OWC Announces Mercury Aura Pro – First Available High Performance Solid State Drive For All 2012 MacBook Air Models

OWC NewsFeed says Other World Computing announced Thursday that the OWC Mercury Aura Pro, as the industry’s first high-performance Solid State Drive upgrade for 2012 MacBook Air computers, will be available in four capacities: 120GB, 180GB, 240GB, and 480GB, starting at $167.99. The Mercury Aura Pro utilizes award-winning SandForce technologies and Tier 1 Synchronous NAND to deliver sustained data rates over 500MB/s.

Provides Future Upgrade Path

The Mercury Aura Pro also offers owners of and those interested in the 2012 MacBook Air models the ability to upgrade the SSD when they need more storage and backup capacity. This flexibility is especially important for owners of the base model 11 MacBook Air equipped with the Apple’s minuscule 64GB SSD and the base 13 model with its 128GB capacity SSD. MacBook Air owners can npw add up to 8x more capacity with a 480GB Mercury Aura Pro SSD.

The cost difference is substantial

Adding Apple’s $800 factory 512GB (500GB usable space) SSD option to the $1099 128GB MacBook Air model bumps its price to $1899 and the owner doesn’t get to keep a pulled 128GB flash module.

Adding OWC’s $644.99 480GB Mercury Aura Pro to the $999 64GB MacBook Air model brings the cost to $1643.99 and the pulled 64GB factory flash module can be repurposed as an external drive with OWC’s Envoy USB 3.0 bus-powered enclosure that is projected to be available before the end of 2012.

The new OWC Mercury Aura Pro is compatible with all 11 and 13 2012 MacBook Air models:

120GB Mercury Aura Pro Express with 7% over provisioning & three year warranty – $167.99
180GB Mercury Aura Pro Express with 7% over provisioning & three year warranty – $224.99
240GB Mercury Aura Pro Express with 7% over provisioning & three year warranty – $319.99
480GB Mercury Aura Pro Express with 7% over provisioning & three year warranty – $644.99

The Mercury Aura Pro is available immediately in the 240GB capacity; while the 120, 180, and 480GB models can be pre-ordered with shipping expected on/around August 6. All Mercury Aura Pro SSDs come complete with all required installation tools and instructions claimed to make this an easy DIY upgrade.

OWC Mercury Pro brand SSDs feature ultra-efficient Block Management & Wear Leveling technologies are able to eliminate virtually any reduction in data transfer speeds over heavy long term usage of the drive and without dependency on less than effective OS TRIM management.

Up To 100X Greater Data Protection

Utilizing SandForce DuraClass technology, the OWC Mercury Aura Pro is able to provide up to 100X higher data protection than ordinary SSDs as well as leading enterprise-class hard disk drives. By combining the highest level of Error Correction Code (ECC) and SandForce RAISE (Redundant Array of Independent Silicon Elements) technology along with 7% over provisioning, the Mercury Aura Pro provides RAID-like data protection and reliability without loss of transfer speed due to parity.

“OWC was the first independent manufacturer of SSD upgrades for the MacBook Air and we’re pleased to once again be the first and only upgrade option for the new 2012 machines,” says Larry OConnor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. “Beyond being the only upgrade available, the Mercury Aura Pro SSD carries on the OWC tradition of offering best in class performance with significant cost savings compared to similar capacity factory options.”

For more information, visit:
http://bit.ly/O0FoSC