OWC launches new line of portable hard drives

OWC has launched a new line of portable hard drives. The Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini line sports the same brushed aluminum case as the Mercury Elite-AI Pro line but in a smaller package. This new line of hard drives is only 3.8 by 5.5 by 1.1 making them easy to tote around. They are bus powered, eliminating the need to carry a bulky AC adapter with you, but an optional one is available. The drives offer an eSATA port, USB 2.0 port and a pair of FireWire 800 ports. Cables for all are included along with a FireWire 400 to FireWire 800 cable.

The drives come in a wide variety of sizes and prices for every need and budget, starting with three 5200RPM/5400RPM drives. The 320GB model goes for $139.99, the 500GB for $169.99 and the 750GB for $249.99. There are also two 7200RPM drives, a 320GB for $149.99 and a 500GB for $199. For the big spenders there is even an SSD option-256GB for a whopping $839.99. Want to use your own drive? There are also enclosure kits available for $97.99 with an included software bundle including back up programs, or $89.99 without.

The only downside I see so far is buried in the fine print: “Over 2GB of Freeware, Shareware, and Public Domain software installed.” Now I don’t know about you but I prefer to decide what I want installed on my drives and devices. When I get a new computer the first thing I do is uninstall all the trial and junkware that comes with it. If you’re like me you may have to do the same with these drives!

Read [OWC]