be under 500 MB/sec, very close to the maximum specified by OWC. Those are respectable speeds, but certainly not fast. The Mini will be fast enough when using data backup apps like Time Machine or ChronoSync; if you plan to manually copy a lot of large files (perhaps you’re moving video files shot on your iPhone from your home computer to your office computer), you may want to be faster Something that uses an updated interface. For example, Plugable NVMe ChassisThe one I tested two and a half years ago hit 1865 MB/s write and 2782 MB/s read.
The main difference between the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini and the competition is that it’s an enclosure that allows me to replace the drives inside. Unfortunately, OWC puts small rubber feet on the screws, which makes any replacements inconvenient. Even so, I pried off the feet with a knife, unscrewed the screws, and slid out of the case. I found everything inside was exactly as described in the OWC video (see above), so I’m confident I can replace the drive if needed. In some cases, this extra flexibility can be very handy.
While the Mini excelled in all my tests, and I really liked it, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are many other external drives designed for people who don’t really need to replace the drive Who doesn’t use SATA.If you want something faster, this Samsung drive on Newegg The read/write speed is five times that, but only 1 TB.If you want something cheaper, this SanDisk on Amazon $175 cheaper, but still twice as fast. As always, do your homework before buying any external drive.
Extra features
OWC includes a one-year subscription Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office, valued at $50.This is an package Protect users from ransomware and malware, and help them back up and restore data. Since I already have several good data backup options, I decided not to take advantage of this offer.
what do I like
- Simple and sturdy design
- bus powered
- Super useful data backup
- quite fast
- Flexible selection and replacement of various drives
what would i change
- Do not stick the rubber feet to the screws
final thoughts
The OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini is an external drive for storing files. It’s a sturdy aluminum enclosure that accommodates an HDD or SSD with a SATA interface; a key feature that allows users to replace SATA drives in minutes. In my tests, the Mini worked well for backing up files using Time Machine, ChronoSync, and the Finder, and I plan to continue using it for backups via ChronoSync. If you’re looking for an external SATA drive in a case, the Mini should be on your short list.
price: 2 TB SSD for $419. Other options range from $94 to $899.
where to buy: Mike Sales
source: Samples for this review provided by OWC.
