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By Andrew Gould 6 August 2008

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The war is all but over and the king proprietary hardware has won, apparently. So you had better get used to saying “BD-ROM” drive like we had to.

If you are buying a new PC and want a drive that can playback everything, this is it. The first aftermarket PC Blu-ray Disk drive has arrived. Blu-ray disks are finding their way onto shelves and soon you will want to be  viewing everything in high definition. The only way to do that right now is to get your hands on one of these. The Sony BD-ROM drives feature standard SATA interfaces so you can install them inside your Windows XP or Vista PC. Sony is also ­including CyberLink's PowerDVD BD Edition so you can watch in full HD, but you’ll probably have to buy an HD monitor and new RAM and probably a new screen card.

Its RRP is R2499 (incl VAT). Call Comstar ­Technologies on 011-314-5812 for more info or details of your closest retailer.

PROS
It writes to a variety of formats.
CONS
It is very pricey and will require a RAM and Screen card upgrade if you're not yet HD compatible.
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