OWC launches Mercury Helios PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis

OWC is launching a new PCIe Thunderbolt expansion chassis today that provides the ability to take advantage of any professional level performance PCIe adapters (half-length PCIe 2.0 card up to 6.5″) on Thunderbolt Macs:

Mercury Helios is fast and flexible with throughput up to 10Gb/s, and is the perfect solution to massively boost workflow productivity. It’s bootable with AHCI compliant cards and can daisy-chain up to six devices. Types of PCIe cards Helios can use include: Fibre Channel • 10Gb Ethernet • RAID controller • Video capture • Digital audio • Solid State Drive • SAS controllers such as the OWC Jupiter • and FireWire, USB 3.0, eSATA host adapter cards.

The Mercury Helios PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis is available now for $399.95, and it is shipping from OWC in “7-10 days.” A full list of features and specs from OWC is below:

Features and Specifications

• Use any half-length, single width, full height x1, x4 or x8 Thunderbolt compliant and AHCI compliant PCIe card
• Expansion slots: One PCIe 2.0 x8 (x4 mode)
• Connection interfaces: Two Thunderbolt ports
• Daisy-chain up to six devices
• Bootable with AHCI compliant cards
• External case dimensions: 5.7 in (W) x 8.8 in (D) x 2.9 in (H)
• Weighs 2.4 lbs (without card)
• Ventilated quiet cooling with a variable speed fan
• Automatically powers on/off with computer
• Warranty: 3-year
• Compatible with any computer that can support Thunderbolt technology