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MCE OptiBay replaces your Macbook Pro or PowerBook G4 optical drive with a hard drive

Laurie A. Duncan

Updated Tue, Oct 17, 2006, 2:00 PM·1 min read

If you tote a portable around all day and find yourself needing extra storage more often than you need to read or write CDs or DVDs and you're tired of depending on slow external drives, then MCE has a solution for you. The OptiBay Hard Drive replaces your internal Combo or SuperDrive with a 2nd internal hard drive, offering higher capacities (up to an additional 160GB) than have ever been seen in a notebook computer. The good news is you don't have to give up your optical drive completely because every OptiBay ships with a portable Firewire enclosure to house your now-naked drive.

MCE is the company who also brought Expansion Bay drives to PowerBook G3 owners, so they are no strangers to this market. Prices range from $249 to $399 and all but the 15-inch MacBook Pro model is shipping now, with that one due out at the end of the month. I know a few mobile video editors who are going to be very pleased with this new offering.

Thanks Joshua!

Correction: In the comments, michael has pointed out that Alienware has a 17-inch model (the Aurora_m9700) that offers 2 drive bays allowing the same 320GB total expansion possibility. Ooof... it weighs almost 9lbs though! Thanks for the tip, michael!

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