[shatten22]

I have read all the posts, done a search, etc... But I still have some questions -

I have PBG4Ti, and I want a good CDRW solution. I know everyone loves Yamaha and most like the Sony's...

Are any of these drives bus powered, or will I have to leave my cdrw at home?

How is the portable VST CDRW, and has anybody heard anything about plans for faster portable drives (over 8x).

Should I wait? Are 24x drives around the corner? I'll spend $400.00, but only once ( this year... )

What is the difference between 12x, 16x, 8x, beyond the 70 bucks. Is it worth it to get slower speed for a cheaper price?

thanks to everyone who answers...

shatten22

[Misha]

The portable drives from Addonics, VST, and LaCie are all bus-powered. LaCie and Addonics offer both 4x and 8x models, VST currently only offers a 4x model. I have not tested any of these yet so I have no opinions of them.

Speed depends on your needs. If you can wait 20 minutes to burn a full CD, 4x is fine. If you think you'll be burning more often than that then the 8x (10 minutes for a CD) might better fit your needs.

[iPaul UK]

It's worth keeping in mind that all the CDRW manufacturers are constantly playing a game of one upmanship in an attempt to win the sales wars. Think about it.. Do you actually NEED to burn a 650mb disc in 4 minutes? I have a 8X FireWire drive.. This will pop out a 650mb disc in around 8 minutes.. Plenty quick enough for me.. Also keep in mind that the faster you burn a disc.. The more likely it is to have errors on it. Plus the life span will not be nearly so long either. Having said that.. I'm yet to have a single disc fail regardless of burning speed.

So there ya go!

[This message has been edited by iPaul UK (edited 04-17-2001).]

[lucylawless]

Toast 5 can burn in the background, so I consider the issue of speed closed, unless you're manufacturing something and you need to burn dozens of discs. I have a QPS Que!Fire drive (4x4x24), and it's plenty fast. It's only burned a coaster once, and that was while I was copying huge files to a second hard drive at the same time (I don't count all the failed attempts at music CD's when I was learning the obscure settings of toast 4.0 OEM).

The only real problems are QPS's pathetic customer service, and the drive is not bus-powered...

[shatten22]

Are any of the bus-powered ones (portable) burn-proof? Is "burn-proof" worth thinking about? I know that Yamaha doesn't advertise this feature. Anybody with a cdrw that they keep at home, do you ever kick yourself for not getting a portable?

thanks guys.

shatten22

[wumeng]

I have a Yamaha CRW2100 which writes at 16x, rewrites at 10x,and reads at 40x. It requires power from the wall socket but is otherwise perfect! I agree that with Toast 5, write speed is less important due to the ability to burn in the background, but all the same, there's an amazing feeling the first time you burn a CD in 5 minutes!

I'd wholeheartedly recommend the Yamaha (if you haven't already figured that bit out )

[Cipher13]

Burn Proof is just a flash name some company thought up.
Its nothing special.
My Yamaha 8424 can burn while I do other stuff with Toast 4.

The Yamahas are unparalelled, and you're selling yourself short if you get anything else.


------------------

[PeteWK]

Allow me to beat my drum one more time (I hope they don't arrest me again). You should really consider getting a drive that has BOTH a USB AND FireWire interfaces with it. I have a Predator by Iomega. It only does 4-4-6 as a USB but 8-4-32 as a FireWire drive. Both of my computers are FireWire, but at the office, I need a USB drive. You may currently only have need of a FireWire drive, but be smart and get one for both because it's gonna happen some day.

PeteWK

(ps, Hey Cipher, have you done the math to see what percentage of all the posts you're responsible for? I'll check and insert.)

OUCH! Cipher - there are 220,748 total posts on this board. You've done about 6050 of them. Your percentage is 2.74% of the total.

[This message has been edited by PeteWK (edited 04-22-2001).]

[Bugs Bunny]

PeteWK, may I ask you a question? I am thinking of buying the new Iomega Predator Firewire CD-RW. It looks like it should be a nice addition to my Ti. It burns at 8x4x32, I think, and it looks very cool What kind of mechanism is inside your Iomega? And have you had any problems with it? Is it bus powered, or do you need a sepearate a/c adapter? Many thanks

------------------
Ti/500/512/20
G4/533/512/40

[This message has been edited by Bugs Bunny (edited 04-22-2001).]

[shatten22]

I just ordered a sony spressa 12x8x32 1600-a2 drive from ubid.com. It cost me $209.00 with shipping included. It iis refurbished and has a three month warranty from sony so i figure from all the burning i am going to do, if it doesn't die in those first three months, chances are it won't ever.


Cipher, methinks, either works for Yamaha or would sell members of his family for stock in the company. I hope Yamaha appreciates his love.

shatten22

[PeteWK]

Hi Bugs. I really like my Predator drive. It has a Philips unit inside. If you only want the FireWire then get that drive. The same drive but with a USB adapter will only yield 4-4-6 speed. The difference is in the interface. I have a need of using both USB and FireWire so I got the USB first and am about to get the FireWire adapter. The drive is NOT bus powered and does have a power supply. I use it with my Powerbook G3 (Pismo) and my FireWire iBook with great success. When I take it on the road, I enjoy the fact that the unit is much smaller than almost everything else out there on the market. Hope that helped.

PeteWK

[Bugs Bunny]

PeteWK

Thank you for the info

------------------