best external enclosure for an internal DVD burner?

[Kaido]

I'm thinking about getting the internal NEC 3500 DL burner. Is it possible to put this in an external case? If so, what's the best one? What would be a better interface, USB 2.0 or Firewire, and is there a good combo enclosure?

Also, does it need a seperate power supply or could it run off USB power? I used to use a 2.5" enclosure for a laptop hard drive, and it ran fine off USB power. I'd imagine that 5.25" optical drives require a lot more power.

 

[tiap]

They work great. Can't remember the brand but it uses both usb2 and firewire, has it's own power supply, takes any size drive, has an oxford chipset I think and costs around $35.00. Try googling for them.

 

[568overclocked]

i would be interested in knowing this as well...thinking of either going pioneer or nec for the internal burner

 

[Drakkon]

I use one of those el cheap-o $25 USB 2.0 IDE enclosure kits and it works great. I only burn at 2x though so i know not pushing the limits but i prefer to be safe

 

[AtTheGates]

5.25 externals do need extra power. Firewire is a little better than usb 2.0 in many tests but I would get a usb2 version because they are typically cheaper and compatible with more system. I got the cheapest Bytecc from newegg and I'm pretty happy with it. Not sure about write speeds but there are plenty of factory made 8x drives using usb 2.0.

 

[flyvholm]

I went with the combination of a USB 2.0 enclosure and the Pioneer DVR-108. Didn't work. Kaido (OP) went USB 2.0 as well and has trouble too (see the first of the links below). And we're far from alone. Here's a quick collection of links to threads in different forums relating to issues with CD/DVD burners in external enclosures:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...7&threadid=1393757
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=98826
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=91547
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=91697
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=96337
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/100475
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/1/102002

I'm sure there are many more. If you know of similar threads describing problems and possible solutions not in the list above I'd be happy to see them since this is quite helpful for troubleshooting. You will note that a majority of the issues apply to the USB interface rather than firewire. I haven't tried putting my burner in a firewire enclosure yet, so I can't be sure how that performs at high throughput, but I know that the USB has been nothing but trouble to me. The USB ports on my laptop (Presario R3000Z) are unstable, and almost all DVD burns are coasters. It did appear that I could burn DVDs at 8x hooking it up with a better laptop. However, 2 out of 3 would still fail at 12x while I can burn fine at 12x mounting the drive internally (IDE). So it appears that USB 2.0 has overall stability issues and especially at sustained high transfer rates. I will be getting a firewire enclosure instead and look forward to testing it.