SSD SHOOTOUT:
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD
versus others

Originally posted Tuesday, April 12th, 2011, by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist

We received a sample late today of the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD. We used QuickBench from the Speed Tools Test Suite to sample the small random reads/writes (average of 4K to 1024K blocks - 5 cycles each) and large sequential read/writes (20M to 100M blocks - 5 cycles each). We compared it to four other solid state drives (SSDs) along with one of the fastest hard disk drives (HDDs).

LEGEND
OWC6g SSD = OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6Gb/s 120GB SSD
Vertex3 SSD = OCZ Vertex 3 6Gb/s 120GB SSD
C300 SSD = Crucial RealSSD C300 6Gb/s 256G SSD
OWC SSD = OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 3Gb/s 240G SSD
Apple SSD = Apple factory installed 3Gb/s 256G SSD (Toshiba)
WD 500G 7K = Western Digital Scorpio Black 500G 7200rpm HDD (WD5000BEKT)
All drives were tested inside the 2011 MacBook Pro which has a 6Gb/s interface for the main drive bay.

CONCLUSION
The OWC 6G SSD is the fastest SSD we have tested to date. Based on the SandForce SF-2200 chipset with built-in wear leveling and error correction code along with over-provisioning, it's an excellent performance upgrade to any of the 2011 MacBook Pros (all of which have the 6Gb/s interface.)

For more info on the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD, go to the Other World Computing website. Though our sample was of 120GB capacity, this model is also available in 240GB and 480GB capacities.

MAC PRO NOTES
We've started testing the OWC 6G SSD on the Mac Pro 6-core. To get the 500+ MB/s speed, you'll have to bypass the internal 3Gb/s controller. That can be done using 6Gb/s host adapters. One example is the ATTO ExpressSAS R644. Using it, we achieved 498MB/s READ and 513MB/s WRITE. Stay tuned for a full report.

OTHER TEST SITES
The MacPerformanceGuide posted their test of the OWC 6G SSD using Disktester's Fill Volume.

Anandtech posted benchmark data for the Vertex 3 6Gb/s SSD using Iometer the Vertex 3.

If you have comments or questions, email . You can also follow him on Twitter @barefeats.

WHERE TO BUY 6Gb/s SSDs

Other World Computing has the Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD in 120G, 240G, and 480G capacities.

MaxUpgrades has the OCZ Vertex 3 (240G and 120G) which you can order with their optical bay kit.

Amazon has the OCZ Vertex 3 in various capacities.

Newegg.com has the OCZ Vertex 3 in various capacities.

WHERE TO BUY A MACBOOK PRO or other Apple products
Click on our Apple Store USA text links or display ads when you order. It is a great way to support Bare Feats since we earn a commission on each click-through that results in a sale.

WHERE TO BUY ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE (or portions of it like Photoshop)
Order directly from Adobe USA. Live outside the US? Use these links to Adobe France, Adobe Germany, Adobe Sweden, or Adobe UK. (Clicking our links helps us earn a commission.)

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copyright 2011 Rob Art Morgan
"BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS"
Email , the webmaster