Legendary PC Storage Brand Plextor to Shut Down

[jardows]

I can't believe how many people are bashing Plextor. They are legendary for their CD burners, IMO. They were the best and everyone knew it back then.

It is sad to see the name die, but as a consumer; I'm not buying an SSD because it has the Plextor name on it. I won't use this as an opportunity to rant more about how mergers and acquisitions continue to erode capitalism. I think if they hadn't been acquired, Plextor probably would have gone belly up anyway.

I too am surprised they are retiring the brand. Plenty of examples of the actual company being closed down, but the brand retained. Swapping branding is (relatively) easy, while swapping entire engineering teams and manufacturing lines is not. I've never heard of SSSTC, and with the typical consumer research, would probably pass on that in favor of a more recognizable brand.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

I have a few of their late model DVD-RW drives in service, and they have served me well without issue. Sad to see them go, but it's understandable.

 

[TheLostSwede]

This Plextor is not Plextor Japan though, this is the company that Lite-On bought from Plextor Japan.
The company that made the Plextor optical drives are still around.

ASPINA | Corporate brand of Shinano Kenshi

ASPINA conceptualizes and nurtures new ideas together with our customers in order to propose optimum "movement" solutions from new perspectives.

www.aspina-group.com

Owned plenty of their optical drives over the years and a few of the Lite-On made SSDs that weren't half bad at the time.

 

[Paganstomp]

 

[Sabishii Hito]

This Plextor is not Plextor Japan though, this is the company that Lite-On bought from Plextor Japan.
The company that made the Plextor optical drives are still around.

ASPINA | Corporate brand of Shinano Kenshi

ASPINA conceptualizes and nurtures new ideas together with our customers in order to propose optimum "movement" solutions from new perspectives.

www.aspina-group.com

Owned plenty of their optical drives over the years and a few of the Lite-On made SSDs that weren't half bad at the time.

Yep, the last true Plextor drives were the PX-755(S)A and PX-760(S)A. Still have multiples of each along with various PX-716 models as I was an ODD enthusiast.

 

[Minus Infinity]

SSSTC just rolls off the tongue. Seriously couldn't they come up with something better as a name to carry forward.

 

[bug]

SSSTC just rolls off the tongue. Seriously couldn't they come up with something better as a name to carry forward.

It really does. Only not in English, but in Parseltongue.

 

[TheLostSwede]

SSSTC just rolls off the tongue. Seriously couldn't they come up with something better as a name to carry forward.

It's short for Solid State Storage Technology Corporation, which you're free to use instead.

 

[Waldorf]

@Zareek
except once the Hitachi/LG DVD burners started getting past 4x, and able to "rip" stuff (e.g. navi disc) the same way Plextor could,
all while costing less, i didnt care anymore (if they were the best).

 

[Minus Infinity]

It's short for Solid State Storage Technology Corporation, which you're free to use instead.

No thanks.

 

[mahirzukic2]

An article failing to tell what's what. They are first known for making CD/DVD drives including Lite-On, as transforming companies, as nobody needs CD/DVD medium anymore, failed to get into the train. The whole SSD story is just the end.

I was thinking the same. They were not known for the PC Storage which is more directed to HDDs and SSDs, but specifically CD/DVDs and the related tech.

 

[dir_d]

Plextor, the first DVD+-R Writer i bought to burn Sega DreamCast Games

 

[Deleted member 57642]

An article failing to tell what's what. They are first known for making CD/DVD drives including Lite-On, as transforming companies, as nobody needs CD/DVD medium anymore, failed to get into the train. The whole SSD story is just the end.

Dito. Seeing the title: "Legendary PC Storage Brand Plextor" was so confused - as if this news came from a parallel universe - where Plextor was the equivalent of Seagate or Western Digital.

 

[57er6uigyuholn]

In the 90s I had a super-expensive Plextor CDRW drive, one of the first with buffer underrun protection (BURN-proof) that would eventually become commonplace. It failed in under two years. I was not impressed. Come to find out they've been a zombie brand since then.

I'm sure we will soon see Plextor branded trash SSDs and USB sticks from china soon.

 

[GWARslave119]

20 years ago Plextor was THE optical drive to have. Along with excellent drives their PlexTools Professional software suite was a must as well. It was so good no competitor even offered anything like it as far as I know. I still have two fully functional Plextor DVD burners in my "museum piece" rig that's stashed away; a PX-708A (I think that was the last unit actually manufactured by Plextor) and a PX-716A (The first actually made by Lite-On?). Remember this was back in the PATA days when those drives cost $200-300. I also still have a couple of SATA PX-880A/890A's in working PC's but they're slowly dying. Those are also just rebadged Lite-On's. Another once top of the line brand name is now a causality of time, technology and possible bad management. R.I.P.

Oh yeah, if you wanted to burn your Dreamcast games without ending up with tons more coasters than you already did, that $200 cd burner was the way to do it, along with Discjuggler ;p

 

[Redwoodz]

Plextor, Liteon, Soltek, Epox, Abit, Aopen, Leadtek...is sad when all this great old days companys have the same end

Aopen still making somethings.

Techies these days will never know the thrill of researching and comparing 10 different brands of motherboard for the same socket.
Off the top of my head....
Abit, Aopen, Asus, ASRock, BFG, Chaintech, DFI, ECS, Foxconn, Gainward, Jetway, Leadteck, MSI, Soltech, Tyan. Sigh.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Aopen still making somethings.

Techies these days will never know the thrill of researching and comparing 10 different brands of motherboard for the same socket.
Off the top of my head....
Abit, Aopen, Asus, ASRock, BFG, Chaintech, DFI, ECS, Foxconn, Gainward, Jetway, Leadteck, MSI, Soltech, Tyan. Sigh.

I have a few of those on eBay saved searches....

Aopen ax8bc pro ii being one of them.