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Technology Bytes
by Francine Brokaw
A USB CD-RW Drive from LaCie
Portability and Performance
LaCie is a name you might not have heard of. But if you haven't, you will. The company is a little over ten years old and manufactures top quality machines, among which are hard drives, CD-ROM and DVD drives and CD-RW drives. LaCie produces USB, Firewire, and SCSI CD-RW drives.
The LaCie USB CD-RW drive is a wonderful machine. The setup is a breeze, and you don't have to worry about taking your tower apart to install the drive. Just plug in the power plug then attach the USB cable. How easy is that? There are no jumpers to set or internal plugs to mess with. The drivers for the unit are located on the accompanying CD, along with Easy CD Creator for Windows, Direct CD for Windows, and Toast for Macintosh systems. The writing speed is 4X as is the rewriting speed. The reading speed is 6X. Their SCSI and Firewire drives have much higher speeds though.
Having an external CD-RW drive is useful in many ways. The most obvious is that the unit can be carried from one computer to another. And this drive and hardware are compatible with both Windows and Macintosh systems, making transferring information between different operating systems as easy as plugging in the machine. Second, there is no need to open the CPU Tower to install or uninstall the drive. With the USB unit it is literally plug and play. A Windows 98 system will locate the new hardware the second it is plugged in. Another benefit is it uses its own power supply, making it is easier on your system than an internal drive.
You might think that another computer peripheral sitting on your desk will just be an ugly clutter. Think again. This LaCie USB CD-RW is attractive so it's not an eye sore. It has a flat top to make it stackable with other LaCie drives or you can just keep a box of Kleenex on top! It stands a mere 2 1/4 inches tall and is 7-3/4 inches wide and 10-1/2 inches deep.
I don't have much more to say about this machine except, "I love it!" LaCie has a great little product, listing at $229/US, which includes a one-year warranty. So, if you don't already have a CD-RW drive, you might want to at least think about purchasing this unit. I am now sold on LaCie products and I hope to bring more of them to your attention in the future.
For more information, click here.
© 2001 Francine Brokaw
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