[B Gallagher]

Hi all,
I'm currently using a PC at the moment (I know.. I know...) with two optical drives. Both can read DVD's. I've managed to flash one of the two drives (an HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4480B), so that it's RPC1.

When I get my iBook, I want to take this drive out of my PC, and install it externally on the iBook. What will I need to do this? Would and IDE to USB/FireWire cable be enough, or would I need an entire case? If so, is there a difference between external cases for hard drives and optical drives?

Also, would the drive install itself on the iBook under plug-and-play, or would I have to install drivers, etc?

My reason for doing this is that when I get an iBook in a few months' time, I want to be able to watch DVD's from different regions without having to flash the iBook's internal drive, and void the warranty.

Which brings me to my last question - would DVD Player have any problems recognising the external optical drive?

Thanks.

[SWFan]

You'll need to buy an external Firewire case. And yes, there are differences in size. There are cases designed for 5.25" sized devices such as your optical drive. Just pick whichever one suits your fancy in terms of looks.

As long as you stick with Firewire you shouldn't need any drivers. OS X should see the external drive and work with it just fine.

DVD Player should also work with it. The only thing I don't know about is if the DVD Player also has some kind of region locking in it or not. Wouldn't really matter, you could always use a program such as VLC to play the DVD's if DVD Player had a problem.

With all that said, there is a slight possibility that your iBook could have a problem with the drive. Generally it shouldn't, but you never know with 3rd party products. I would suggest checking xlr8yourmac.com and look through their database of drives and see if anyone there has used the particular model you've got to see if there are any Mac-specific problems with it.