[skyman]

Can anyone please recommend a good (inexpensive) external USB CD/RW drive for my iMac?

Thanks!

[bigcee64]

All USB CD/RW's on the iMac are USB 1.1, meaning SLLLLOOOOOWWWW.

I did have success with a refurb Iomega purple drive, but I also had the Predator which was pretty useless under OS X.

If you have an eMac or iMac with Firewire I would suggest that as opposed to USB.

[echosphere]

yeah, he's right, they suck. USB interface=Enough coasters for a small micronesian nation.

But, I had the iBook 366SE and used a QPS Que! USB CD burner.

Not even sure if the F***ing company is still in business.

Rated as 4x2x8

Read okay. Recorded at 2x for CD-R, and 1x for CD-RW. Would make coaster whenever I turned my desklamp off. Seriously, the power supply was unstable and voltage would dip so much when there other appliances in an outlet that the burning would slow/fail. POS.

Seriously though, I would imagine that tons of people are selling used. I sold mine for $50 to a friend, after I told them how to treat it with care and the slow speeds.

Search e-bay, don't buy a new for more than $50.

My two cents.

[scottiB]

I had the first Sony USB CD-RW for my iMac 266--Sony Spressa CRX-100EX (4x2x6). I was very happy with it (gave it to my brother-in-law). It does take a long time, but I created perhaps 4 coasters.

Check out Apple's drive compatability chart (though some drives might be discontinued):

http://www.apple.com/itunes/compatibility/

You might want to consider a USB 2.0 model. While it'll only use 1.1 speeds, it might future-proof the investment a bit. Apple should incorporate USB 2.0 in the future (right? RIGHT?).

Check out eBay. I just scanned and found an Iomega 4x4x6 listing at $41 right now.

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by scottiB:
I had the first Sony USB CD-RW for my iMac 266--Sony Spressa CRX-100EX (4x2x6). I was very happy with it (gave it to my brother-in-law). It does take a long time, but I created perhaps 4 coasters.

Were you able to burn data at 4x reliably? What speed for audio?

[scottiB]

Originally posted by bradoesch:
Were you able to burn data at 4x reliably? What speed for audio?

4x for both, believe it or not. I had 384MB memory and set Toast 4.0's RAM cache to 64MB or something, set the hard drive to never sleep, and walked away. I never tried to record straight from the internal CD-R, I always ripped to my drive.

Funny thing it was the only Sony USB drive that worked with iTunes and Disc Burner (still does)--and, as I wrote, it was the oldest model.