EZQuest Inc., a company that develops storage devices, began shipping its new US$189 Boa 48x12x48 USB 2.0 CD-RW drive today.
This news follows the release of the FireWire version of the 48x drive. Priced at $199, that drive began shipping in July. Mac users looking to get the maximum performance potential out of their CD-RW drives may want to look at the FireWire model instead. While FireWire and USB 2.0 sport similar bandwidth, Apple has not yet installed USB 2.0 hardware on its Macs. Any USB 2.0 device works at the slower speed of USB 1.1, and for the new Boa 48x, that tops out at 4x4x8. USB 2.0 cards are available as third-party add ons for Macs however, and work at faster speeds under Mac OS X.
The Boa’s streamlined case is light gray and shielded with 0.6 metal. It includes a built-in universal 50-watt auto-switching power supply, a cable and Charismac software for the Mac.
Both the USB 2.0 and FireWire drives comes with all necessary cables and software.