External CD/DVD burner? advice, pls..

[97tbird]

Is anybody using an EXTERNAL cd/dvd burner (using USB 2.0)?
if so, I'd like to know what you think of these things...
we have a laptop and a home PC. the laptop has a dvd drive, but not a burner. the home PC doesn't even have a dvd drive, only a cd-burner, so i'm considering buying an external burner to paly/burn dvd's...

(we can get a good dvd player, BUT we don't yet have a dvd player due to lack of a suitable tv, and until we can afford a good TV, i thought we'd able to watch some movies on our 17" LCD monitor of the home pc, with an upgrade to a good 2.1 pc speaker system, for a cost of about $130 for both...)

or should I go with an internal drive, just use it with the main/home pc, and just forget using the laptop for burning/playing dvd's (the laptop lcd screen is only 15"?

any advice is welcome

I was looking specifically at this one, which has some great reviews on newegg, and supports all kinds of formats:

lite-on external dvd burner

what do you guys think?

 

[Bill in Utah]

I use a NEC DVD DL burner in a USB 2.0 enclosure and have never had a problem.

I burn DVDs, CD-Rs with 100% good output everytime.

I do not do anything else with the computer while its burning as I do with my other computers that have internal drives.

It's nice to have a DVD burner to back up the lap top and use between computers.


I bought both the drive and enclosure at newegg and they are good to do biz with. Quick shipping and good items.

Take care, Bill

 

[Willy_G]

I hear that is a good drive. You will come to find that most burners on the market are made by just a few companies, Lite-On, Samsung, NEC, Matsu****a… & others just re-lable them. Lite-On is to computers like Giant was to Bicycles in the 90’s.

FYI, you will see that it comes with a 110v power supply. These are not powered by the USB, like a micro drive or flash chip. You wouldn’t be able to go 100% portable with the laptop.

I would save some money and just put an internal burner in the desk top if it will support it. With the saved money, add some RAM, if needed in one of the PCs. You could always slap the drive in a case at some later point in time. Look for local deals and rebates…but I hate rebates just like everyone else.

A couple weeks ago I was at STAPLES. They had a Pacific Digital DVD burner for $69, minus a $30 rebate. It was not the newest model (only 16x), but I figured I could not go wrong for $39. When I took it home, I was pleasantly surprised that the drive was actually a Samsung unit, just like the other OE drives in my HP desktop. It has been A-1. (2.5 weeks since I submitted the Easy Rebate, though)

 

[Bill in Utah]

Hi,

I bought this one because it has a built in power supply (not a powercube) and uses normal PC power cords...

enclosure

Then add DVD DuelLayer NEC drive...

DVD Drive

I picked the beige because no shipping. If you want black to match the enclosure, $2.50 more or you can by a silver enclosure. Mine is silver with black drive because at the time no shipping on either.

Yes, IDE cable inside enclosure and mount the drive with screws inside and snap halfs and wola!

Power is from a normal 110 vt cord and plugs into USB 2.0 for data.

Works great. I have 3 computers plus a laptop and wanted a Duel Layer drive (Some DVDs that I want to back up will only read with a DL drive.) I have DVD internal drives on all of the computers.. So I bought the enclosure and put the DL DVD drive in there and went to town.

I also have a few harddrives in enclosures for off site storage and to have a common drive to bounce between computers (for photos and MP3s).

Let me know if you have any more questions!

Take care, bill

 

[97tbird]

Bill, I appreciate it.

Can you tell me what you think of this, pls (note prices)? (a combo package with NEC internal, with an external enclosure)
..i hope it's already put together..

http://www.pc4usa.com/DetailSales.asp?productID=154&parCat=&Catn=5

or this:

http://www.pc4usa.com/DetailSales.asp?productID=143&parCat=&Scatn=42&Catn=5

Thanks for being patient

 

[kloppilt]

I have Lite-On internal 4x DVD burner. I've had it for a couple of years and burn probably 3 DVD-s a week. Works fine.

Internal DVD installations are not that difficult. Open the case, remove the old CD drive and replace it with the new DVD burner. The cables can go in only one way so you can't mess that up. Since you have one drive, you won't have to worry about the jumper settings either because the new drives come as master drives.

It will take 5 minutes tops.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Looked at both and the only thing is that you make sure that the powersuppy is built in IMO.

I could not tell.

Looks like both would do fine. Watch any of these companies for shipping costs.

I just bought some Ext warrenty for Digital cameras I've bought and total cost of the warrenty slips was $85 and could fit in a envelope and ground shipping was $25!

The cost overall was still much cheaper than other places but some of these places are just amazing that they charge so much...

But I pay their bills..

It's supereasy to build one of these or install a drive in your computer. I'd say less than 1/2 to do it.

Take care, bill

 

[Bob Woods]

Burners are getting cheaper to buy check out

http://www.salescircular.com/nc/computer/dvdwtp.shtml

 

[97tbird]

both of you: thanks a lot;

Bill, educate me a little, I'm not very PC savvy

So:
you bought an INTERNAL drive and use it with an "USB ENCLOSURE"?? sounds neat!
so the internal burner's IDE cable just plugs into the USB enclosure?
how much does an enclosure cost?
where does the enclosure get its power from?

is this an enclosure like you have?:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&Category=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

these cost as much as an internal driver, though.

Can you explain a bit further?

WILLY:
you mean: if bought that lite-on burner, and hooked it upto my pC via the USB 2.0 port, it won't work?
can you explain?

Thanks a lot, again