Optical drives are changing with constantly evolving speeds and features. Blu-ray drives for PCs are coming down in price and gaining features as well. One of the things that is important to computer users, especially those using notebooks is power consumption. Plextor has announced a new line of optical drives with internal and external USB models that uses new control software giving control over power use and more.

The line of drives includes the PX-601U, PX-B310SA, PX-B310U, PX-850SA, and PX-850A. The 610U is a small external DVD super multi drive that draws all of its power from the USB port. The B310SA is an internal SATA Blu-ray combo drive that reads Blu-ray discs and burns CD/DVD media. The B310U is the USB external version of the drive.

The PX-850SA is an internal SATA super multi DVD/CD burner and the PX-850A is an internal PATA version of the same drive. All of the drives feature new software called PlexUTILITIES that gives users detailed information and control over the drive. The acoustic output of the drives can be controlled here and the sleep state can be controller. The software also offers much more functionality including a way to destroy data on CDs and DVDs safely.

Plextor