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Micro Advantage & Cendyne 4x DVD+/- DVD Burners $49 @ OM

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"If you missed out on this deal, you shouldn't feel too bad. I bought a Cendyne (NEC) ND-1100A a couple of weeks ago during the last big clearance sale. If I'm not mistaken, it's nearly identical to the ND-1300A, so I assume that the performance (not media compatibility) is about the same."
they are electronically/structurally the same drive

"The ND-1100A is SLOW, and it is not a good all-purpose drive."
what drive for -$49 no rebate is?

"The maximum CD writing speed is 16x, and the maximum CD rewriting speed is 10x."
most dvd burners are -- the new 8x are faster, but i don't think they are as reliable

"If you plan to do a lot of CD burning, you need to have a decent CD burner in addition to the Cendyne DVD burner (which I have). I've also had some problems simply READING data. So it looks like if you want to do a lot of fast, reliable DVD ripping, you need to have a decent DVD-ROM drive in addition to the Cendyne DVD burner. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want three CD/DVD drives in my computer, so there's a trade-off, and I don't like it."

that regarding the 1100a (hp300i om deal here) is true, but that's life too

"CSR said they sold out within 1hr of opening this morning. he mentioned the "internet knew about this deal" lol"
i'm surprised that ANY store in CA still had them up til today... my location was cleaned out sunday 😀



 
I made the mistake of picking up one of the Micro Advantage's-it is a TOP G drive. I have never heard of the brand.
 
Some people will disagree with me if they have had a bad experience with a drive, but I have found that Top-G makes good drives, whether they are CD-ROM, CD-RW, or DVD-ROM. (I don't have any experience with their DVD burners.) I've bought over 50 of them in the last three years (mostly CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives but also quite a few CD-RW drives), and I've had problems with only one of them (a CD-RW drive). Every computer I sell has a 6-month warranty and I never heard back from anybody, and to me that's a pretty good record and it reflects well on Top-G. I bought most of them at Fry's under the BTC label (no rebates required), but I have also purchased several of their CD-RW drives in the last few months at OfficeMax under the MicroAdvantage label (I had to send off for rebates). They're all noisy and they probably aren't made with the best technology or the best quality, but for the prices I paid for them, they were worth the money.

For what it's worth, the BenQ CD-RW drives (48x or 52x) I've bought from OfficeMax under the KHypermedia label have been okay, but I had some problems with a 52x CyberDrive CD-RW drive I bought from OfficeMax under the KHypermedia label. The main thing was that it made a lot of scary noises when I played music CDs, as if the drive was coming apart. But even so, I don't think I'd make any generalizations based on only one sample.

I hope this helps!

unclebud, I just read your message. If you think that I expect too much from a $39/$49 DVD burner, you're probably right. 🙂 I mainly just wanted to make people aware that it's not a good idea to use an ND-1100A or an ND-1300A as the SOLE drive in their computer. If that's their intention, they might be disappointed. I think we both agree that you get what you pay for. Good luck finding good deals. That's what it's all about in this forum. 🙂
 
If anyone gets ahold of an extra 1100A or 1300A, I'd be more than willing to take it off your hands and throw in a little extra for the effort. 🙂

1300 preferred, obviously.
 
Originally posted by: cutty
Got the last two Micro Advantage from my local OM. Can any one tell me how to tell it's 1100 or 1300? I tried to fill up a 4X CD-R with about 4.5GB data, it took about 15 minutes. I think it's OK, right?
BTW, from Tomshardware, 1300A may be more compatible with CD-R than CD+R:
http://www20.tomshardware.com/storage/20031027/index.html
Click to expand...

SORRY! Those are BTC OEM's by Top-G (see above post too). The Cendyne's can be NEC's. For just $50 they are OK. But better 8x drives available for $20 more.

...russ
 
Originally posted by: cutty
Got the last two Micro Advantage from my local OM. Can any one tell me how to tell it's 1100 or 1300?
Click to expand...
I haven't seen the MicroAdvantage drives. (Are they re-badged NEC drives?) But the Cendyne/NEC drives clearly state the model number (in fine print) on the back of the box. You can also find the model number on the drive itself--there's a big label on the top of the drive. If you have already installed the drive and can't look at it, you can also see the model number if you open up a program like Nero Burning Rom and look at the "Select Drive" options.

I hope this helps!

 
the om spies over on fw got corporate to jack the price back up
the drives are all gone now, so i highly doubt the price will go lower -- as a matter of fact, it will go back up sunday (probably) if any are left...
 
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