All Removable media drives Feeds

Glow Lounge Technology Zalman HD135

tech.co.uk staff — 1176332400

Glow Lounge Technology's Media Center system is based on the black version of Zalman's stunning ZHD135B chassis. The specification is also very impressive: a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, complete with 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM and GeForce 8800GTS graphics card. The latter makes this system ideal for the gaming enthusiast - and HDCP.

Watch premium HD download content, or install a Blu-ray or HD-DVD drive and enjoy hi-def movies on an HDCP-compatible monitor. Glow Lounge even supplies a DVI-to-HDMI cable in the box, so you can hook your system up to an HDTV. Interestingly, our review system came with Windows Vista MCE, although the Windows XP version would have worked just as well.

The Hauppauge NOVA-T 500 tuner means you can record two TV programmes at once and there's 750GB of storage. Yes, it's expensive, but this system is still very impressive indeed.

Zalman HD160XT

tech.co.uk staff — 1176246000

Although it can provide great flexibility as the centrepiece of your digital entertainment, the PC is way behind standalone DVD players and stereos in terms of appearance and useability.

For a computer to warrant the title media centre PC, it needs to offer more than just software. HTPC (Home Theatre PC) cases add front panel controls and, in this case, a brushed aluminium exterior to blend with other consumer electronics. But Zalman goes one step further with the HD160XT.

The main selling point of this chassis is the 15:9 ratio 7-inch LCD screen. This is a plug-and-play monitor, powered by a standard Molex connector, which makes use of a VGA cable fed from the rear of the case and routed to your video output. This screen works like a normal monitor, the only difference being its fixed position in your chassis.

Reading text is not easy with a mere seven inches of desktop real estate, although increasing DPI and allowing font smoothing in Windows can help. This is not a big problem, since you'll find yourself using it for full-screen media centre applications more often than email or word processing tools; the HD160XT is meant for entertainment after all.

Hands-on approach

The front panel display benefits greatly from touchscreen functionality, which means it's perfectly possible to take a computer housed in the HD160XT, with no mouse, keyboard or external monitor, and interact with your media centre like normal. This has become the holy grail for HTPC designers, who want to embellish a PC with the simple one-touch functionality of a stereo or DVD player, a major barrier to the PC becoming essential for the living room.

The touchscreen works by attaching an internal USB connector to a spare port on your motherboard, then installing a driver and control application. Functionality is sadly restricted to users of Windows only. After running the calibration tool, the touch interface is precise enough to make controlling your system a breeze, with full-sized track information, graphic equalizers or any software you choose.

Aside from its LCD screen and touch controls, the HD160XT is a standard media centre case. It features a set of four exhaust fans - located near the CPU, hard drives and next to the PSU - that all connect to a single fan controller allowing their speed to be adjusted within Windows.

This is definitely a welcome feature, since they are so loud when running at full speed you wouldn't want the case anywhere near you while trying to watch a film. As well as the driver software, Zalman includes its own media centre program, MediaBay. Functionally this software offers all you need for basic media browsing and it is also fairly attractive with thumbnails, transparent frames and large TV friendly text.

You can fit an ATX board into the chassis, unlike some other Micro- ATX only HTPC cases. The price for this convenience is in the huge dimensions of the case - similar to a regular PC tower but horizontal. We would actually prefer the HD160XT to be Micro-ATX only, just to reduce its monstrous size a little.

The interior appears very spacious but full-length video cards could be a problem, thanks to the removable hard disk caddy being only an inch from the side of the motherboard. This is partly down to the additional electronics at the rear of the screen taking up extra space. You still may be able to squeeze a G80 into the case, although perhaps not the longest or thickest variants. It's also hard to see why Zalman couldn't have provided us with a tool free installation, this now being the standard feature of premium cases.

Is this the perfect HTPC case design? No. But the touch-sensitive screen is a useful addition. A PC built around the HD160XT truly could be used as a standalone device, without restricting you in any way. Take the screen away and you're left with an attractive but large aluminium desktop chassis, similar to other HTPC cases. There are additions such as the integrated fan controller and memory card reader but little else to make the chassis stand out.

Smaller does not imply cheaper in the case of LCD panels such as this. The HD160XT costs £200 more than other HTPC cases that lack embedded, touch-sensitive screens. Considering the premium being demanded for this chassis, you might expect Zalman to include a PSU or better quality remote control, but both of these are lacking.

The interactive display is definitely a gimmick. In no way is it necessary for a working media centre system. It's a shame Zalman didn't put quite as much love into the rest of the case design as they put into the integration of the screen, which would have made this an outstanding product.

PQI U510 Ultra Slim Card Drive 1GB

tech.co.uk staff — 1159657200

Look at the photo of the PQI U510 - doesn't it look appealing? You can't help but be drawn to a stylish- looking drive that's the size of a credit card, weighs only 23g and is available in sizes of 1GB (£27), 2GB (£46), 4GB (£84) and 8GB (£129). We've seen one or two companies try and make card drives over the years, but nothing with a capacity this large or this build quality.

The U510's brushed metal finish looks tailor-made for a PowerBook or MacBook Pro, which is a good start.

The drive case is the same shape and size as the average credit card, and if that wasn't thin enough, there's an even thinner USB dongle that tucks away into the drive, and then extends out on a wafer-thin cable strap to meet a computer port. It's a dongle without any of the plastic housing, just the naked coupling. When it's docked, a blue light then shines from the strap to indicate that you're connected.

We transferred a bunch of 150MB files to and from the U510 drive with no problem at all. It's not the fastest drive we've seen, but it's certainly respectable. Speed isn't really an issue for this type of storage. If you were to line up 20 1GB drives at this price and time their transfer rates, you would be splitting hairs to find a winner.

Because of its delicate dongle and thin, wispy strap, it feels a bit like you're treading on eggshells whenever you dock it. We worried about whether the strap was going to take the weight of the drive as it hangs from a port. This is particularly a concern on the vertical USB port of an iMac, but less so with the horizontal ports of a Mac laptop where the drive can rest its weight on the desk.

Build quality

Previous card drives we've seen tend to suffer from two key problems when it comes to build. Firstly, and more of an issue for guys than girls: if the casing isn't hard enough, the unit will buckle and bend in your wallet the first time you forget it's in there and sit on it.

Secondly, the USB connectors can snap off. During two weeks of regular use we had no problems - helped by the fact that we didn't take it to the pub with us - but you can't chuck it about like a 1GB pen drive.

The backup software that comes with the U510 isn't Mac- compatible, but insists on letting you know it's there each time you dock it. Just click 'Ignore' in the OS X pop-up warning panel, then you can read and write to it with ease.

For the fashion-conscious owner of a brushed metal Mac laptop who's looking for portable storage, the U510 is quite a cool thing to buy. In fact, it's quite cool for anyone to buy. Everyone we showed it to thought it looked pretty smart; it certainly has that wow-factor down to a tee. James Ellerbeck

Plextor PX-608U

tech.co.uk staff — 1149116400

A portable DVD drive like this one from Plextor has obvious advantages, even for desktop users. If you only need to burn DVDs once in a while, it makes sense to get a pocket-sized drive that you can slide into a drawer when you don't need it. And when you're on the move, of course, the last thing you want is to be saddled with a desktop drive the size of a sandwich box.

However, the Plextor provides only half the answer. Yes, it's small and compact, but the obvious thing would surely have been to make it bus-powered?

As it is, the Plextor needs a mains cable and adaptor, just like all those bulky desktop drives. That might not be much of a hardship when you're working at your desk, but when you're out and about on the road it's another story.

We could probably forgive the Plextor for this if it wasn't also so darned slow. It took over six minutes to grind its way through our 500MB DVD R write test, making it slower even than the bus-powered LaCie Slim.

It struggled during our iTunes test, too, taking over seven minutes to burn an audio CD when its rivals were taking around four. While the Finder, iTunes and iDVD recognised the Plextor without difficulty, it's not labelled as a Mac-compatible drive and doesn't come with any Mac software.

Given this, things don't look good for the Plextor at all. It's a fraction cheaper than the Mac-friendly LaCie Slim, but not by enough to make it at all appealing. Worse, it's undercut by the USB 2.0 version of the LaCie drive.

At its launch, Plextor was able to boast that this was the smallest portable DVD writer on the market. However, its lack of speed and reliance on an external power supply rule it out as far as we're concerned.

Plextor PX-760A

tech.co.uk staff — 1149116400

A drive burning DVDs at 18x would surely explode into a million pieces - or so we thought. Plextor's PX-760A certainly generates the sort of noise that would suggest such a catastrophe, but it's admirably shy of vibration.

If the whirring gets a bit much, Plextor has included a silent mode, which basically caps your read and write speeds to limit the noise from the motor. It's a nice touch, but it doesn't get anywhere near silent until you creep towards the 1x mark.

Unfortunately, despite assurances that our Plextor branded media could handle the pressure, we never managed to get more than a peak of 16.4x writing speed out of a single-layer disc. Not that that's a bad rate: the average across the disc was 12.05x, which is a respectable score by all accounts.

Dual-layer burning hovers around the 6x mark and we don't doubt Plextor's claims that it can produce CDs even faster than the usual 58x maximum: our test batch was burned extremely quickly.

And there's more

What you get for your money is more than just an attempt at 18x, though. Plextor's second biggest selling point for the PX-760A is its built-in AutoStrategy technology, which should ensure that you're always using the fastest possible method of writing your disk. If it doesn't find one in its database, it creates it.

Our test burns outshone a 16x drive by only a few seconds, but if that's what counts for you then you'll be happy with this drive. It certainly seems reliable, and if you're unsure of its credentials then Plextor handily includes Plextools. This is a valuable multifunction package that includes some stringent tests for your potential media.

The one inescapable problem is that you've probably already got a DVD drive that works perfectly already. For all the advanced features Plextor crams in, this is essentially nothing new.

The jump in speed is admittedly significant between older 4x burners and this young contender, even if it doesn't quite go as fast as it says on the tin. Yet you'd have to really need this to justify spending £20 more than you would on a 16x drive. Alex Cox

Iomega REV 35GB/90GB

tech.co.uk staff — 1138752000

Iomega made itself an industry-standard name with its Jaz and Zip drives. Like these groundbreaking devices, the more recent REV introduction is based on small, convenient cartridges that you can buy on an ad hoc basis, but utilises hard disk technology within each cartridge for fast data transfer.

Spoiling you for choice, The REV drive is available both as an external device, in either USB2 or SCSI flavours, and as an internally mounted drive, with SCSI, ATAPI or SATA interfaces. Iomega sent an external SCSI model as our review sample, although the USB2 version is a little smaller and cheaper. Build quality is robust and the finish is both stylish and neat, although the need for a separate power supply adds an element of clutter.

The 35GB cartridges for the REV are eminently portable, weighing in at 75g and measuring about 75x75mm and 8mm tall and they're not exactly cheap, costing about £35 each.

As with the HP StorageWorks DAT backup solution, compression plays a major role in Iomega's strategy with the REV, which is why cartridges are labelled as 35GB/90GB, with an asterisk after the second figure. However, the compression element of the supporting Iomega Automatic Backup Pro software works well, making automatic, scheduled backups a doddle.

One of the things that made the Zip drive such a success was its ubiquity, enabling people to send large files to each other using cheap cartridges. Broadband has stolen some of the REV's thunder, but it's still good for transporting space-hungry multimedia collections and making backups. While transfer speeds are slower than on hard drives, they're much faster than on tapes.

Tuckaway

tech.co.uk staff — 1138752000

You can argue about processors and hard drives until you're blue in the face, but what really matters in a media centre is purely superficial. It's got to look fantastic if you're putting it near your TV, and it's got to make the least noise possible. Foxconn has both bases covered with this diminutive aluminium model, which ambitiously offers quiet (though not fanless) heat pipe processor cooling and a goodlooking perforated case.

It comes well equipped, with everything bar your CPU, memory and hard drive included in the dinky case. This includes a preinstalled notebook-sized DVD/CD-RW drive and a memory card reader that's quickly becoming a ubiquitous PC accessory.

Some of the hardware positioning is a bit difficult to manage, as you'll find when you come to try and force the CPU cooling elements into their tiny allocated space, or when you have to unscrew the bottom of the case to install your SATA hard drive. The 200W PSU also resides outside the case, both for space and heat reasons.

The Tuckaway is not really a multipurpose case, because its lack of height means there's room for only one card via a custom riser, and even that's only a bog-standard PCI. This is perfect for a TV card, but this means you can forget about upgrading to a modern 3D card, and while the onboard Intel 915 is fine for video playback and general desktop use, it's easily taxed by gaming. With the amount of heat this box generates, you probably wouldn't want to add the extra warmth of a video card, anyway.

Up against the Shuttle XPS (pretty much the leader in the mini-PC field) the Tuckaway doesn't fare too badly. Admittedly, the Tuckaway goes in lacking a number of the more frivolous features of the Shuttle, like its LCD screens and such. It even misses some otherwise crucial things such as an AGP slot, but it comes out fighting thanks to its flatter form factor, which has slightly more living room potential than its more boxy competitors.

As long as you're happy with a PC that you're really going to struggle to upgrade, you can be confident in your purchase. At the price this is an impressive combination of kit, and it looks the business, too.