If you need to store 25GB of data on a single disc, and you need it done (relatively) fast, LG's GBW-H10N offers up single-layer Blu-ray burning at a currently unprecedented 4x speed. Sure, there's a few other options out there, but this 3-in-1 offering sports a write speed that's twice as quick as the BenQ BW1000. As tough as these things have been to actually locate, the fine folks over at HardwareZone were able to get their hands on a unit and give it a good once over. The burner performed essentially as advertised, but the speediness came with a tradeoff -- while you can burn a myriad of formats ranging from CD-R / RW, DVD±R / RW, DVD±R DL, DVD-RAM, and BD-R, you won't be able to make use of those super spacious 50GB dual-layer BD-R discs. While the 4x label may be the primary selling point, the biggest boon was said to be its compatibility with a smorgasbord of media; many first-run Blu-ray burners have been annoyingly picky, but playing nice with basically every brand of media is quite a nice perk for the LG. By garnering a "very good" rating, the GBW-H10N proved to be a satisfactory solution for those who can live without BD-R DL capability, but your time should probably be worth a good bit of money (upwards of $700) before you pull the trigger on this one.

LG's been all over the place in the next gen optical disc battles. Today they bring the Blu-ray love in a big way with the introduction of BD media and three consumer level devices: The XPION x600 series PCs, the GBW-H10N Blu-ray burner we've seen before, and a mysterious living room player lacking any deets at all. LG tidied up the GBW-H10N branding by slapping on the "Super Multi Blue" moniker and dropping 'em in their new XPION X600 series desktops. LG, who apparently missed the design memo from Redmond, chose to dress the desktop in drab, and feature Intel's 64-bit, 3.4GHz dual-core Pentium D945 proc, a 320GB disk, 1GB DDR2 memory and nVIDIA's HDCP-enabled GeForce 7900GT graphics cards with 256MB of onboard memory. So yeah, no matter what those media player ISVs decide, these boxes will pump full 1080p HD vid off commercial BDs. Look out for the Super Multi Blue drive and X600 series PCs to drop first in Korea, Germany and France with their Blu-ray media and player scheduled for release sometime before the end of the year.

[Via Akihabara News]

Watch out BenQ, because your fellow manufacturers over at LG also have a 3-in-1 Blu-ray burner poised for release, and not only does it write to BD-R discs at a blistering 4x speed, it's coming to market several weeks before you're getting your BW1000 out the door. In fact, LG's Taiwanese subsidiary is claiming that the GBW-H10N internal drive will hit Chinese shores in the next few days, and at only $923, it's something of a steal compared to dedicated players going for $1000 and up. Of course the BenQ model still holds a few key advantages over this unit, most significantly its ability to burn 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray discs as well as its faster write speeds for most recordable DVD and CD formats. So for now it looks like you'll have to decide whether speed or capacity is the more important attribute, but as HDBeat alludes to, more competition in the market means that at least a few next-generation devices will probably have all the features you're looking for.

[Via HDBeat]