Other World Computing (OWC) has announced that super fast data transfer rates have been achieved during performance testing using four of its SSDs. Its drives were simultaneously connected to a Mac Pro via a couple of FirmTek eSATA controller cards, and 10GB read and write tests were performed. The test configuration managed to notch up some rather brisk data transfer rates of 853MB per second write and 1GB per second read, which should be more than enough to keep even the most active high definition video editors relatively grumble-free.

Data transfer speed advantages of solid state drives have already been pretty well documented, but that didn't stop FirmTek from trying to push the bar even further. The company has recently undertaken some intensive testing to show the huge performance gains that can be experienced by porting a number of solid state drives on a RAID 0 configuration. The company chose four OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE 200GB SSDs and connected them to a couple of its SeriTek/2ME4-E eSATA controller cards, featuring FirmTek's new 6.0.0fc18 driver.

DiskTester 2.0 10GB read and write tests resulted in an average read rate of 851MB per second and write of 997MB per second, peaking at 853MB/s and 1GB/s respectively.

The SeriTek/2ME4-E card is Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) compatible in both 32-bit and 64-bit modes and includes a FIS-based port multiplier to cater for up to 20 storage disks to be connected on a RAID 0 configuration.

OWC's Mercury Extreme Pro solid state drives use advanced SandForce DuraWrite technology, which is said to "keep Read/Write performance at peak while others see performance fall." More detailed information is available from the product page.