OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State Drive Review

Mercury Extreme Pro 6G Overview
The drive is a very attractive blue color, which is different than most solid state drives that we have seen.  The casing is made of aluminum, which will not only protect the drive, but keep it cool as well.  On the front there is a large OWC sticker and it let’s us know that the drive was designed and built in the USA.

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State Drive OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State Drive

On the back is another sticker that has the capacity, firmware version, serial number and part number (OWCSSDMX6G240).  Just like all other 2.5-inch solid state drives you have your SATA power and data connections.  OWC offers 3 different versions of this drive, a single drive, a single drive with a 2.5 to 3.5-inch adapter and toolkit, and a single drive with USB 2.0 enclosure and toolkit.

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State Drive OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State Drive

So let’s get inside this drive! Note: If you disassemble the drive you will void your warranty.  There are 4 small screws on the top of the drive.  Simply remove them and you can take the top off the drive and take the entire PCB out.  The PCB itself is a soft of light blue and you can see the OWC logo on it.

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State Drive OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State Drive

The drive is powered by the SandForce SF-2282VB1-SCC chip unlike most drives that we have seen that are powered by the SF-2281VB1-SCC chip.  The two chips are actually extremely similar except the SF-2282 uses a different ball grid connector count from the 256 on the SF-2281 up to 400.  These extra connections are used to double the byte lane count from 8 to 16 allowing the controller to talk to more flash chips at one time.

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State Drive OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State Drive

The drive has a total of 16 Toggle Toshiba (TH58TAG702FBA89) 32nm flash chips, there are 8 on each side of the drive.  Each chip carries a capacity of 16GB giving you a total of 256GB.  So there is 16GB of the drive that is used for over-provisioning since this is a 240GB drive.

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State Drive OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 240GB Solid State Drive

About Author