Buffalo announces USB 3.0 Blu-ray burner, ships HDD

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Jos

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Peripheral and storage vendor Buffalo this week became the first in a soon-to-grow list of companies actually shipping USB 3.0 compatible devices, with the introduction of an external hard drive and Blu-ray burner. Available in 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB capacities, the former debuted as the DriveStation HD-HXU3 and should provide data transfers at rates around 130 MB per second.


In theory, the latest standard enables speeds of up to 4.8 gigabits per second -- which would work out to about 625 MB/s -- but so far USB 3.0 storage products don’t come close to their theoretical maximum. Compared to current USB 2.0 devices, however, Buffalo's external HDD should still provide a nice speed boost for those who push around large chunks of data. The HD-HXU3 comes with Memeo's AutoBackup software for Windows or Mac systems and will be priced at $199.99, $249.99, and $399.99, respectively, depending on capacity.

Additionally the company has unveiled what should be the fastest Blu-ray burner to date, a 12X Blu-ray burner with support for USB 3.0. At full speed, this means a 25GB Blu-ray disc can be written in 11 minutes. The drive can also record low-cost Blu-ray LTH (Low-to-High) discs at 6X, rewritable BD-RE discs at 2X, and DVDs at 16X and 8X for single and dual-layer discs respectively.

While the DriveStation HD-HXU3 is available to U.S. customers now, Buffalo plans to ship the new BR-X1216U3 Blu-ray burner at the end of December to its Japanese audience at a price equivalent to $451. The company is also releasing a two-port USB 3.0 PCI card, so users can upgrade their desktop PCs to support the new spec.

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Whoa, Xbox could of looked this sexy! You HAVE to admit that it reminds you of an Xbox, and you wish your xbox looked like that, lol.
 
This is stylish, slick and some might say "sexy", but it's still in an out of range price for normal consumers.
 
This is still compatible with 2.0 right? because very few people will be able to use it if ever. else, most would need to buy the PCI card for USB3, which might cost another $50
 
I have to admit that it looks very sexy, but i don't think most normal costumers need one of this, price is not that great and the performance is regular, but it would look excellent in my living room
 
I like the idea of this product and with the fast transfer rates from USB 3.0 will make it very useful! I just wish USB 3.0 would become more available sooner!
 
Not a bad price for these features. I'm looking forward to more USB3 devices. That's the only way intel will speed up USB3 adoption in its chipsets !
 
Wow, that's one great looking device! Congrats to Buffalo for the design, and for being among the firsts to actually release USB 3.0 devices. Keep them coming!
 
Buffalo has always put out a competitive product at compelling prices. Their home NAS has been great as has been their portible hard drives. The USB 3.0 is a bit forward thinking at this point but it would also provide the speed and pipe needed to use Blu-ray as a storage medium.
 
2-port USB 3.0 card?? You gotta be kidding me. I bet they're going to charge an arm & leg for that under-achieving card.
What we need is an 8-port USB3 card, 4 ports on the back plate and 4 internally on headers to hook up front ports and other internal devices.
 
Looks cool, but still too big a premium compared to current external drives. Seagate and WD 2TB USB 2 external drives selling for half the price. Need to wait another year for Intel and AMD to integrate USB 3 into their chipsets for this to go mainstream.
 
Why is it that so many new and improved USB 3.0 devices are coming out so soon? 3.0 isn't even being supported on half the platforms when it IS coming out. Why even bother making these things? I hope people realize that these things won't be any faster in a 2.0 port than things already are...
 
tho it won't be for sometime till i fully upgrade to another system.. at least i'll know that things will be a lot cheaper AND with USB 3.0 when the time comes for me to upgrade. =]
 
USB 2.0 has been another big bottleneck for modern drives in these years...
USB 3 finally let them sigh with relief!
 
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