LaCie announced today that the volume of drives being sold has enabled the company to slash the price of the drive to an unprecedented $299 after the mail-in rebate. In addition to its blazing-fast write speed, LaCie's new CD-RW incorporates advanced "BURN-Proof" (Buffer Under RuN) technology and provides users with the convenience of being able to easily transfer the drive between FireWire and USB-equipped computers.

With the ability to write CD-Rs at 3.6 MB/s (24X)— the industry's highest CD recording speed-- the LaCie 24x10x40 CD-RW can burn a complete 650MB CD in about 3 minutes. The same drive can be used to rewrite CD-RW discs at 1.5 MB/s (10X)--the industry's fastest rewrite speed. The LaCie CD-RW drive also provides 40x playback and fast, 150ms access.

To achieve USB and IEEE 1394 (U&I) functionality, LaCie incorporates both a FireWire controller and a USB controller in the new 24x10x40x CD-RW drives. When the drive is connected to a FireWire interface, performance is more than 12 Mbytes/second. When the USB interface is used, the LaCie hard drives deliver a sustained performance of up to 750Kbytes/second.

The LaCie 24x10x40x CD-RW is available through LaCie's accredited resellers and mail order partners at an incredible $299 after manufacturer's $30 mail-in rebate. The 24x CD-RW drive comes in LaCie's new SE2100 casing and includes BURN-Proof technology, FireWire and USB cables, international power supply, LaCie Recording Utilities and three CD-R discs. An ultra-SCSI version is also available.