blakerwry wrote:I wouldn't worry a bit about the stupid CPU recomendations... infact a newer drive will almost certainly work better with an older system than an older drive.
1) newer drives support UDMA (which uses less CPU resources than M/W DMA or PIO)
2) Newer drives support BURN PROOF, which will help prevent coasters.
3) Newer drives still allow slower burn speeds for compatibility with older media and computers.
I've seen people pay more money to get an obsolete drive(that will work worse than a new drive and perform slower)... just doesn't make sense... buy whatever drive you want and ignore the CPU recomendations.
I agree wholeheartedly with blakerwry on this one. I've tried to say the same thing before.
The one caveat I would add, and this isn't directly applicable to the question of CPU speed and the burner itself, is to make sure that any bundled burning software will work with your OS/hardware, if you intend to use that software. Often times slower CPU's happen to be used with older OS's, so you should check the software compatibility.
cfitz