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Recommend an External DVD Burner or Enclosure...

PostPosted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:41 am
by hrbngr
hello,

I need an external dvd burner for work and I was wondering if anyone here had a particular recommendation. Either a complete unit or a drive plus an nice enclosure would be fine with me. I need both USB 2.0 and Firewire connections if possible.

From a cursory look at newegg, i saw the plextor px-716uf and Msi-dre8 as well as a LiteOn 16x too. I know that the Pioneer and BenQ drives are highly regarded here, so if there is a sweet enclosure, i would definitely go that route.

thanks!

PostPosted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 12:15 pm
by hrbngr
of the enclosures that are on Newegg, so far, I like this one the best:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 607&depa=0

i mainly like this unit b/c it does not have a fan vs the bytecc units which do have a fan and built in PS.

i am not having much luck determining whether or not USB 2.0 will always work when connect to a laptop (IBM thinkpad R40)...firewire will definitely be fine at home, but at work, I do not have access to a firewire connection---unless I can find a pcmcia firewire card.

PostPosted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:00 pm
by aviationwiz
The no fan means your drive doesn't get any cooling though, which is always nice.

I'd recomend the Vantec NexStar 2. I just got a 3.5" one for my Hard Drive, and love it: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=370864

PostPosted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:01 pm
by hrbngr
from an earlier post here:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... 48&start=0

it looks like an Oxford 911 chipset will work ok for my needs. however, I am not sure of a way to verify what chipset a manufacturer uses for their enclosures, so if anyone can post a link that would be great.

it looks like the Macally I posted earlier uses a "Nec720130 + Inition 1430L" chipset, but I don't know much about that.

Also, from the post mentioned above, I went to Cooldrives.com and found some further info:

here are both of the enclosures they sell for CD/DVD drives:
combo: http://www.cooldrives.com/5usb20fiopdr.html
firewireONLY: http://www.cooldrives.com/5exfienalcdd.html
** note, both of these use the Oxford911 chipset.

here are their pcmcia firewire or firewire/usb pcmcia cards:
2port firewire only: http://www.cooldrives.com/pccatoiefiru.html
ali chipset combo: http://www.cooldrives.com/usb20fi13pcc.html
TI and NEC chip: http://www.cooldrives.com/fihiusb20coc.html


so, they seem to have some good options, but no definites on which would be the most compatible, or give me the least number of problems when burning DVD+/-Rs. also, the fact that they are more expensive than newegg/googlegear is a concern as well.

PostPosted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:36 pm
by hrbngr
aviationwiz,

can you confirm the firewire chipset for that unit?


also, I found this LaCie drive at newegg for $90.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 003&depa=0

I called LaCie and they cofirmed they use LiteOn drives for CDRW and that this unit has an Oxford 911 chipset for firewire. It's also on sale at LaCie's store for $80...and if HALC is correct, then the drive can be swapped out for another drive--like a BenQ, Pioneer or NEC.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:14 am
by hrbngr
does anyone else have any ideas or recommendations?

PostPosted: Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:34 pm
by ruderacer
hrbngr,

Check out this case.

http://www.adstech.com/products/PYRO139 ... id=API-800

This one I've seen at Wal-Mart.

http://www.adstech.com/products/DLX185/ ... pid=DLX185

I too am looking for a case. Good luck.

PostPosted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 6:21 pm
by supraman215
I just did exactly this. I got a USB - Firewire enclosure for my LG 16x DL writer (4160B). I went to new egg and got the cheapest one that had what I wanted, (USB 2.0 and Firewire)

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 846&depa=0

the BEST part about it is it has an INTERNAL power supply. So all you need for a power cable is a standard 3 pronged computer cable! So I just leave one at each of my comptuers and it makes swaping it around a snap. Plus if I have to take it to someones house I don't have to lug a big power supply, it's not too heavy either.


Jeff

PostPosted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 6:35 pm
by supraman215
Also speed isn't an issue. Top speed of a DVD drive at 16x is 21.3mBIT. Firewire and USB 2.0 are both 400mBIT and up.

PostPosted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:45 pm
by cfitz
supraman215 wrote:Also speed isn't an issue. Top speed of a DVD drive at 16x is 21.3mBIT. Firewire and USB 2.0 are both 400mBIT and up.

The DVD transfer rate is specified in bytes per second, firewire and USB in bits per second. So the number you really want to compare to the USB/Firewire transfer rates is:

16x DVD = 173 Mbits/sec

This figure is equal to 8 * 21.6 MBytes/sec. See here for a bit more info (no pun intended).

We won't even go down the road of whether 1K = 1000 or 1024... :(

The above notwithstanding, your main point that USB 2.0 and Firewire have the theoretical bandwidth to support 16x DVD burning is valid.

cfitz

PostPosted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 5:34 pm
by hrbngr
ruderacer and supraman215--thanks for the feedback. Supraman, does your enclosure use the oxford 911 chipset?

this is similar to the ubiquitous "what's the best dvd burner question?", but would any particular burner tend to work better in an external enclosure than another? I don't necessarily have to buy a 16x drive, but it seems most of the drives for sale these days are that speed.

PostPosted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 8:03 pm
by supraman215
You are correct. I'm basing all my math on CD 1x being 150kBytes/sec 1x DVD is 9x faster then that. which is 1.3mByte/sec which is 172mbit. good call. No wonder I can't burn over the network, damn I need gigabit.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 1:05 am
by jpuntel
Your questions and answers can be found here

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=119149

I found this thread to be both informative, and helpful.
It's long, but worth it. Good luck.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 1:56 pm
by hrbngr
jpuntel,

thanks for the advice. from reading this thread, it looks like the preferred chipset for external enclosures is made by prolific, most readily available from dealsonic.com.

http://www.dealsonic.com/plpmblcousb22.html

however, i was unable to find definitive info about which pcmcia adapter to use for firewire connectivity--other than one recommendation to find a NEC chipset based firewire card over an ALI or TI chipset based option.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 7:38 pm
by dodecahedron
hrbngr wrote:jpuntel,

thanks for the advice. from reading this thread, it looks like the preferred chipset for external enclosures is made by prolific, most readily available from dealsonic.com.

http://www.dealsonic.com/plpmblcousb22.html

why do you say that?
there's lots of combo (FireWire+USB2) external closures that use the Prolific chipset.

PostPosted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:44 am
by hrbngr
dodeca,

i agree that there are plenty of enclosures available that use the prolific chipset, BUT not every place selling them online lists the chipset of their enclosures. Also, dealsonic.com has a good price, $32, and a good RMA policy, combined w/the fact that a number of ppl in the cdfreaks thread have had great luck w/the unit--though not always burning at 16x.

so, i went ahead and ordered the enclosure and a firewire pcmcia card, also jpentel had already ordered a stortecc unit, which is made by the same manufacturer as Plumax.

I was having horrible luck finding a good enclosure locally, and although some ppl in this forum have had decent luck w/the oxford 911 chipset, enough ppl in the other thread could not get burning speeds even as high as 12x w/one...so i decided to go w/the prolific set instead.

also, i would be very interested if you know of someone selling an enclosure made of aluminum w/firewire/usb2.0 and a prolific chip, w/an external power supply, so that the enclosure does NOT have a fan--that would be optimal for me.

PostPosted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:14 am
by dodecahedron
hrbngr wrote:although some ppl in this forum have had decent luck w/the oxford 911 chipset, enough ppl in the other thread could not get burning speeds even as high as 12x w/one...so i decided to go w/the prolific set instead.

i'm surprised - i'd thought it's the other way around, that the Oxford 911 is better!
guess i'd better go read that long topic at cdfreaks :o

PostPosted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:45 am
by spryfly
dodecahedron wrote:
hrbngr wrote:although some ppl in this forum have had decent luck w/the oxford 911 chipset, enough ppl in the other thread could not get burning speeds even as high as 12x w/one...so i decided to go w/the prolific set instead.

i'm surprised - i'd thought it's the other way around, that the Oxford 911 is better!
guess i'd better go read that long topic at cdfreaks :o


It all depends on which drive you have.....oxford 911 works well with nec 3500.

edit: it appears that it gets worse....brand of case plays a roll apparently
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... 59b60779c6

fyi: mine was a plumax from dealsonic