Can't decide... OWC Mercury Elite Pro vs WD My Book

[Merser]

I have read quite a few possitive reviews of the OWC and some so so ones of the WD's...

I need 2 FW400 ports and 1 USB so I can capture directly from camcorder to external HD

Here are my options...

OWC Mercury Elite AL-Pro 500gb 7200rpm 2 Firewire 400's 1 USB for $189

or

My Book Premium 750gb 2 Firewire 400's 1 USB for $229
My Book Premuim 500 gb 2 Firewire 400's 1 USB for $170

The $229 My Book is at the TOP of my budget... the compareable OWC at 750gb is at $295 which is really too much $ for me at the moment.

I know that the MyBooks have a "love hate" status out there...
Do you think its worth the extra 250gbs of storage for $40 and go for the Mybook or should I not risk the troubles and just get the reliable OWC? (are they really that reliable?)

Thanks in advance

 

[panzer06]

I have read quite a few possitive reviews of the OWC and some so so ones of the WD's...

I need 2 FW400 ports and 1 USB so I can capture directly from camcorder to external HD

Here are my options...

OWC Mercury Elite AL-Pro 500gb 7200rpm 2 Firewire 400's 1 USB for $189

or

My Book Premium 750gb 2 Firewire 400's 1 USB for $229
My Book Premuim 500 gb 2 Firewire 400's 1 USB for $170

The $229 My Book is at the TOP of my budget... the compareable OWC at 750gb is at $295 which is really too much $ for me at the moment.

I know that the MyBooks have a "love hate" status out there...
Do you think its worth the extra 250gbs of storage for $40 and go for the Mybook or should I not risk the troubles and just get the reliable OWC? (are they really that reliable?)

Thanks in advance

I have the OWC MEP w/2 FW800, 1 FW400 and 1 USB2 and it works great. It supports 2 drives and have them set up as separate 500GB or they can be setup as hardware mirrored within the device. I prefer putting my own drives in and bought this bare. I use Seagate and Hitachi drives.

We've had many iterations of the WD external drives including the MyBooks and they work ok too, only one failure over the past couple of years but I still like the OWC. Feels substantial and matches my MBP 2.2.

Cheers,

 

[Tenex]

I have read quite a few possitive reviews of the OWC and some so so ones of the WD's...

I can't comment on OWC - we don't have them over here but I can report I have 3 My Book Premiums daisy chained to my iMac and have been completely happy with them, I've had two for a year. They are quiet and start/stop as needed. I think some of the issues with them arise from people not installing the WD Button software which controls the capacity gauge on the My Book. They are almost silent and are definitely the quietest drives I've ever used.

When I buy my new iMac I'll be buying another a Pro for the FW800 port.

 

[netnothing]

I have the OWC MEP w/2 FW800, 1 FW400 and 1 USB2 and it works great. It supports 2 drives and have them set up as separate 500GB or they can be setup as hardware mirrored within the device. I prefer putting my own drives in and bought this bare. I use Seagate and Hitachi drives.

Just curious as the OWC tech info doesn't seem to say.....what type of drives did you put in the enclosures? SATA? ATA?

I'm specifically looking at the 3 way enclosure with the FW800/400/USB 2.0....NOT the one with the eSATA port.

Thanks!

-Kevin

 

[panzer06]

Just curious as the OWC tech info doesn't seem to say.....what type of drives did you put in the enclosures? SATA? ATA?

I'm specifically looking at the 3 way enclosure with the FW800/400/USB 2.0....NOT the one with the eSATA port.

Thanks!

-Kevin

This is the one I have

1 OWCMEFW924AL2K OWC Merc Elite-AL Pro 800/400/U2 Dual HD 1 1 $119.99 EA $119.99
2 1 Year OWC Warranty. Uses SATA HD x 2.

It was confusing so I called first to verify the part number and he led me to the page with the sata capable housing only.

Cheers,

 

[Merser]

Anything else to add??

I have read quite a few possitive reviews of the OWC and some so so ones of the WD's...

I need 2 FW400 ports and 1 USB so I can capture directly from camcorder to external HD

Here are my options...

OWC Mercury Elite AL-Pro 500gb 7200rpm 2 Firewire 400's 1 USB for $189

or

My Book Premium 750gb 2 Firewire 400's 1 USB for $229
My Book Premuim 500 gb 2 Firewire 400's 1 USB for $170

The $229 My Book is at the TOP of my budget... the compareable OWC at 750gb is at $295 which is really too much $ for me at the moment.

I know that the MyBooks have a "love hate" status out there...
Do you think its worth the extra 250gbs of storage for $40 and go for the Mybook or should I not risk the troubles and just get the reliable OWC? (are they really that reliable?)

Thanks in advance

Surely there has got to be more feedback or suggestions on which I should go for!!

Please let me know as I intend to place the order within the next day or so.

Thanks again guys!!

 

[maestrokev]

Never used OWC but from what I've read I'd give them a try.

I'm now on a 3rd RMA getting another MyBook Pro 1TB drive within a year. I'm in the hate camp with WD MyBook's. I also have a Maxtor OneTouch III 1TB which is whisper quiet, MyBook 1TB's (not sure of the other models) have fans that go extremely loud under strain - copying video over FW800 will put my WD into overdrive

Before you buy, read through WD's support forum and compare with OWC or others to get an idea of how customers are treated by their support.

 

[obibobi]

I have the WD MyBook 500GB and it is great!
There is only a slight whisper when it´s running.
I read reviews before I bought it because I wanted 1 TB, but when many people said it sounds like a blow dryer I went for the 500GB.

Don't know anything about OWC.

 

[Merser]

I have the WD MyBook 500GB and it is great!
There is only a slight whisper when it´s running.
I read reviews before I bought it because I wanted 1 TB, but when many people said it sounds like a blow dryer I went for the 500GB.

Don't know anything about OWC.

Thanks for the input...

Anyone have anything else to add? I need to place the order at some point today so I will have it in time for vacation.

Any OWC Haters out there??

Thanks

 

[JHacker]

I've had lots of OWC experience and everything has been extremely positive. I have the dual enclosure drive that you're looking at and I put in 2x320gb Seagate drives. Works like a charm. I also have a single enclosure 160gb drive and that's beautiful as well. I have 2gb RAM for my MBP, my gf has 1gb RAM for her MB, and everything is great. I highly recommend them. I've also used a 500gb My Book and it's not bad, but I prefer the asthetics of the OWC drive. It looks great.

 

[Merser]

I've had lots of OWC experience and everything has been extremely positive. I have the dual enclosure drive that you're looking at and I put in 2x320gb Seagate drives. Works like a charm. I also have a single enclosure 160gb drive and that's beautiful as well. I have 2gb RAM for my MBP, my gf has 1gb RAM for her MB, and everything is great. I highly recommend them. I've also used a 500gb My Book and it's not bad, but I prefer the asthetics of the OWC drive. It looks great.

Very helpful thanks, but the questions remains, would suggest spending the extra $40 for another 250gb even at the cost of it not being a OWC?

 

[JHacker]

Very helpful thanks, but the questions remains, would suggest spending the extra $40 for another 250gb even at the cost of it not being a OWC?

Personally, I would forget about the extra space and go with the OWC, unless you NEED the space. I really wanted 2x 500 gig hard drives but ended up going with 2x 320 gigs instead. Mainly because I didn't feel like spending the extra money at the time, and 2x320's will take me a long while to fill up.

If you're going to buy the enclosure and put your own hard drives in, then can't you just buy the bigger drives for the enclosure on their own? Or is this out of your price range?

The OWC drives are a little bit more expensive than what you can find at other online stores, but I think it's worth it because they're great drives, and like Apple products, you pay a slight premium for great design.

 

[Merser]

Personally, I would forget about the extra space and go with the OWC, unless you NEED the space. I really wanted 2x 500 gig hard drives but ended up going with 2x 320 gigs instead. Mainly because I didn't feel like spending the extra money at the time, and 2x320's will take me a long while to fill up.

If you're going to buy the enclosure and put your own hard drives in, then can't you just buy the bigger drives for the enclosure on their own? Or is this out of your price range?

The OWC drives are a little bit more expensive than what you can find at other online stores, but I think it's worth it because they're great drives, and like Apple products, you pay a slight premium for great design.

I have to be honest, I am a bit of a noob in regards to hardware...

I will probably just buy their prebuilt 500gb http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MAU4F7500G16/ My understanding, is that its a Seagate barracuda inside.

I am afraid to goof it up, I mean how much will I save from building it myself?
If its only $30 or so, thats worth my "peace of mind".

 

[JHacker]

I have to be honest, I am a bit of a noob in regards to hardware...

I will probably just buy their prebuilt 500gb http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MAU4F7500G16/ My understanding, is that its a Seagate barracuda inside.

I am afraid to goof it up, I mean how much will I save from building it myself?
If its only $30 or so, thats worth my "peace of mind".

Fair enough. But I was new in terms of putting together computer components too. I had never even held a hard drive in my hand before And it really was a piece of cake. There's not much to mess up if you're careful and work slowly. It's just a matter of plugging the drives in, and putting screws into the enclosure that hold them in place.

 

[gwsat]

I found this long dormant thread as a result of research I am doing on picking out a 1 TB – or larger – drive for backups. I bought an OWC 250 gig FireWire 800 drive several years ago and it’s been perfect, fast, quiet, and reliable. Unfortunately, I am running out of space because of my ever increasing collection of MP4 files that I have ripped from my DVDs for use on my Apple TV.

The good luck I have had with my OWC drive tempts me to stick with that company but OWC drives are significantly more expensive than the popular WD My Book Premium II drives. For example, I can buy a 1 TB WD drive for $230 delivered, but the price for a 1 TB OWC MercuryElite drive would be $340. That’s a big difference.

On another issue, I gather that I can daisy chain two FW drives and my MacBook Pro will recognize both of them. Is this so? If so then are there any problems in moving the content of one of the drives to the other?

Does anyone have any insights? Thanks in advance.

 

[odedia]

Consider the My Book Studio Edition (with FW800 as well)

I have the 1TB model and I'm very happy with it - but you must upgrade to the latest firmware.

 

[dscasler]

Same Question

I have the exact same question, but with 1 concern that nobody mentioned. The new WD my book Raid 1 drives do NOT have a fan. They say the 'green' drives run cool, but the OWC has a fan. I live in Thailand and 'cool' is relative. I'm very concerned about this, and may go with one of the OWC enclosures due to the fan.

 

[chrono1081]

I wouldn't buy a WD ever. They have made nothing but garbage lately and I have an office FULL of broken WD mybooks to prove it.

The company I work for actually stopped ordering WD all together (thank goodness) because of the rediculously high failure rate. I work in IT so having to try and do data recovery all the time was getting really annoying.

I would recommend getting either Seagate, Hitatchi, or Samsung drives and an external enclosure (I prefer IcyDock).