[Hakintosh]

I received the Iomega 4x4x6 External USB CD-RW drive as a Christmas gift. It is truly a gem. I plugged it into my TiBook, and Mac OS X & iTunes automatically recognized it. I was burning CDs within 5 minutes of taking it out of the box. Thats when I realized how incredibly slow a 4x burner really was.

My question is: Would it be possible to replace the internal drive with a faster CD-RW drive or even a combo or super drive?

- Hak

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

Would it be possible to replace the internal drive with a faster CD-RW drive or even a combo or super drive?

Possible? Technically yes.

Will whatever drive work faster than 4x in a USB enclosure reliably? Nope.

Don't waste your money or time replacing the drive mech.

If you want to burn faster, ditch the slow USB connection altogether and move up to a Firewire external.

[HouseSold]

Currently added a TDK VeloCD 24x10x40 CDRW to a case from Cooldrives at: http://www.cooldrives.com/fir13oxcden.html

Good price, no tax and fair shipping. Works excellent and noticed speed difference while plugging in an ATA Maxtor 40 gb ($99 at Costco) to move data.

Total cost of Drive and Firewire 911 Case = $207

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I have assembled several combos of enclosures and drives.

Also ordered another case from Compuvest at: http://www.compuvest1.com/engine/default800.asp?56426

Great price ($68) for firewire case (bought from Compuvest before).

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Best Deal of all for another computer was here: http://www.caldrives.com/Merchant2/m...41040sanyo-pci

24x10x40 Sanyo in Firewire 911 enclosure (I know chipset is more useful in HD's than in optical drives) and comes with FREE (no charge) PCI-firewire card ($40 value)

Speak to Walter and mention us at MacNN
This is the current best already assembled package/price/performance firewire 24x10x40 CDRW.
Total cost $189 for firewire CDRW plus shipping.
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The Compuvest case has no fan and I feel it is un-neccessary for most current CDRW drives.

I have used the Caldrive CDRW with OSX and iTunes and is totally satisfying for $189 being used constantly.

The other case has an 80gb Maxtor drive that Staples price-matched Googlegear for $162 and then took off $25 for coupon code 70911 so 80gb external drive in firewire case total cost $247.