What's with the crazy prices on external CDRWs?

[AMDPwred]

I'd like to buy a CD-RW to take to work but I would have to have an external burner. What's the deal on these prices? What's the best one for the price? I'd like to spend under $150 for a decent speed burner. Any feedback?

 

[Odoacer]

Even better question: What's up with these USB burners? *faints* it'd take weeks to burn one CD...

they're probably more expensive cuz they're, uh, external, so I suppose that you gotta add stuff like connectors (firewire/USB), durable external casing, etc. It all adds up, I guess. Plus, it's convenient, I guess, so you pay more for convenience.

 

[AMDPwred]

<< so I suppose that you gotta add stuff like connectors (firewire/USB), durable external casing, etc. >>



But you can get an internal burner 4x the speed of an external for the same price. But I guess it really doesn't matter, I just want to get one at work (can't open up my Dell ). Anybody have any suggestions?

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Unless you're using FireWire or USB 2.0 (or SCSI for that matter), the speed of external CD burners is limited to ~6x by the USB interface. That's why they're so slow. If you choose a USB 2.0 or FireWire CD Burner on the other hand, you get the speed but you pay because they're relatively new to the market and there is less competition. Right now external CD-Writers are not very attractive unless you use SCSI and have money to spend.

-Ice

 

[AMDPwred]

Thanks for that breakdown bud. I don't think my work PC has firewire (or my home one for that matter) so I can't get that. Or SCSI. So I'll have to get a normal USB one. What's the best price/performance burner out there? If you could pick one from the Circuit City website that would be great, I get huge discounts because my mom works there. Thanks!

 

[AnMig]

I have a IOMEGA zipcd external usb. This is the old eggplant colored one. I bought this for $199 about a year ago and the prices have not dropped compared to the internal ones. I use it for my home pc and and lap top. It is slow but if all you are doing is backing up data or downloading stuff from the office internet to take home it will serve its purpose. It is slow 4x4x6 the latest version I believe is the predator which you can snag near you price range.

The problem with usb writers at least mine is they dont have burn proof so be prepared to have some coasters. Also this particular drive is picky with cheap cdrs it will only write 2x on my cheap cdrs but will consitentlky write 4x on cdrw.

another problem with usb writers is you cant use them in dos (if you plan to use ghost ) you cant write to them directly.
good luck

 

[AMDPwred]

Man, I'm having second thoughts now. It just doesn't seem worth the money. Guess I'll just have to rub off my co-workers somemore

 

[AmigaMan]

I was actually looking at these today at MWave. You might want to think about a parallel port version. I think LaCie makes these. You get the same speed as a USB1.1 version, but you should be able to use in DOS since its parallel right? Anyways, I'm going to get a USB2.0 CDRW and get a USB 2.0 PCI card for my home pc. My lappy has USB1.1 on it so I can burn at slow speeds if I have to (since the USB2.0 is backwards compat) but will burn at a decent speed at home. The Pacific Digital one at MWave for $199 looks enticing because it comes with a two port USB2.0 pci card in it. USB1.1 speeds for it is 4x4x8x and USB2.0 is 16x10x40x.

 

[Oyeve]

Its all about supply and demand.

 

[apoppin]

I just got an external 4x Philips USB CD-RW for my Notebook on Black Friday. It was only $119 after Office Depot's and Philips' MIR and I was able to use a $30 OD coupon to bring the final price down to $89 (plus tax, of course).

It works great even if it is slow . . . no coasters yet. Of course, I will only use this when I am away from my desktop. Unfortunately, it is not practical to take my desktop to Hawaii for 10 weeks.

You gotta check the Hot Deals forums regularly. There are deals.