Plextor Awakens from Slumber, Announces New Optical Drives
If you're new to the DIY scene, you might not even recognize the name Plextor, a company who carved out a following by offering best-in-class optical drives. But as prices for CD/DVD burners have hit rock bottom in recent years, the high end optical maker has, for the most part, slinked into the shadows. Now the company is making a comeback.
"Plextor continues to strengthen its position in the optical storage market with the addition of these new drives to its already robust line of products," said Bob Gronski, vice president of sales and marketing for Plextor. “Now more than ever, people are going out less and taking advantage of home entertainment more, so it’s a perfect time for us to introduce such an extensive line of products."
Plextor gets back into the optical game with several new drives covering a variety of connection options, including USB, SATA, and even PATA. Models include the PX-610U 8X Slim External USB Super Multi Drive, PX-B310SA (6X internal SATA), PX-B310Q (6x external USB), PX-850SA (22x internal SATA), and PX-850A (22x internal PATA).
Minus the Mac version of the PX-610U, each of the new drives ships with Plextor's PlexUTILITIES, which gives end users the ability to control specific drive functions, view drive information, and includes a utility to destroy data on CD and DVD media.

Image Credit: Plextor
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Keith E. Whisman
November 25, 2008 at 5:11pm
, and includes a utility to destroy data on CD and DVD media.
So I guess that it's easier than just breaking the disk by hand?
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maxime29
November 25, 2008 at 3:34pm
Are they actually making the drives themselves or are these more rebadged drives?
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bloodgain
November 25, 2008 at 12:25pm
Can we expect to see a competitively-priced but well-made multi-layer Blu-Ray burner? That would be nice!
I'll cross my fingers...
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Keith E. Whisman
November 25, 2008 at 5:17pm
Don't count on it. Plextor has always been a premium producer of CD/DVD burners. They have always charged a premium. I couldn't stomache paying $200dollars for a fast drive when I could get a drive that's a little slower for $50 to $60 dollars.
Thing is that alot of companies are producing very fast dvd burners now and the average price is under $50bucks for a dvd burner and prices for BlueRay burners are dropping.
So if Plextor is going to really compete for market share then they are going to have to be more competitive when it comes to price and I just don't see them doing that. I could be wrong but I don't think they are going to last very long.
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EvilHomerGD
November 25, 2008 at 11:16am
Finally! I've been waiting for what seems like forever for them to make a comeback!!
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horzo
November 25, 2008 at 10:31am
Gah! I thought they had gone out of business. Just bought a cheapo SATA Lite-on yesterday to replace my old Plex.
Oh well.
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FrancesTheMute
November 25, 2008 at 10:04am
I used to use Plextor exclusively. I hope they haven't forgotten how to make quality optical drives in their hiatus.















