[realeyz]

I have been shopping for the best and fastest CD-RW burner over the past coupoe of weeks and have come across a number of good ones, but I wanted to make sure before purchasing.

There are several that look promising:

Yamaha has one I think that is a 8x8x24 drive that looks good, and I remember seeing one that was 12x10x24 I believe.

I want one with fast re-write as possible but not at the expense of reliability of course.

What do you guys recommend?

Thanx!!

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RealEyz Imaging
Animation | 3D Modeling | Visual Effects | Web Design | Compositing

[Xyphoid Process]

I'm very happy with my 8x4x24 Yamaha SCSI, but haven't done any RW discs yet.

Check out http://www.xlr8yourmac.com for an exhaustive collection of user reports on all types of drives.

[Cipher13]

Unfortunately, 'best' and 'fastest' are two different things...
Fastest: Prob Plextor's 12*10*32
Best: Without a doubt Yamaha's 8*8*24
Yamaha burners are the best on the market. End of story.
They're not the fastest though.
I have the Yamaha 8424 SCSI, and have never had a problem with it.
I don't see the need for a 12*10 speed burner anyway...
I don't even write at 8 speed very often.
I have done CD's of all types on my Yamaha, under Toast Deluxe 4.1, and never a prob with any of them - MacOS CD's, audio, Win, mac/win hybrids, cd-rom XA, multi-session enhanced audio CD's and so on... even unix cd's.
I'd say go for the Yamaha without a doubt. Are they firewire or SCSI?
What computer do you have?

Cipher13

[realeyz]

ok thanx - I have an older Yamaha burner that I like also from about 4 years ago when they cost $2000. I have only had maybe 2 discs in 4 years not write from errors, but I suspect they were faulty media rather than the drive iteself. I have also had my eye on the 8x8x24 yamaha but I read somewhere that they require the hard to find 8 re-write media that isnt much available yet. Is this true?

Thanx for help.

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RealEyz Imaging
Animation | 3D Modeling | Visual Effects | Web Design | Compositing

[Cipher13]

I hadn't heard that - I imagine it can still use the common 4X RW media - It needs the 8X RW media to be able to rewrite at 8 speed, but it must be able to rewrite normal RW media at 4X, no?
Anyone know for sure?

Cipher13

[realeyz]

Oh I forgot to say that I need a Firewire drive. Does the Yamaha come in Firewire or only SCSI? If it only comes in SCSI than what is my best alternative for a Firewire drive. My computer is a Dual G4 500, but I also need to get a CW-RW for one of my PCs.

- Todd

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RealEyz Imaging
Animation | 3D Modeling | Visual Effects | Web Design | Compositing

[Cipher13]

It comes in FireWire.
CRW8824E is the FireWire model. I think.

Cipher13

[This message has been edited by Cipher13 (edited 09-19-2000).]

[Xyphoid Process]

I'd steer clear of Firewire - very expensive for what you get, not as stable as scsi and what you're buying is an IDE drive with a FW-IDE interface. Go with a scsi drive and an el cheapo SCSI card - the Adaptec 2906 goes for about US$50 and at 10MB/s has more than enough throughput for any burner. Should come out sig. cheaper than FW.

As for blank disks, the "8x" media is just a certification. Most media can burn faster than it is certified so that won't necessarily limit your speeds.

[This message has been edited by Xyphoid Process (edited 09-19-2000).]