[DNA man]

Hi All,

I'm in the market for a portable CD-RW drive. Some folks (sales reps to be exact) have told me the the bus CD-RW drives are not as good as the external powered CD-RW drives. Is this true in the real world?
Can any one pass on some good advice.

Is there a bus powered CD-RW drives with an external power supply option?
If there is such a CD-RW drive with a power supply option, do you know if it will work in the range 110-240V AC so that I can travel with it?

Finally can any one recommend a good brand e.g. Formac etc that will work with OSX as well as OS9.X?

Any advice very welcome.

Cheers,
DNA man

[Mithras]

Not that you might not already know this, but sales reps will lie to their mothers to get a sale. Not a great source for reliable info. Did this rep specify in what manner a bus powered is "not as good." Maybe not as good because he didn't sell them?

As far as I know, the bus-powered models work just fine. And of course, you don't have to worry about traveling with them; your laptop AC adaptor takes care of things for you.

You might consult the iTunes compatibility list (which pretty much applies for Disc Burner, too) at:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/notes.html

[Paco500]

I have used both (Que AC powered and VST bus powered) and, for the most part, they are fairly equal. The bus powered has the advantage of being more portable, generally smaller, and less cables to mess with. However, you do take a performance and price hit with the bus powered models. They are not as fast and I have not yet seen one with "burn-proof" technology. I don;t kow what this is, but ever since I got a Que fire CD-RW and used Toast 5 (both of which support burn-proof) I have not made a single coaster. This is nice.

With CD-RW's, as in all things, there are trade-offs. If you are going to use this in portable settings frequently, I would say the bus-powered is worth it. If it's going to be on the road only ocassionaly, go with AC powered.

Paco