OWC Mercury Elite Pro RAID fan noise

[js81]

How loud is the fan in the OWC Mercury Elite Pro RAID? Is it a variable speed? Will I hear the drives over the fan? (OK by me, because that's quiet enough) THANKS!

[polyethyleneguy]

It's no louder than a Mac Pro at idle. The fans are not variable speed. I have been using mine for about a year.
In fact, I'm about to go mobile and need to sell it soon.

[js81]

Originally Posted by polyethyleneguy

It's no louder than a Mac Pro at idle. The fans are not variable speed. I have been using mine for about a year.
In fact, I'm about to go mobile and need to sell it soon.

Thanks for letting me know. I had previously purchased an off-brand enclosure and it was REALLY loud and had a "whiny" fan. Glad to hear. And I actually just ordered mine a few hours ago...

[js81]

Got the Mercury Elite Pro today... and I'm sad. It IS noisier than I'd hoped, but it's not that bad. Looks gorgeous, though, and extremely well-built.

On the same order, I also bought a Elite Pro Dual Mini. This one, I am in love with. It uses 2.5" laptop drives, has no power adapter OR fan, and, of course, is smaller.

So I will be selling the bigger Elite Pro with 2x 1TB drives sometime after Christmas and buying another Dual Mini with 2x 1TB 2.5" drives.

[crazzyeddie]

Originally Posted by js81

Got the Mercury Elite Pro today... and I'm sad. It IS noisier than I'd hoped, but it's not that bad. Looks gorgeous, though, and extremely well-built.

On the same order, I also bought a Elite Pro Dual Mini. This one, I am in love with. It uses 2.5" laptop drives, has no power adapter OR fan, and, of course, is smaller.

So I will be selling the bigger Elite Pro with 2x 1TB drives sometime after Christmas and buying another Dual Mini with 2x 1TB 2.5" drives.

OWC has excellent customer service and will probably let you do an exchange.

[js81]

Originally Posted by crazzyeddie

OWC has excellent customer service and will probably let you do an exchange.

Agreed, but I bought it as one of their "garage sale" items (read "clearance") and it said no returns. I will ask, though. If not, I'm sure I can make a good amount on eBay...

[polyethyleneguy]

That's strange. Mine is just as quite as the Mac Pro. Are you talking about fan noise or hard drive noise?

[js81]

Originally Posted by polyethyleneguy

That's strange. Mine is just as quite as the Mac Pro. Are you talking about fan noise or hard drive noise?

Definitely fan noise. I'm using it with a practically dead-silent mini, though; if I still had my noisy PC tower it would've been fine. Guess I got spoiled by the few days of silence in my office.

[js81]

Just heard back from OWC today. I CAN return the enclosure, and no re-stocking fee to boot! I've already ordered my replacement Mercury Elite Dual Mini. My first experience with OWC Customer Support is a 100% win!