Question Best / Cheapest external USB DVD-RW for laptops?

[VirtualLarry]

Newegg's got a Lite-On and and LG for under $30. I've used the LG before. Best not to even breathe on the drive if your burning a disc.

 

[killster1]

maybe you are burning to fast on bad discs. any reason not to get a blu ray burner that can burn dvdrw? i use pioneer slot load but its been a while since i burned any bluray and not sure which discs are compatible with it or not, think it was 60$ 4 years ago?

 

[dlerious]

I've been using LG for years without any problems. I almost always burn slower than the blanks rated speed. I bought the LG mainly because I started burning M-Disc. Bought an OWC Mercury Pro external which has an LG, but haven't given it a try yet. Lite-on was usually my 2nd drive when I had multiple drives - they were the goto for reading problem discs for a long time.

 

[ArisVer]

"Make" one.
My first notebook (HP650) had a single 2.5 inch HDD. I bought a cheap HDD caddy from eBay, removed the DVDRW and replaced it with the caddy and a second HDD.
Later I saw that there are also DVD caddies. So i got one and installed the DVDRW, works with USB2, and it's good enough. I did not use it much but it's working fine.
Both caddies cost around 15$ (5-10$ each). Got an old laptop for spares?

 

[aigomorla]

ugh i dont like the ones which are powered by USB.

I bought a large ASUS external Bluray writer that i can plug into any PC i need.
Your not going to be required to have a optical on your laptop anymore, and sad as it maybe, i can probably even download faster then a 56x optical thanks to my 1gb fiber.

 

[EXCellR8]

I've bought cheap ones in the past and never really had an issue... don't really ever need to burn many disks anymore.

I did have an old (2009) Samsung that could burn dual layer DVD's but I haven't used it in ages. That beast used 2x USB ports