OWC Mercury On-The-Go (500GB) Review

No Rating 10

It's big, and it's fast. The OWC Mercury On-The-Go offers fast throughput via USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800, and it's the biggest compact hard drive, at 500GB, you can get right now.

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7.8

CNET Review

May 13, 2008 | 12:01 PM PDT

The Good: Large capacity, USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 support; bus powered; valuable bundled backup software; all data cables included.

The Bad: A bit bulkier and heavier than competing compact external hard drives. Power switch is hard to reach.

The Bottom Line: It's big, and it's fast. The OWC Mercury On-The-Go offers fast throughput via USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800, and it's the biggest compact hard drive, at 500GB, you can get right now.

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Price Range: $133.99 - $133.99

Manufacturer: Other World Computing
Part number: OWCMS8U5500GB8

General

Capacity

500 GB
Form Factor

2.5"
Internal Drive Interface

Serial ATA
Buffer Size

8 MB
Width

3.5 in
Depth

5.5 in
Height

1 in

Performance

Interface Transfer Rate

800Mbps(FireWire800)/400Mbps(FireWire)/480Mbps(Hi-Sp.USB)
Max Data Transfer Rate

80 MBps
Data Transfer Rate Details

FireWire 800 : 80 MBps, Hi-Speed USB : 60 MBps
Spindle Speed

5400 rpm

Expansion & Connectivity

Compatible Bays

None

Reliability

Mean time before failure

300,000 hour(s)

Power

Power Source

FireWire bus, Included AC adapter, USB bus
Power Device

Power adapter
Voltage Required

AC 120/230 V

Software & System Requirements

Software Included

NovaStor NovaBACKUP, Intech Hard Disk Speedtools, ProSoft Data Backup for Mac
OS Required

Apple MacOS 8.6 or later, Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

Miscellaneous

Included Accessories

Carrying case
Cables Included

1 x IEEE 1394 cable - FireWire 400 (9-to-6 pin) - External - 1 ft, 1 x IEEE 1394 cable - FireWire 800 (9-to-9 pin) - External - 3 ft, 1 x USB cable - External - 1.3 ft

Manufacturer Warranty

Service & Support

1 year warranty

Environmental Parameters

Min Operating Temperature

41 °F
Max Operating Temperature

131 °F
Humidity Range Operating

8 - 90%
Shock Tolerance

65 g @ 2ms (operating) / 175 g @ 2ms (non-operating)
Vibration Tolerance

1 g @ 5-300 Hz (operating) / 5 g @ 5-500 Hz (non-operating)