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Super Drive versus faster External burner
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Oct 2006
Status:
Offline
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I’m new to the world of Macs having recently bought an iMac 17 inch Intel Core Duo. (Yes, I got it one week before the Core 2 Duos came out. *sigh*) I love the machine except for one thing and that’s the so named “Super Drive”. It’s quite slow compared to the burner I have in my other computer with that, you know…”other” operating system.
The burn rates for the Super Drive are only 8x for regular DVDs and 2.4x for DL DVDs. My other burner runs at 16x for regular DVDs and 8x for DLs. Does Apple use the slower drives for any other reason than cost?
What I am getting around to asking is it possible for me to use a USB connected external burner with faster burn times than the Super Drive with maximum results or is there something in the iMac Core Duo architecture that wouldn’t support higher burn rates?
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
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Offline
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There's nothing in the "architecture," but there could be incompatibilies with some Apple applications. Does the speed difference really warrant the external burner?
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Oct 2006
Status:
Offline
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Originally Posted by Big Mac
Does the speed difference really warrant the external burner?
I was wanting to find out if the speed difference does warrant an external burner without any hiccups with my Mac. If there could be issues, then I certainly won't bother with the external burner. The difference in times between the two is a half to a third times less. It would be a great convenience to burn more quickly, but it's not a necessity. Instead of getting rid of my Windows PC as I originally planned, I'll just hold on to it for speedier burning of discs.
Sill love my iMac though.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: President Skroob's Office
Status:
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Just get an external Firewire one. that way you can burn 2 DVD's at the same time, burn one DVD while watching another, do direct disk to disk burns.
No reason in getting rid of a perfectly good burner.
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"She's gone from suck to blow!"
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Senior User
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: UK
Status:
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The speed difference has much less to do with cost cutting than form over function. I've always been wary with slot loading drives ever since one on my powerbook started to scratch discs. Having said that though, it must be remembered that the speeds quoted for optical drives are maximum speeds, and the disc does not spin that fast all the time, so actually the difference in burning times are less than it sounds.
David
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