Tuesday, January 14th 2014

OWC Unveils the Mercury Helios 2 PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis

Press Release by
Cristian_25H
 Discuss (13 Comments)
Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac upgrade and storage technology company debuted the addition of the OWC Mercury Helios 2 PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis to its Helios line at CES 2014. The Helios 2 is a solution for using two single-width, or one single-width and one double-width, PCIe 2.0 adapter cards with Mac Pro (2013), Mac mini, iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and other Thunderbolt-equipped computers that do not have PCIe slots due to size and/or design limitations.

More Users Can Now Tap Into Power of PCIe and Thunderbolt
Desktop workstations used to be the only way computer users could access high-performance PCIe cards made for video capture/editing, media transcoding, audio processing, and data storage. Now, with Mercury Helios or Helios 2, users of portable, all-in-one computers, and the new Thunderbolt 2 equipped Mac Pro 2013 can enjoy the functionality and productivity gains of these PCIe cards wherever their work takes them.
The original Mercury Helios is fast and flexible with throughput up to 10 Gb/s, while the Helios 2 handles throughputs of up to 20 Gb/s, and is the perfect solution to massively boost workflow productivity. Both are bootable with AHCI compliant cards and can daisy-chain up to six devices.

Helios 2 Key Features:
  • Two Thunderbolt Ports
  • Expansions slots: (2) PCIe 2.0 x 8 (x4) mode
  • Up to 20 Gb/s data transfer
  • Daisy-chain up to six devices
  • OWC One-Year warranty
The OWC Mercury Helios 2 PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis will be available soon for $479.99. For more details, visit: eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/PCIe_Chassis/Mercury_Helios/Helios2.

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13 Comments on OWC Unveils the Mercury Helios 2 PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis

#1
RCoon
Wah? PCIE x8 in x4 mode? Why bother making it x8 at all?
For $480 I'd expect it to come with a goddamn GPU ASWELL!
Posted on Reply
#2
NC37
Modern Mac users...the only sort of folk who would over spend by $1k for a computer raving about how small and attractive it is, then turn around and buy one of these because they can't do anything with it.

Sigh...I can't believe over a decade ago I was one of them...
Posted on Reply
#3
Gabriele1111
NC37Modern Mac users...the only sort of folk who would over spend by $1k for a computer raving about how small and attractive it is, then turn around and buy one of these because they can't do anything with it.

Sigh...I can't believe over a decade ago I was one of them...
They are also the only sort of folks who can attach basically any PCI-e card to their laptops...
Posted on Reply
#4
RCoon
Gabriele1111They are also the only sort of folks who can attach basically any PCI-e card to their laptops...
You think thunderbolt attached GPU acceleration is only available for macs?

Oh dear...
Maybe you should Google more.
Posted on Reply
#5
Gabriele1111
RCoonYou think thunderbolt attached GPU acceleration is only available for macs?

Oh dear...
Maybe you should Google more.
Or maybe you should try to find a Non-Apple Thunderbolt Laptop... Good luck with that! less than 1% are
Posted on Reply
#8
RCoon
Gabriele1111It took me less time to go to a price comparison website and I found more of them, but they are, as I wrote, less than 1%, and very rare in every store... Apple is pushing towards Thunderbolt, no one else cares about It.
Who needs a weak ass laptop with a low power CPU to start pushing GPU accelerated tasks for $480 (+ GPU cost) may I ask? Thunderbolt is for Apple displays, for every other user in the world, we use DVI and HDMI, and for transferring things, there's this amazing thing called a Universal standard, like USB and Ethernet. Apple are pushing thunderbolt, because that's what they do - maintain a closed platform. They don't want their users mingling in with other devices, and thunderbolt is there to ensure that.
Posted on Reply
#9
Gabriele1111
RCoonWho needs a weak ass laptop with a low power CPU to start pushing GPU accelerated tasks for $480 (+ GPU cost) may I ask? Thunderbolt is for Apple displays, for every other user in the world, we use DVI and HDMI, and for transferring things, there's this amazing thing called a Universal standard, like USB and Ethernet. Apple are pushing thunderbolt, because that's what they do - maintain a closed platform. They don't want their users mingling in with other devices, and thunderbolt is there to ensure that.
Do you think Helios or Thunderbolt are only for external GPU? are you joking? I think YOU should Google more... eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/Thunderbolt/PCIe_Compatibility/
Thunderbolt is an Intel platform, non Apple, and has technical capabilities far beyond USB, HDMI and Ethernet.
Posted on Reply
#10
RCoon
Gabriele1111Do you think Helios or Thunderbolt are only for external GPU? are you joking? I think YOU should Google more... eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/Thunderbolt/PCIe_Compatibility/
Thunderbolt is an Intel platform, non Apple, and has technical capabilities far beyond USB, HDMI and Ethernet.
Sorry. Should've known that macbook pro users need to spend $480 on a thunderbolt box so they can put a network adapter in it. Silly me.
Thunderbolt is so amazing everyone is adopting it because of it's capabilities beyond that of every other standard cable.
Posted on Reply
#11
Gabriele1111
RCoonSorry. Should've known that macbook pro users need to spend $480 on a thunderbolt box so they can put a network adapter in it. Silly me.
Thunderbolt is so amazing everyone is adopting it because of it's capabilities beyond that of every other standard cable.
Yes silly you :-) Pro Audio, Raid, 10GbE, video capture/processing, fibre channel... ring any bell? someone use PC for work, you know.
PS: The list I linked is for OS X, a lot more cards are compatible with Windows, and every windows driver is "Thunderbolt aware"
Posted on Reply
#12
RCoon
Gabriele1111Yes silly you :) Pro Audio, Raid, 10GbE, video capture/processing, fibre channel... ring any bell? someone use PC for work, you know.
PS: The list I linked is for OS X, a lot more cards are compatible with Windows, and every windows driver is "Thunderbolt aware"
Great bait mate. 8/8
Posted on Reply
#13
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
I wouldn't mind being able to get a couple ethernet ports and a video card that could output to 3 monitors off my Macbook Air. It's a steep price, but it might be reasonable if it had a couple ethernet ports and USB 3.0 ports built-in that didn't take space away from the PCI-E cards.
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