MCE Technologies on Tuesday introduced its new 8X Dual Layer SuperDrive Upgrade for the Mac mini, enabling users to record up to 8.5GB of data on a DVD+R Dual Layer disc. The bootable drive writes DVD-R and DVD+R media at 8X speed, DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs at 4X speed and DVD+R Dual Layer media at 2.4X speed. It requires Mac OS X v10.3.6 and is compatible with v10.4 "Tiger."
Users can install the US$199 drive themselves or choose between two full-service installation options: Standard ($49), which uses two-day shipping both ways, and Supreme ($99), which uses overnight shipping. The base price of the drive under the latter two options is $99, but MCE keeps the original optical drive. The company notes that customers can get price breaks on hard drive and RAM upgrades installed at the same time; see its Web site for more information.