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Slimline external DVD for laptop $49.00 + shipping

Dam! And I just bought an Acer version of this for $99 from compugeeks a couple of months ago.
 
Good price, but...

TigerDirect - are they as bad as their rep here indicates? (and I just discovered that they're in Miami, meaning I can drive down to complain if there's problem, but I'd have to pay FL sales tax..)

Never heard of Archos - anyone have a clue about quality?

I've been thinking of finding a cheap bare slimline DVD drive and mounting it in a Dell combo bay carrier (I could also go with a combo DVD/CDRW drive (for a lot more money🙂) if I went this way). The convenience of avoiding carrying another device and dealing with interface cards and cables seems to be worth something to me. Has anyone gone with an outboard drive like this, and can you comment on the (in)convenience factor and any other pluses and minuses relative to an internal drive? On that note, anyone have an idea of what the cost advantage is? (That is, I can get this external drive for $50+tax+shipping. What is a reasonable price for a (laptop compatible) internal DVD? DVD/CDRW? The best prices I've seen on Pricewatch are about $100 and $180, respectively, but I've seen here that PW's prices aren't always even close to the lowest🙂)

ted
 
I have no experience with the Archos DVD drive, but once had the Archos pccardbus cdrw and never got it to work because I was unable to find the correct drivers for Win 98se for it, although it supposedly was compatible. The fellow I got it from said he had Win2000 and the unit worked fine for him. If considering the deal, check the Archos site to ascertain all the necessary drivers are available because, after buying my cdrw, I found forums where others were looking for drivers without success and no one seemed able to tell them where any could be found. The Archos site was about useless at that time, but it might have improved by now.
 
aarrrrggghhhhhh so tempting...... I really wanna get one for my Dell p2 400 notebook, but since I wanna upgrade in a year or so, I probably should wait..... 🙁 Im also really leary about Tiger Direct.....are they as bad as everyone says?
 
My first thought was to take this thing apart and rip out the DVD-ROM Mechanism for my HP e-PC
For $49.99 its a steal.

Tigerdirect has very mixed reviews, most people dislike them here on AT, and I was very skeptical with them until last Friday. Ordered on Friday nite, $49.99 Viking 512MB PC133 via Airborne Second Day. They shipped out Saturday 9/21, and at 8:46am this morning, I was woken up by the delivery man. (overslept, now I'm late for work 😉 ) Pretty impressive that they shipped out over the weekend.

Edited for Spelling & Grammar, too early for me to post 😀
 
Originally posted by: jfano
hmm...wonder how this would work with my IBM ThinkPad 600...P2/266
Click to expand...


Psychic! I was thinking the same thing (I have a 600e). I've been hoping IBM or some vendor would drop the price on the internal (swappable) DVD drive *sigh* Last check it was still $150 (I don't think so!).
 
IMHO, I would just use this to copy the DVD to the HD and watch it from there directly.

I've tried playing a DVD on a 600 and 600e laptop.....yuck.

 
Heheheh well it's a freaking 266mhz laptop right? I mean I had trouble with a 300mhz desktop!
Has anyone played DVD's on a more powerful laptop? I just ordered the Portege 2000 and was wondering if this would work well with a 750mhz laptop. But at this price, I should just grab it anyway huh?
 
I ordered using Amex Blue, hoping that if the product doesn't come as advertised, I can return it using the Amex return policy. As for Cardbus v2, I'm assuming that they mean the PCMCIA Cardbus slots that can supply 5V to the card (I remember that there are 3.3V and 5V PCMCIA cards).

I suspect that it may not come with the cables, but will wait and see. Will keep you guys updated.
 
Originally posted by: swNYC
My first thought was to take this thing apart and rip out the DVD-ROM Mechanism for my HP e-PC
For $49.99 its a steal.
Click to expand...
It's an idea. How standardized are these things from a size, connector, and interface point of view? (In other words, how likely is it that you'd be able to do this, and end up with something that would fit in the drive bay and work?)

ted

 
Looking at some of the photos leads me to belive that the PCMCIA card is an ide controller. Has any one purchased one of these?
 
"I've tried playing a DVD on a 600 and 600e laptop.....yuck. "

I've never had any problems running DVD on a thinkpad 600e (333mhz minimum). Just set your video to 16-bit color.
 
I have a bad feeling that this doesn't include the cables.
If you look at this page Click me you'll notice that the Archos Mini CD 24x Portable CD-ROM USB/PC Card Bus states that it "Includes USB & PC Cardbus interface cables" whereas the DVD version does not say that.
 
Just ordered it yesterday, shipped within one hour :Q The UPS guy just came, and I got it today, less then a 24 hour wait (double :Q) Anyways, its a retail box, with the cable (pc cardbus) I havn't opened it up, just in case I don't keep it though, so the box could be lying.
 
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