The first Blu-ray burner for desktop computers that I got my hands on a few years back was well over $1000. Today you can buy a computer with a Blu-ray player for about the same amount. Pioneer has unveiled a new Blu-ray burner for desktop computers called the BDR-205.

The drive is a 5.25-inch desktop drive made to go inside a computer. The cool part about the new drive is that it is the first Blu-ray writer to hit 12x speeds. If you have ever burned a full Blu-ray disc of data, you know how long it takes to write 50Gb of data.

The drive will also burn to other media forms like DVD and CD at 16x and 40x respectively. Pioneer will begin shipping the drive in October 2009 with a retail version shipping in Q1 2010 for $249. I guess that means until next year the only place to get the writer is inside a computer purchased through a system builder.