Optical Drive Archive

  • Replace a MacBook Pro’s optical drive with an SSD

    Replace a MacBook Pro’s optical drive with an SSD

    Posted on June 23, 2010 | No Comments
    It's a fact that no one uses optical drives anymore and so why not replace the one in your late-model MBP with something a bit more useful like an SSD. It doesn't really seem that hard as long you're comfortable totally disemboweling your MacBook Pro. The SSD and optical drive both use SATA so it's really plug and play and only requires a special adapter plate to properly hold the SSD in place.

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  • $900 Sony Vaio J is a touchscreen PC for the rest of us

    $900 Sony Vaio J is a touchscreen PC for the rest of us

    Posted on June 8, 2010 | No Comments
    While I honestly doubt you’ve been thinking about getting a touchscreen all-in-one, if you have you’re in luck. The Vaio J, which is actually quite handsome, is available now for about $900 on a good day. It’s nothing to call the president about: 21.5-inch 1920×1080 display, Core i7 CPU, and 8GB of RAM. It plays back [...]

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  • Review: Sony Vaio Z-Series

    Review: Sony Vaio Z-Series

    Posted on May 28, 2010 | No Comments
    Short Version: The Sony Vaio Z-Series is a thin and light with a mission: to prove that a tiny – but expensive – laptop can run Windows 7 and almost anything you throw at it like a champ. Features: Intel Core i5 Processor 13-inch screen 3 lbs with battery Chiclet keyboard MSRP: About $1,899 ($2,299 as reviewed) Pros: Amazingly light Long battery life Optical drive Cons: Scratch prone [...]

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  • More evidence of the HP Envy 14, Envy 17 and dm4 surface

    More evidence of the HP Envy 14, Envy 17 and dm4 surface

    Posted on March 26, 2010 | No Comments
    HP has a spring refresh coming real soon and we might finally get a look at the Envy 14 and Envy 17 that's been rumored for so long. The Envy models, along with the dm4 from the other day's rumor, were found on the same sort of support documents that supposedly leaked the notebooks late last year. So here we go again, down the rabbit hole of rumors.

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  • The HP EliteBook 8740w: DreamScreen and Core i7 and USB 3.0, oh my

    The HP EliteBook 8740w: DreamScreen and Core i7 and USB 3.0, oh my

    Posted on March 23, 2010 | No Comments
    The HP EliteBooks have always been, well, elite and the new 17-inch 8740w cements that claim even more. Graphic designers, CAD users, video dudes, HP made this one for professionals like you. An array of Intel Core i5 and i7 CPUs are available with the 1.73GHz 820QM as the top-tier option while either a 1GB  Nvidia Quadro and ATI [...]

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  • Review: Plextor 128GB SSD

    Review: Plextor 128GB SSD

    Posted on March 17, 2010 | No Comments
    All the cool kids are playing SSDs these days. So much so that every manufacturer wants of piece of the sweet cherry pie. Even Plextor who was previously known as an optical drive/media company has a set of 64GB and 128GB SSDs available now. Too bad these options tastes more like a supermart-made pie than [...]

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  • Seven alternatives to the Apple iPad

    Seven alternatives to the Apple iPad

    Posted on March 12, 2010 | No Comments
    Wait! Stop. Before you hand over Apple your credit card and pre-order the iPad, you may want to check out the other touchscreen options available now and in the near future. The iPad isn't the only game in town. Sure, it might have a fancy-pants interface, but each of the follow seven tablets win the hardware fight, which is just as important to a lot of consumers. Of course the hardware only tells part of the story. The iPad has a leg up on all of these options because of the user-friendly iPhone interface, but it's not like you're dropping $600+ on a tablet for your parents, right?

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  • The Dell Precision M4500 brings serious power to the 15.6-inch party

    The Dell Precision M4500 brings serious power to the 15.6-inch party

    Posted on March 9, 2010 | No Comments
    Dell made a huge splash back in December when it launched the Core i7 Extreme Precision M6500 beast, but it isn’t exactly a perfect mobile solution weighing in at 8.5 lbs weight and 17-inch screen. The new Precision M4500 aims to solve that dilemma by offering nearly the same power with a Intel Core i7-920XM [...]

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  • The Shuttle barebone XS35 HD is as thick as my granola bar is wide

    The Shuttle barebone XS35 HD is as thick as my granola bar is wide

    Posted on February 26, 2010 | No Comments
    Don't be fooled by the size of this Shuttle computer. It has everything that you would fine in a larger rig but is barely larger than a convential 3.5-inch hard drive at 33mm wide. But you probably knew that. After all, it is 2010 and small form factor computers are nothing new.

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  • ViewSonic ultraportable swaps out optical drive with extended battery

    ViewSonic ultraportable swaps out optical drive with extended battery

    Posted on February 23, 2010 | No Comments
    ViewSonic’s 13.3-inch ViewBook Pro (VNB131) promises up to 8-hour battery life with the standard 6-cell battery but you can also swap out the built-in optical drive with an included 3-cell battery slice for an extra four hours of juice. That’s a nice touch for anyone who’s on the go a lot but still needs to be able to work with disc-based media from time to time.

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  • Microsoft releases Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool: Lets you install Windows 7 without an optical drive

    Microsoft releases Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool: Lets you install Windows 7 without an optical drive

    Posted on December 10, 2009 | No Comments
    Would you run Windows 7 on a netbook? It's a good question, especially when you look at some of the benchmarks vis-à-vis battery life and past versions of Windows, namely XP. But let's put that aside for a moment. Let's say you do, in fact, want Windows 7 on that shiny new netbook of yours. Problem: your netbook doesn't have an optical drive, which makes installing Windows 7, oh, impossible. Until now! Microsoft has released the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool that let's users create a bootable Windows 7 USB drive or DVD ISO.

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  • Dell Vostro V13 takes styling cues from Adamo, but not the high price tag

    Dell Vostro V13 takes styling cues from Adamo, but not the high price tag

    Posted on December 8, 2009 | No Comments
    Oh boy, take a look at this. Dell's apparently porting the whole super slim Adamo idea to its more affordable line of Vostro business machines.

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  • Review: BFG Deimos

    Review: BFG Deimos

    Posted on November 12, 2009 | No Comments
    Short Version: The Deimos is the latest addition to BFG’s new line of computers. Intended as specialist gaming machine, the Deimos is big, beautiful, and very fast. Heat, bulk, and short battery life are to be expected from a gaming laptop, and aside from those it provides an excellent experience. Pros: Fast Surprisingly light weight nicely designed and set [...]

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  • Best Buy to sell a $249 notebook this holiday season

    Best Buy to sell a $249 notebook this holiday season

    Posted on November 10, 2009 | No Comments
    Need a dirt cheap and somewhat underpowered notebook? Best Buy has you covered with a $249 Acer laptop. Netbook, what?

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  • MAINGEAR ups its game, announces the SHIFT high performance line

    MAINGEAR ups its game, announces the SHIFT high performance line

    Posted on November 2, 2009 | No Comments
    Everyone, Maingear has created a beast in its new SHIFT series. These systems are massive towers of gaming and computing powering. You won't find any design nonsense here. Every aspect of these boys were designed with performance in mind and it shows.

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