Making my dvd burner external

[Evilmage]

I don't know anything about these products, so I'm hoping somebody could help.

When going to college, I'm bringing my laptop. However, laptops have very little storage capacity, mines being 40 gigz. I was wondering if there was a good external exclosure to put an ide drive into that utilizes firewire or usb2. I'm interested in bringing my dvd burner in particular.

Any specific recommendations?

 

[tazdevl]

You can buy a external USB/Firewire enclosure. There's a solid Coolmax (has 510 in model#) enclosure that Newegg sells. Burning performance will be the same as an IDE burner.

Another option is just buy a external drive... I've got a Sony DRX510UL for a good price, best on the market. PM me if you're interested.

 

[Sheriff]

I use the 1st option tazdevl stated that way I can change over to a HD if need be and do get the Firewire/USB combo because eventhough the Optical won't max out the transfer rate on either one the Firewire will run the IDE HD faster.

 

[Eug]

Just buy a cheap external USB 2/Firewire enclosure for $60. I dunno how good the USB 2 drivers are for those enclosures, but the Firewire ones always seem to work fine. (I've bought about 5 of them, of various brands).

Any Firewire chipset will do for a burner, but if you want to run a hard drive off in it then make sure you get the Oxford 911 chipset - fastest.

BTW, does your laptop have either Firewire or USB 2? I guess the choice of enclosure will depend on that. If neither, then you'll need a PCMCIA USB 2 or Firewire card for the laptop too.