Posted 09/23/08 at 03:10:02 PM by Paul Lilly

Notebook vendors appear to cooling off towards the Blu-ray format, but can the high definition format attract more customers on the desktop? Buffalo seems to think so, who today has released not one, but two new 8x Blu-ray burners, one internal and one external.

The MediaStation 8x external Blu-ray drive holds promise for its obvious portability, and comes ready to connect via USB 2.0 or eSATA. The new drive measures 6.4 x 1.9 x 11 inches and weighs less than four pounds. In addition to 8x read and write speeds for BD-R media, Buffalo rates both the internal and external models at BD-RE 2x, DVD RAM 5x, DVD-R 16x, DVD+R 16x, DVD-RW 6x, DVD+RW 8x,CD-R 48x, and CD-RW 24x.

MSRP has been set to $400 for the external version and $350 for the internal model, both shipping with a suite of CyberLink software.

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Blu-ray, optical, external, internal, build a pc, buffalo technology, burner, mediastation

Posted 07/25/08 at 03:21:04 PM by Paul Lilly

Asus' Eee PC is quickly becoming the iPod of the ultraportable market, and if the latest rumor turns out to be true, it will even have an assortment of accessories to go along with the low power notebook. According to German site Eee PC News, Asus will soon add an attractive looking external hard drive that connects via USB. But that's not all. The site also shows photos of an external optical drive and a 3G connection card called the T500, which also looks to fit into a USB port.

If true, add the peripherals to the growing list of Eee branded products. And if not, props to a damn convincing Photoshop job.

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mobile, notebook, laptop, Hard Drive, asus, optical, ultraportable, build a pc, rigs, eee PC, nettop, 3G

Posted 07/07/08 at 03:15:18 PM by Paul Lilly

Following Hitachi's annoucement of plans to hit 5TB in a single hard drive by 2010, Pioneer follows suit by proclaiming a major advancement in the optical storage arena with an unprecedented 16-layer optical disc capable of storing 400GB. Presumably intended for distribution as Blu-ray media, Pioneer points out the new disc's 25GB  per-layer capacity is the same as that of a Blu-ray disc (BD).

Cross-talk among multiple layers has been a stickling point in the optical industry, but Pioneer claims to have tackled the problem with a specialized disc structure designed to reduce interference from adjacent layers. And what about compatibility with existing Blu-ray players? Pioneer says that because the optical specifications of the lens are the same as those for existing BD discs, there shouldn't be any compatibility concerns between the new 16-layer discs and existing BD media.

Dampening the announcement, the 16-layer discs are read-only. That may change in time, but for the here and now, you'll still need to resort to standard discs or HDDs to store your epic  music collection, downloaded videos, and other legally acquired data. Of course, finding someone who owns a Blu-ray drive capable of burning BD discs is more rare than spoting a MacBook victory at Maximum PC. 

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media, storage, Blu-ray, optical, hardware, build a pc, pioneer, disc, layer, bd, 400GB

Posted 11/29/06 at 05:26:41 PM by Will Smith

We’ve traditionally slammed Razer mice because their oversize buttons are too easy to accidentally click and their low-profile ambidextrous design hurts our hands over long sessions. The new Krait ditches the obnoxious, impossible-to-click side buttons that we detested on the Copperhead model and streamlines the overall shape of the mouse, for a mousing experience that had us pleasantly surprised.

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optical, mouse, mice, razer, 1600 dpi, hardware, reviews, game controllers

Posted 09/17/06 at 11:00:13 AM by Josh Norem

Blu-ray has finally arrived, and like a lot of first-gen products, it’s big on price, but not so big on performance. Sure, we used it in the Dream Machine last month, and we stand by that decision. The Dream Machine is all about the bleeding-edge—it boasted a beta BIOS, a beta chipset, and a Blu-ray drive too, damn it, despite despite the fact that Blu-ray movies and blank media are incredibly scarce.

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Pioneer BD-R 101A Blu-ray Drive, Blu-ray, drive, optical, optical drives, hardware, reviews, build a pc