[finknottle]

I'm going to buy an iBook before I go back to college. I was advised NOT to buy a USB CD writer because (and the following is from a Quotation I received)
"We must warn you that from our experience USB CD Writer/rewriters suffer
badly from the limitations of the speed of USB ie., they suffer from gaps in
the data transfer which occurs during the writing. This can be helped by
increasing the memory of the machine, turning off screen saver / sleep mode
and not using the machine for anything while it is burning the CD."
Is this true? Should I buy a Zip drive instead? If USB CD Writers are okay, is there some that could be recommended?
Thanks,
Kevin

[This message has been edited by finknottle (edited 09-03-2000).]

[SupahCoolX]

I have an Iomega USB ZipCD drive, and it works fine with my iBook. The major drawback with USB is that you can only write CDs at a maximum of 4x. Other than that, I've had no problems (except with Toast, which is a little, um, odd at times). There are major advantages to CDR/RW drives over, say, a standard Zip drive:
1) CDs can hold 650-700MB, zips are only 100-250
2) most anyone can use data you've put on a CD since CD drives are in 99.9% of modern computers (they don't need any special drives and such)
3) when you enter the world of mp3 downloading, you can put songs on CDs to use in any stereo/cd player
4) blank CDs are dirt cheap (i bought a 50 pack of Imation 700MB CDs for $25 yesterday) whereas other media can cost $10+ for ONE disc. For the record, I got 35GB worth of storage space for the price of about 500MB worth of zip 250 disks.

So, there you have it.

Shop around first before you buy a CD burner. I have heard that the Que drive is very poor almost to the point of not being useful. I don't know much about the Iomega drive but I suspect it's better. Speed will be a limitation with USB, so you may want to check to see if there are any with both USB and Firewire ports built in. It has already been done with hard drives. That way, you could always benefit from faster, more stable transfers if you get a computer with Firewire built in.

Also, if you are going off to college, check to see if your school offers free access to burners. I go to UCLA, where our Student Technology Center gives us free burning and scanning, though you might be limited by platform (i.e. Windoze only).

[This message has been edited by Howard (edited 09-04-2000).]

If it all possible, wait until AFTER the Macworld Europe show to buy your iBook. That's what I'm doing because the general consensus is that there will be an updated iBook available after the show. And all indications are that it will have a Firewire port (which has been built into the motherboard since P1, but simply lacked a connector).

I too want to get a CDR/R-W, but will only get on if it is Firewire (so I've been waiting a while). I've heard mixed reviews about the QPS 'Que' CD-RW, but was encouraged when I read that Apple would be selling them directly through the AppleStore.

[T.Rex]

I've had the Que USB 4x4x8 CDRW drive since last Spring. I've used it with my wife's iBook and my iMac DV and it has never made a bad CD yet. I have no idea where all the bad press for this unit has come from, but I've never had a better CD burner (I've had 3 now). I read about some problems with it writing at 4X, so I've always used 2X. I've read reviews about other units having problems at the 4X speed also, so it's probably a USB limitation. Use the 2X speed and you won't have any difficulties with the Que.

I personally can't imagine why 15-30 minutes to burn a CD is so unacceptable for most users. Especially when you know it will work and you won't waste time doing it again.

[Misha]

Transferring to the Peripherals forum, where you will be able to find lots of information about the subject (search for USB CD-RW):
http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/foru...amp;LastLogin=