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diskgolfking · May 4, 2004, 10:08 AM

So I plan to go to the Apple store tonight and pick up a new stock 12" Powerbook with my educational discount. The only thing I can't decide is whether to get the Superdrive model or not.

I would like the Superdrive but I just don't know if it will be useful enough to warrant the expense. I don't have a video camera. I would like to buy one but I don't know if it will fit in my lowly student budget.

I also use my desktop for backups. It has two hard drives so I feel pretty safe with it. I know it might be useful to have some kind of off-site storage (or at least something I can grab as I run out of the building if it catches on fire!) but I don't know if that warrants the expense either.

So, I ask: are you really using your Superdrives? What for? And are you using it more or less than you expected to?

RooneyX · May 4, 2004, 10:22 AM

You can download pawrn and make deeveedees.

And then mail them to politicians you don't like. They'll acquire bad habits and then get involved in scandals

hldan · May 4, 2004, 10:39 AM

Wow, a really helpful response would be nice. Very rude.
The Superdrive is very useful "now" than when Apple first introduced it in the Powermacs years ago. Back then it was too expensive and consumers were just beginning to burn CD's so DVD burning was kinda overkill.
Don't ever trust that a backup HD of any type (be it from another PC or external drive)to be reliable. If for nothing else the Superdrive will be perfect for backing up your "purchased" and valuable music downloads and other important software that won't fit on a CD. Backup HD's can fail and all your data is gone.
Also unless you can afford an upgrade every year then get the most that you can afford when you buy your computer so it will outlast most future updates.

0s and 1s · May 4, 2004, 10:55 AM

I purchased a 15" PB 1.5ghz w/o a SuperDrive because I don't need it. Should the day come that I'm desperate for DVD burner, I'll buy the 8x external for $200.

cszar2001 · May 4, 2004, 11:20 AM

I had no choice-the 17PB has a Superdrive as standard drive.
Is it worth it? In my eyes: Yes.
Backup is a lot faster to do with DVD`s than with CD`s.
If you have several computers I would buy an external drive that can be used with all of them.
If your PB is your main computer-get the built in drive.

SciFrog · May 4, 2004, 11:42 AM

Never used it...

diskgolfking · May 4, 2004, 12:23 PM

Thanks for the input so far

I was under the impression that external drives didn't work with iDVD. Is that still correct or has it changed? If that is still an issue then getting the internal drive seems to make more sense.

The only problem I see with buying an external drive is that it is more expensive - costing more than $200. I will have two computers when I get the laptop (the other is a MDD dual 867) but I am not sure I need more than one computer to have access to the DVD burner. If I need to backup data from my desktop can't I just copy it over the network (probably slow over 802.11g) or power up my desktop in firewire disk mode and do it that way? How easy is it to do things like that (I have heard of them but don't have much experience in that regard)?

dodo_nutter · May 4, 2004, 04:03 PM

im a student too and i just bought a 15.2" without a superdrive...saved �120. i have a 15" iMac that im typing on now with a superdrive which i have NEVER used...

out of interest does a combo read/write CDs faster than a superdrive??

0s and 1s · May 4, 2004, 04:29 PM

Yes, a combo CD burner is faster. I believe it's 24x, and the SD CD burner is 12x. I might be wrong...

redJag · May 4, 2004, 04:45 PM

Combo ("Combination") drives: The drive writes to CD-R at 24x and CD-RW at 16x, reads DVDs at 8x, and reads CDs at 24x.

Apple's revolutionary SuperDrive: The SuperDrive reads DVDs at 8x, writes to DVD-R at 4x, reads CDs at 24x, writes to CD-R at 16x, and writes to CD-RW at 8x.

dodo_nutter · May 4, 2004, 04:49 PM

Thanks for the info...was wondering about that. personally i never have used and never see my self using a superdrive as i use my iPod to back data up and i have a 250gig external here at home that im gonna back stuff up onto wen im at home.

question is do you think you will use it...its a personal thing ya no

cszar2001 · May 5, 2004, 12:31 AM

Originally posted by dodo_nutter:

question is do you think you will use it...its a personal thing ya no

The problem is that you have to have a Superdrive in order to be able to decide if you`re gonna use it.
I think that resale value is higher with the built in drive.

diskgolfking · May 5, 2004, 08:38 AM

After discussing it with my fiancee (aka The Decision-Maker) I decided to go with the Superdrive.

One thing that struck me is how HEAVY the 12" PB is. I haven't really tried lifting the various laptops at the Apple Store so I was a little shocked. I was thinking, "If the 12 inch PB is this heavy, how heavy is the iBook or *gasp* the 15 inch powerbook????"

Now I just need to buy the external trackball so I can actually work efficiently on the little bugger.

EdipisReks · May 5, 2004, 09:26 AM

i use the superdrive a lot, but i use fcp and dvd studio. the 15" powerbook isn't light, but i wouldn't call it heavy. all of the apple laptops seem to be heavier than they are because they are compact.

teknopimp · May 5, 2004, 08:26 PM

Originally posted by diskgolfking:
After discussing it with my fiancee (aka The Decision-Maker) I decided to go with the Superdrive.

One thing that struck me is how HEAVY the 12" PB is. I haven't really tried lifting the various laptops at the Apple Store so I was a little shocked. I was thinking, "If the 12 inch PB is this heavy, how heavy is the iBook or *gasp* the 15 inch powerbook????"
cool:

so your fiancee must carry all the groceries, take out the trash and do all the yardwork too i suppose. the 12" powerbook has got to be one of the lightest, if not THE lightest, full featured pro laptops with built-in optical drive.

heresiarh · May 5, 2004, 08:30 PM

useful to store data and if you make professional quality videos.

diskgolfking · May 5, 2004, 10:40 PM

Originally posted by teknopimp:
so your fiancee must carry all the groceries, take out the trash and do all the yardwork too i suppose. the 12" powerbook has got to be one of the lightest, if not THE lightest, full featured pro laptops with built-in optical drive.

I think the other laptops I have picked up, while in actuality being heavier, seemed lighter because they are so big. The 12" PowerBook looks so cute and tiny until you try and lift it. It's really not that heavy but BOY IS IT DENSE!!!

sillydog701 · May 5, 2004, 11:13 PM

I haven't burnt many DVDs in my dual 1.42, so I bought the 12" PB with Combo to save me some bucks, and I also believe the Combo can read somehow faster in CDs (I could be wrong.)

Originally posted by diskgolfking:
I think the other laptops I have picked up, while in actuality being heavier, seemed lighter because they are so big. The 12" PowerBook looks so cute and tiny until you try and lift it. It's really not that heavy but BOY IS IT DENSE!!!

Well, according to Steve Jobs (or Apple), the 12" PowerBook is the most compact and full feature laptop available.

If you really want something light weight, you can try Toshiba or Sony. But don't expect as powerful as PowerBook.

bastula · 01:41 AM

Originally posted by redJag:
Combo ("Combination") drives: The drive writes to CD-R at 24x and CD-RW at 16x, reads DVDs at 8x, and reads CDs at 24x.

Apple's revolutionary SuperDrive: The SuperDrive reads DVDs at 8x, writes to DVD-R at 4x, reads CDs at 24x, writes to CD-R at 16x, and writes to CD-RW at 8x.

On my 15" AlBook (1 GHz), the combo drive (Panasonic CW-8123) writes to CD-R and RW both at 24x. The old CW-8122 writes at the speeds you mentioned above. If the new revisions are shipping with the CW-8123, they should also boast upgraded recording speeds.

From what I have read on this forum, the new SuperDrives are the Panasonic UJ-825, which according to the company, also have CD-R and RW speeds of 24x.

That is odd that Apple doesn't advertise the upgraded specs of the new drives.

So for a buyer of a new revision, if CD-R/RW read and write speed is important, it shouldn't matter whether you get either a combo drive or a SuperDrive.

EDIT: I just checked some sources. Apparently the CW-8123 can only write to CD-RWs at 16x and CD-Rs at 24x. The UJ-820 can write at 8x to CD-RWs and 16x to CD-Rs. The UJ-825 writes to CD-RWs at 16x and CD-Rs at 24x.

So my above statment still holds true IF the new SuperDrives are using the UJ-825. Sorry for any confusion.

heresiarh · May 6, 2004, 06:08 AM

hmm.

Arael · May 6, 2004, 07:52 AM

Originally posted by sillydog701:
I haven't burnt many DVDs in my dual 1.42, so I bought the 12" PB with Combo to save me some bucks, and I also believe the Combo can read somehow faster in CDs (I could be wrong.)

Well, according to Steve Jobs (or Apple), the 12" PowerBook is the most compact and full feature laptop available.

If you really want something light weight, you can try Toshiba or Sony. But don't expect as powerful as PowerBook.

The 12" is still heavier and bigger than small notebooks
from Japan or even IBM's X series.
I really want one without an internal optical drive.
I just don't think that I'd need to use CD/DVDs on the road.

bbales · May 6, 2004, 08:44 AM

I had my 12-in PB with a superdrive for more than a year before actually using it. Now I've used it 3 times in less than two weeks! Threw some footage from my video camera from a performance or two from various school things and within an hour or two had a very rudimentary DVD, with titles, etc., to give to a family who had missed said performance.

I don't actually use mine much for backing up, as I've used other methods with this particular computer, which is not my main one.

But I think I'm going to do a little more of that kind of thing now. It will be good for the music library which is growing. As it was, when I upgraded to Panther from Jaguar, ALL purchased itunes songs were lost. I had made a backup of the entire drive (using CCC), fortunately, so I was able to restore them. But if I hadn't, i'd have been completely out of luck.

I understand about being a poor student. But I think you might actually find the drive useful.

heresiarh · May 6, 2004, 08:46 AM

If you don't have the money, stick it out with CDRWs.

MilkmanDan · May 6, 2004, 11:07 AM

I'm making about 20 DVDs for people in my college orchestra, filled with compiled video and pictures from China. I think its money well spent (though my friends mocked me for getting it). If you can even think of a reason you might want to use it, buy the thing.

Oh, plus the ability to backup my 3000 photos all at once, is always nice.

heresiarh · May 6, 2004, 11:29 AM

Yea, I recently back 1000s of photos on dvds. Thats the only use for me.

hart · May 9, 2004, 04:41 PM

I'm trying to decide the exact same thing here.

I have a superdrive in my desktop and have used it exactly once in 2 years. But then again, I haven't gotten around to looking at or editing any family videos altho it's on the list. So maybe when that project reaches the surface I would be happy to have it. The other factor on my mind is that I keep my equipment for a long time and in say, three years, CDs may seem tiny and DVDs may seem necessary.

I suppose $200, when all is said and done is not that much to drop when you're talking roughly a $2500 purchase no matter how you spin it. Comes under the in for a penny, in for a pound heading.

The lower CD write speed is a little aggravating as that's the function I use the most. I do incremental backups of my photos every 700MB to CD (plus a whole duplicate set on an external firewire drive so I have three complete sets) then in theory take the CDs off site if I'm organized.

Ok, now I've talked myself into the superdrive....at least until I change my mind.