Home News Reviews Forums Shop


External Lacies versus External Plextors

DVD-R/W, DVD+R/RW, DVD-RAM

External Lacies versus External Plextors

Postby Buck on Fri Feb 18, 2005 4:42 am

Hello. I can't choose between these two. The latest 716UF from Plextor and the d2 (?) from Lacie. The Plextor might have a better writing quality, which is essential here, but Lacies look so much nicer. I wonder what people think - is there a great difference in DVD-writing quality between these two? Which one would you recommend for DVDR writing work?

Also, has anyone experienced any stability problems with external DVD drives (firewire/usb issues)?
Buck
Buffer Underrun
 
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 10:14 am

Postby Justin42 on Fri Feb 18, 2005 12:34 pm

I can't comment on LaCie except they normally rebadge someone else's drives (at least in the past). A quick Google search shows it's an NEC which some people swear by....

That said, I just picked up a 716UF in sterling silver yesterday (the only colour my BB stocked). It's really pretty; from the picture I saw the d2 looks like a normal black NEC in a case. The 716UF definitely is made to look like an "external drive" and not just an internal shoved in a case.

Plextor's been really iffy with their DVDRW drives, but it seems like the 716 finally got it (mostly) right. I don't know the price difference between the two but I think they're both pretty good burners. The Plextor's probably a tiny bit more capable as a unit (DAE, Plextools for disc quality checking, etc), but the quality difference probably isn't huge. I would assume the LaCie will be fairly equivalent priced (they've never seemed to be an inexpensive brand). That said-- you'll find as many Plextor fanboys as NEC fanboys, so I'd suggest you read as much as possible to try to get a good picture of the tradeoffs for each.

I've been running a Sony DRU500a in an external firewire case for 2.5 years and have never had a problem (I've been able to upgrade firmware and such, too). I HAVE heard of issues with internal drives mounted in cases (by the end user, I don't mean a drive sold as an external like the LaCie) of late, which is part of why I just got the 716UF and not a 716A and mounted it myself. I would DEFINITELY use the firewire and avoid USB2 for optical drive use-- firewire works really, really well.
Justin42
CD-RW Player
 
Posts: 723
Joined: Sat Jun 29, 2002 10:30 pm

Postby Ian on Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:14 pm

If you want a sweet looking external drive, check out Memorex's new 16x16 FireWire/USB DVD writer. Like the LaCie, its based on the NEC, but it has a blue LED and one of the nicest cases I've seen in some time.
"Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt." - Steve Jobs
User avatar
Ian
Grand Poobah
 
Posts: 15127
Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2001 2:34 pm
Location: Madison, WI

Postby dolphinius_rex on Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:40 pm

The downside of the LaCie is the fact that unless you firmware hack it to run the retail firmware, it will be stuck using the OEM firmware released by LaCie, which takes FOREVER to get updates (yes, even worse then NEC's slow updates!) and usually comes out for the Mac only for quite some time, before getting around to being updateable on the PC.

Other then that, it's a good drive! :wink:
Punch Cards -> Paper Tape -> Tape Drive -> 8" Floppy Diskette -> 5 1/4" Floppy Diskette -> 3 1/2" "Flippy" Diskette -> CD-R -> DVD±R -> BD-R

The Progression of Computer Media
User avatar
dolphinius_rex
CD-RW Player
 
Posts: 6923
Joined: Fri Jan 31, 2003 6:14 pm
Location: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Postby LoneWolf on Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:50 pm

I honestly have not had any issues with my Plextor 708UF at work, so I don't think Plextor has had an extremely iffy track record as some would suggest; rather they've sometimes had issues that took a few firmware updates to work out, mainly concerning media compatibility. That, and other people currently have better internal burners on the market for less (NEC and Pioneer)

If an external is your only way to go, I'd go Plextor. Otherwise I'd choose an internal NEC or Pioneer. USB has yielded mixed results for people, what with a higher CPU usage (I wouldn't multitask while burning, that's for sure) and slow transfer rates. I use firewire with my Plextor, which has worked quite well so far.
Intel Q9450 @3.2GHz, Gigabyte GA EP45-UD3P, 4 x 2GB G.Skill @4-4-4-12
Antec P160SW case (modded), Xigmatek 750w PSU
3x 500GB (RAID-5), , OptiArc 7200S, ASUS E818A3T
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer, Hauppauge HVR-1800, Radeon 4890
Dell 2407WFP
User avatar
LoneWolf
CD-RW Player
 
Posts: 937
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2003 4:41 pm
Location: Meecheegan


Return to DVD Writers

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests

cron
All Content is Copyright (c) 2001-2024 CDRLabs Inc.