An idea which has had a lot of success on the notebook area is the slim optical unit, which allows for those sleek notebooks. But Plextor took that concept and gave it another look to it by combining two optical units into the same 5.25-inch bay.

Plextor calls this a “compact dual-bay”, and the first model, of better said models, is the Plextor PX-DB608AL and it's formed out of a dual-layer multi-format Plextor PX-608AL and the dual bay Plextor PX-DB600, therefore the name Plextor PX-DB608AL. The main advantages of this type of product include its usage ion Small Form Factor (SFF) PCs such as Media Center PCs.

Taking the practical part into consideration, having two optical units in a 5.25-inch bay reduces space, but that is of no obvious use to somebody which uses a middle-tower case, it comes with four 5.25-inch bays, no problem there. Although there are two separate drives in the same bay, the connection to the computer remains just the one. Plextor says that the optical units can perform the same tasks as if the system operated with two independent units, like writing a movie on one Optical Disk Drive (ODD) while watching another one from the other one.

Rudy de Meirsman, Sales & Marketing Manager of Plextor Europe, says: "By their very nature lifestyle PC systems are compact and designed to take up less space. Unlike traditional desktop systems, extra drive bays are often unavailable, therefore limiting opportunities for adding optical drives. So for those users who do not want to add the extra clutter of an external USB box, the Plextor PX-DB608AL is ideal."

The Plextor PX-DB608AL is able to write DVD+R 8x, DVD-R 8x, DVD+DL 4x, DVD-DL 4x, DVD+RW 8x, DVD-RW 6x, DVD-RAM 5x, CD-R 24x, CD-RW 24x and read DVD-ROM 8x and CD-ROM at 24x.