Other World Computing, a leading provider of products and services for the Macintosh marketplace, today announced it has begun shipping its first 7200RPM Mercury On-The-Go portable storage drives available in 60 Gigabyte capacities.
The 7200RPM Mercury On-The-Go drives feature 8 Megabytes of cache and are available with either a FireWire-only interface or with both FireWire and Universal Serial Bus interfaces. The IEEE1394/iLink-compliant FireWire interface on the 60GB On-The-Go solutions supports both a powered (6-pin) and an unpowered (4-pin) port. Conversely, the USB interface on the combination FireWire/USB 60GB On-The-Go external hard drive supports both USB v2.0 and v1.1. These are the fastest portable storage drives OWC has offered to date.
“Until now, the fastest portable drives available were based on 5400RPM 2.5-inch mechanisms,” said Larry O’Connor, president of OWC in the press release. “Now, as a result of newly available high-performance Hitachi 7200RPM mechanisms, we have broken speed and performance barriers once again with data transfer rates in excess of 50 Megabytes per second.”
Weighing 11 ounces and measuring only 3.5-inches x 5.5-inches x 1.0-inches, the new Mercury On-The-Go drives provide convenient and portable solutions for transferring files from one computer to another, or transporting large files in secure hard drives for quick access wherever one travels. Additionally, the drives can be used with any electronic device that has FireWire and/or USB data ports, including digital video and still cameras.
“More than ever before, consumer tastes and preferences are turning to portability and convenience,” O’Connor said in the press release. “OWC’s On-The-Go drives are specifically designed to fit the needs of a variety of users, from system administrators to videographers, graphic designers to students. Our portable drives are the perfect solution for anyone needing storage ‘on the go,’ and what is truly remarkable about these new drives is they actually run quieter and use less power than many 5400RPM drives on the market today.”
The new 7200RPM Mercury On-The-Go plug-and-play drives are compatible with any operating system with FireWire support, including Apple OS 8.6-9.2.2, OS X, and Windows 98SE/2000/XP. The drives come fitted in shock absorption casing and feature a cool blue activity indicator light, near-silent drive operation, two FireWire ports and can operate without an external power source. All cables and Macintosh formatting software are also included.
The new 7200RPM drives round out the popular Mercury On-The-Go product line, with the OWC 7200RPM On-The-Go FireWire/USB combo drive available for as low as $429.99. Pricing for the 7200RPM On-The-Go FireWire-only drive is $419.97. Complete Mercury On-The-Go pricing and ordering information can be found here.
