Best value External CDRW?

[whoami2000au]

Someone I know wants to buy a external CDRW for his brand new compaq notebook.
And he's asking me what and where to buy...
Can you recommend one with good performance and nice price?

 

[ChipNOW]

If it's a brand new compaq then he should be able to buy an internal one, then again I 'spose he wants to copy from the internal DVD to the RW. In this case your absolute BEST choice would be a Yamaha/Plextor 16x10x40 in a Firewire enclosure.

 

[whoami2000au]

He's got a DVD, does this mean he can't get internal CD-RW?
I suppose it's too much to expect for a notebook to hold 2 cd drives.
Firewire encloser? what's that?

....

Now I get it..
The firewire encloser is the thing that can hold the internal IDE CDRW externally, right? If that's right, can this enclosure hold just about any kind of CD-RW? I'm not too sure about this..
Can i buy an ordinary IDE CD-RW drive and put it in the firewire enclosure?
I guess I have to check whether the notebook supports it or not.. Umm.. what about the USB case? Are they any good?

 

[whoami2000au]

what about SCSI ones... hmm...
What's the cheapest solution among firewire, USB and SCSI?
Are they sold as a package? I mean.. like.. external drive+enclosue+card
Or should I buy separate internal drive, enclosure and a adapt card?
Do I need a PC-CARD to fit it into the notebook?

 

[Noriaki]

SCSI would be by far the best, USB is not a good choice.

FireWire is pretty good.

HP and Ricoh both make external SCSI CDRWs specifically for laptops, in a kind of kit that should come with a PCMCIA card for the SCSI interface.

 

[ChipNOW]

If the notebook is pretty new it SHOULD have firewire. Noriaki, if the notebook has firewire, why pay for SCSI?

As for putting any drive in a firewire enclosure... yes you can.

USB is the least expensive, but by far the slowest. SCSI is the most expensive, but no quicker than firewire... therefore firewire is the happy medium.

 

[ChipNOW]

whoami... are you in Aus? I just figure from the AU. If so, you should be able to get a lot of this stuff at AusPCMarket(.com.au). Otherwise, there's some really cheap stores around the place. Hunt around in the Herald Sun, or your local paper - shouldn't be hard to find.

If you're not in Aus, forget everyting above

 

[whoami2000au]

Yup, me in sydney. hehe. G'day mate
Is the firewire support something to do with hardware support in the chipset?
If so, which ones?
So.. if he's got a firewire, does that mean it supports it but I need a pccard, or it supports it and it has some kind of adapter built in?
If so, all he needs to buy is the enclosure? Does he need any kind of cable, or it comes with the enclosure? and.. what brand name for the enclosure is good? What if it doesn't support firewire, then scsi is the way to go?
I'll try the Auspc thanks again
I checked out auspcmarket, they have 3 moldels..
1. Skymaster IEEE 1394 Firewire 2.5" IDE Hard Drive External Case w/cables, PC & Mac $176.00
2. Skymaster IEEE 1394 Firewire 3.5" Hard Drive External Case w/cables, PC & Mac $258.50
3. Skymaster USB CD-ROM external case, for Win98/MAC 8.5, connects any IDE DVD/CD-ROM to USB port $181.50
but no firewire cd-rw case..

 

[ChipNOW]

#2 will do the job (I believe). As for burners, as you know we get damn awful prices here (I'm in Melb.) compared to the states, so it's probably best to go with whatever's on special, as long is it has burnproof.

 

[whoami2000au]

I didn't know it was that expensive..
It's almost as expensive as the writer itself..
Oh well.. it's not me who's paying
I was thinking of recommending sony 12X10X40 internal IDE drive
Thanks again