[tiansa]

Greetings - I am interested in purchasing a dual layer dvd-R drive as an external drive for my PB and have been looking at the Sony DRX-700UL and the NEC 2510. Any thoughts on comparisons between the two - especially with respect to compatibility and reliability...
Many thanks...

Preferred vendors???

[Luca Rescigno]

Compatibility - I am not sure how well the Sony is supported, but I know that the NEC will work IF you download the Mac drivers from LaCie. See, LaCie sells NEC drives, and so they wrote drivers to make them compatible with Macs running Panther.

Reliability - Sorry, not sure about those. I'd trust NEC a little more than Sony, but I have no data on the reliability of their drives. What I do know is that they can only burn dual layer DVD+R format, not DVD-R, and only at 2.4x. It's quite a limitation, but then again you can always use single-layer discs to burn at 8x in either format.

Vendors - I buy everything from NewEgg. Go there, you'll get a good deal, and it'll be shipped for cheap or free. I usually get stuff two days after placing my order, just when using the standard shipping method.

[tiansa]

Thanks for the detailed info from your reply - one last question - any experience with particular enclosures? I must say that I am partial to metal/aluminum in particular?
The Macally unit seems interesting...

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...607&depa=0

Cheers..

[Luca Rescigno]

A lot of times I say to just get the cheapest one available, but in this case the cheap ones have annoying fans in them. That MacAlly doesn't have a fan, plus it's not a whole lot more expensive than a cheaper, uglier, louder one. Go for it.