LaCie on Wednesday announced the Golden Disk, a newly designed device created by industrial designer Ora-Ïto. Offering up to 500GB of storage, the "liquid-inspired device will become the focal point for any design conscience customer looking to add glitz to their work environment," according to the company. "The Golden disk offers a unique jewel style while the outside finish actually contains a small percentage of real gold." Delivering fanless operation, the Golden Disk can connect to via a single high-speed USB 2.0 interface and offers cross-platform compatibility (with support for Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Mac OS X. The disk features a 7,200 rpm drive with 8MB of cache and an average seek time of 11ms. The LaCie Golden Disk, which bundles SilverKeeper Backup Utilities, will be available late October from LaCie direct and widely available via LaCie’s specialized dealer network for $190 with a one-year warranty.

“The Golden drive encompasses all that is glamour while having the guts to perform flawlessly with glowing performance,” said Lise Manteau, LaCie Desktop Solutions Product Manager. “Coming preloaded with utilities for automatic backups, the Golden Disk shines with its ease-of-use when needing to exchange information with friends and family.”