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Tristrami · Apr 25, 2001, 07:33 AM

Since the CD-ROM drive in my Power Mac 5400 is on its last legs, but the likelihood of affording that new G4 cube or tower is remote, I'm really interested in getting an internal CD-R. My machine uses a G3/400mhz daughtercard upgrade and has 136mb of RAM. I'd be using it mostly to burn music CDs rather than store data, although that's not out of the question, either. Any advice appreciated!

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PM 5400/G3 400
Performa 6116CD

Tristrami · Apr 25, 2001, 07:35 AM

Best *CD-RW*...sorry, sleepy this morning.

Cipher13 · Apr 25, 2001, 07:53 AM

You want a Yamaha 8824SX internal. It'll be perfect for you. The best burner on the market, and you really wouldn't justify the extra expense of the CRW2100... audio CD's are best burned slowly anyway.

The 8824 is, as the name suggests, 8*8*24.

Um, I have the external SCSI version of the 8424... upon thinking about it, I'm not sure if they make an internal SCSI version - IDE yes but thats no good with a 5400...

Hmm... well, worth looking into, and if they DO make it, go for it.

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Tristrami · Apr 25, 2001, 08:00 AM

Cipher,

Found a Yamaha internal 8x8x24 SCSI burner at Outpost for under $200, and the listing has some decent statements assuring Mac compatibility. The numbers are Write (8), Re-Write(8) and Read (24) --- is that correct?

My only concern is that I get the correct type for my machine. I just intalled a 30gb HD in itand it was EIDE (not SCSI), so I'm going to have to go trolling through old TIL documents until I can determine that it is indeed SCSI that I need. Thanks for the advice!

Cipher13 · Apr 25, 2001, 08:19 AM

Your 5400 is definately SCSI (re. CD drive).
And the Yamaha is the best you can get.

As long as I haven't missed anything (ie. providing that burner goes into your comp, and the thoroughput from the SCSI bus is decent), you'll love it.

Get that burner. The bandwidth of the SCSI bus would be my only concern - no real prob though, I wouldn't think...

Will it physically fit int he machine? I'm not sure. I have a 5500 here I can take apart, but I never was able to get to the CD drive from the front... how do I open it? I took out the screws etc, but... no go

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Tristrami · Apr 25, 2001, 08:41 AM

You're right on both counts. The CD-ROM is SCSI (thanks TIL!) and getting the old out and the new in is THE hardest part. The 5400's All-in-one case provides a particular challenege. I may experiment with another machine, but I don't have another AIO (say an old 5200) to test with. Just to assuage my doubts, has anyone out there with a 5200 or a 5400 sucessfully replaced their CD-ROM drive? And lastly, what's the difference between an $80 Yamaha 4/2/6 and the $180 8/8/24 - is it really worth an extra $100 & why?

Cipher13 · Apr 25, 2001, 09:37 AM

I have 2 5500's, so I'll try again on the one behind me... its not currently operational anyway, so... (its RAM was 'donated' to the other 5500).

Its totally worth the extra - 4*2*6 or 4*2*16?

Its faster all around (a fair bit faster re. RW speed etc), and as Yamaha burners get newer and newer, they improve on perfection. The build quality, etc - reliability, lastability. Not to mention, the 426 one is probably used, and is quite old...

The newer one has a larger buffer too, which is important - less coasters

And you can do more stuff while you burn, but I wouldn't recommend that anyway...

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VRL · Apr 25, 2001, 01:18 PM

The external Yamaha 4x4x16 (SCSI) is rock solid. Love it. (knock on wood) Only one coaster to date! (BTW, I use it with my B&W G3 400.) If I upgrade in the future, it'll be a Yamaha for sure