OWC Mercury Elite Pro FireWire 800 & USB 3.0/2.0/1.1 Enclosure Kit

I purchased 3 of these enclosures for my late 2012 Mac Mini Server to hold three external drives (all 3TB 3.5 inch Western Digital RED NAS drives) and overall they work well and I have used them in the past. However, I learned that these particular enclosures have issues with USB 3 connections (firmware level) which causes the drive within them to spin down and sleep after approximately 10 minutes of in-activity. So, if these are connected to a computer which is being utilized as a server and requires the drives within to remain active and available at all times, the constant spin down causes a temporary hang of the computer while it waits for the drive to spin up. Also, the constant spin down and up of the drives could shorten their life. Further testing has revealed that using a Firewire 800 connection does not exhibit the spin down condition. So, it is a firmware defect with the USB 3 connection of the enclosure which unfortunately requires a RMA and a return to OWC for re-flashing. Fortunately, OWC will provide the re-flashing of the enclosures at no cost to me other than having to pay to ship them back to them and loss of my time. Hope this helps someone and good luck.

I've got this hooked up to a Mac mini running 10.6.8 via FireWire 800. The enclosure spins down the drive after a period of inactivity, as well as when the computer goes to sleep or powers down. I was specifically looking for this behavior, so I think it's great.I've been using this with a WD Green 4TB drive for about a month without obvious issues.Pro: Quality metal construction; the front grill is especially attractive. Activity indicator LED is subtle. Spin-down feature works well.Con: One star off for putting an ugly sticker that says "Warranty Void If Label Removed" on the side of the case. The sticker doesn't protect anything; all it does it tempt you to void your warranty.

A previous, completely different enclosure to this one was the source of a problem with a 4TB drive that seemed to stop working. This enclosure does everything it is supposed to do and is much more functional than the other one I put through its paces. The MEPro has only the room for the drive and a little space for ambient air circulation, but really, that's all you need to have. I must wonder if the drive that originally came with the previous enclosure will work when placed into one of these enclosures. Definitely will be getting another one of these for that drive in order to find the answer, and if it turns out that one was just a bad drive, then I'll just get a replacement for it.OWC likely has 2+ slot enclosures that look and function similar to this if you need a value setup for RAID, so I would keep an eye out for those should that be your need.

I'm done with anything from OWC. This is the third time I've had some issue with these drives, must be made from budget crap material. I've had two LaCie drives which just keep on running, this just conked out and will not start up. I suspect it's another power failure. I have purchased too many drives and have had poor experience from OWC, until they get their quality control back to where it once was I would avoid.Well a couple of days have past and the other drive has stopped working. Great! I'm really looking forward to getting better drive cases from here on out. I don't know what's wrong with OWC, but they can suck it. I used to tell people about them all the time, not doing them any more favors.

Matches my others and works fine.

Loved this case. Did exactly what I wanted. Works great with USB3 or Firewire. Liked it enough that I bought another one for a stray drive I had around the house.

Great solid metal external hard drive. I use two of these daisy chained to a mini Mac for backups. No problems at all.

Great product. Quiet, stays cool, works great. Being used for time machine.