🔒 OWC Mercury On-The-Go Portable 2.5" FW800/USB3.0 Enclosure Kit for SATA: Powerful Storage Solution in Compact Form Review

They work great, just be careful how much power is required for the drive you plug in. If you have a drive that draws 850mA or more, the Mac's USB port won't be able to power it since it only puts out 1A. It's not the case's fault. If you're using FireWire you'll have more power to make it work, or if you get a Y/twin tail adapter and use two USB ports it will work. If you're using a less power-hungry drive, it'll work just fine. Again, this is how electricity works, and Mac limitations have…

Marked because the FW800 controller used in this case doesn't work with OS 9 for some reason I contacted OWC and confirmed that this is the case. The workaround is to use an FW400 hub or device between your Mac and this case if you need to use it on OS 9. I understand that this is about 0.1% of the buyers of this product, so if you do NOT need to use it with an outdated equipment, this is a good buy. The case has a very high quality finish, and thanks to the transparent plastic, it's easy to…

I am very impressed with the engineering and solid construction of this case. Obviously we've put a lot of thought into what end users want and expect, and this device really lives up to them. It has a thick aluminum heatsink, rubber feet, on/off switch, USB3 and FW800 cables, and a really nice faux leather case to store or carry the case. Not a particularly strong selling point per se, but I'll also add 5 cool points for looks. You can see your HD and some of the circuitry through its…

I've had several of these and they were mostly fine. However, the latter felt a bit odd and was too narrow to fit the Samsung 850 EVO without pressing it firmly (into the aluminum bracket). Small production error? As a result, it turned out that the controller was also defective. After everything was installed and working, it later started to spontaneously disconnect from the USB. Double and triple checked everything, swapped out cables with known good ones, etc. No issues with the same…

I have a 2011 iMac (i7), it's still a great beast! Too old for USB 3. I was using a Firewire 800, but the HD drive was slowing down and was never really good anyway. This drive enabled me to purchase a 500 gigabyte Samsung EVO Drive. Even with Firewire 800, this was an immediate improvement. I don't need to block tracks like I used to in Logic XI, I'd switch to a Thunderbolt 2 drive, but they're all so predatory! If you want the SSD version, you're better off having a Lazy Grand or more. This…

So I bought two of these on separate occasions. The first was to use it as an external SSD to switch between my two music recording computers (Macbook and iMac). The second time I bought one of these was to install large/graphically heavy (long downloads) games onto an SSD for use on my Xbox One X. The device worked perfectly on both occasions. On my computers it was as easy as plug and play, with Xbox after a quick format with Xbox it was fully functional. The installation itself is a bit…

At first I had doubts about this drive judging from the pictures but I needed a USB3/FW800 external drive so I decided to buy it. However, after I received it and installed my hard drive, its performance is excellent. Also, it's pretty nice to be able to see exactly what drive is there without having to plug it in. This drive will beep quietly if the USB bus (from a hub or whatever) doesn't have enough power to power it, which is nice since you're not sitting around wondering if your drive is…

After replacing my early 2011 MacBook Pro with a new SSD, I needed an enclosure for my old hard drive. Enclosures equipped with Thunderbolt were too expensive, so I looked for FireWire (FW) options and found this good 2.5 inch hard drive enclosure from OWC. It's almost entirely plastic, but feels pretty solid and I love the design, which is inspired by the old Mac G4. Adhesive feet raise the case just enough to dissipate heat from a huge heatsink attached to the underside of the hard drive…