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Buying a OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 in the UK?
- Thread starter TwoBytes
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Hi, yes it is expensive, myself I am looking into a multi bay HDD enclosure but I cannot find anything decent in the UK. I thought about the Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 but if something goes wrong, the pain to send it back to the USA is daunting.
Let me know if you have found a way to get one
Me too.
I actually went into an Apple store and was advised to get this by staff member who said it was available from ONE supplier in the UK; "just search the net to find it".
So I left the shop and cannot find anywhere in the UK on't Internet! Annoying.
Hence anyone find, please advise (...&/or a good alternative, of course).
I actually went into an Apple store and was advised to get this by staff member who said it was available from ONE supplier in the UK; "just search the net to find it".
So I left the shop and cannot find anywhere in the UK on't Internet! Annoying.
Hence anyone find, please advise (...&/or a good alternative, of course).
Hi,
Try giving www.scrumpymacs.co.uk a ring, they had OWC RAM posted up on their eBay site not long back, I assume they must be able to get hold of OWC stuff?
Try giving www.scrumpymacs.co.uk a ring, they had OWC RAM posted up on their eBay site not long back, I assume they must be able to get hold of OWC stuff?
Alternatives...
Given-up on the OWC one. Can't be bothered with the hassle.
Especially after online chatting with an OWC staffer who confirmed no UK/EU product distribution, and also said anyway even if they did get their stuff distributed here, the guarantees would involve shipping back to them in the US anyway if broken.
Also, I'm thinking these DAS enclosure's with RAID are basically mostly all the same anyway, just the hardware controller quality that one wants some assurances on (difficult to get clear evidence online for any of them, IMO).
___________________
Looked at this one supplied direct from Apple, from a brand called "Promise":
- Enclosure + 4TB (4x 1TB): http://store.apple.com/uk/product/TX711ZM/A?mco=MTEyODE1NDQ
- Enclosure + 8TB (4x 2TB): http://store.apple.com/uk/product/H1106ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY
(+ search Promise on Youtube & check-out the UK actor explaining it, for some laughs!)
I wondered about Apple's store pricing here; the price is VERY high on these units for what you get...
(1) It only comes with NON-enterprise level Hitachi Deskstar drives, as opposed to something like the enterprise level Ultrastar's (thus the Ultrastar's are double the price accordingly).
(2) The unit is also only SATA II (300MB/s), rather than the updated SATA III (600MB/s). Not massively important unless you can be bothered with eSATA (I'm not personally as it's going in the back of a Time Capsule for wireless network access).
(3) No direct giga-ethernet NAS connection (I think that'd turn it into a NAS, and you, perhaps, then pay higher for them).
(4) **And Especially**: Buying the unit separately (£315.60) and with 8TB [4x 2TB] (£273.60) non-enterprise drives (same quality as Deskstar's supplied direct) is actually a shed load LESS (£589.20 total) than the £715 Apple want for this 4TB unit here!!
Supplier: http://www.span.com (+span.com will "build & test for free" too! )
- Enclosure (£315.60): http://www.span.com/product_info.php?products_id=27315
- 4x2TB drives (WD Caviar Green £68.40 each = £273.60): http://www.span.com/spanstor.php?fc_id=27315
= £589.20 total.
- Data sheet: http://www.span.com/redirect_header...Download%20Bank/Datasheet/ds4600_20091001.pdf
___________________
As usual a COMPLETE AND UTTER rip-off from Apple! (and most other suppliers –offering the units pre-installed with the Deskstar drives Promise supply with it– also only shaving a bit off from Apple's price too!)
So why is this so expensive exactly? It makes one wonder if someone here (Promise or Apple?) is simply cashing-in on consumers lack of knowledge.
Please someone explain some other reason? I'm genuinely perplexed.
(ps. anyone know if any of these RAID things are okay for "DLNA" compatibility to other equipment, or not? I can't find any info about it...)
Given-up on the OWC one. Can't be bothered with the hassle.
Especially after online chatting with an OWC staffer who confirmed no UK/EU product distribution, and also said anyway even if they did get their stuff distributed here, the guarantees would involve shipping back to them in the US anyway if broken.
Also, I'm thinking these DAS enclosure's with RAID are basically mostly all the same anyway, just the hardware controller quality that one wants some assurances on (difficult to get clear evidence online for any of them, IMO
). ___________________
Looked at this one supplied direct from Apple, from a brand called "Promise":
- Enclosure + 4TB (4x 1TB): http://store.apple.com/uk/product/TX711ZM/A?mco=MTEyODE1NDQ
- Enclosure + 8TB (4x 2TB): http://store.apple.com/uk/product/H1106ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY
(+ search Promise on Youtube & check-out the UK actor explaining it, for some laughs!)
I wondered about Apple's store pricing here; the price is VERY high on these units for what you get...
(1) It only comes with NON-enterprise level Hitachi Deskstar drives, as opposed to something like the enterprise level Ultrastar's (thus the Ultrastar's are double the price accordingly).
(2) The unit is also only SATA II (300MB/s), rather than the updated SATA III (600MB/s). Not massively important unless you can be bothered with eSATA (I'm not personally as it's going in the back of a Time Capsule for wireless network access).
(3) No direct giga-ethernet NAS connection (I think that'd turn it into a NAS, and you, perhaps, then pay higher for them).
(4) **And Especially**: Buying the unit separately (£315.60) and with 8TB [4x 2TB] (£273.60) non-enterprise drives (same quality as Deskstar's supplied direct) is actually a shed load LESS (£589.20 total) than the £715 Apple want for this 4TB unit here!!
Supplier: http://www.span.com (+span.com will "build & test for free" too! )
- Enclosure (£315.60): http://www.span.com/product_info.php?products_id=27315
- 4x2TB drives (WD Caviar Green £68.40 each = £273.60): http://www.span.com/spanstor.php?fc_id=27315
= £589.20 total.
- Data sheet: http://www.span.com/redirect_header...Download%20Bank/Datasheet/ds4600_20091001.pdf
___________________
As usual a COMPLETE AND UTTER rip-off from Apple! (and most other suppliers –offering the units pre-installed with the Deskstar drives Promise supply with it– also only shaving a bit off from Apple's price too!)
So why is this so expensive exactly? It makes one wonder if someone here (Promise or Apple?) is simply cashing-in on consumers lack of knowledge.
Please someone explain some other reason? I'm genuinely perplexed.
(ps. anyone know if any of these RAID things are okay for "DLNA" compatibility to other equipment, or not? I can't find any info about it...
)
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