New CD/DVD drive?

[Gesslar]

I bought this one:

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...urn_DVDBurners

And I am COMPLETELY satisfied by it.

[kiania]

Originally posted by Carrah
I like the external because when I use my internal CD writer it more or less tanks my laptop (Inspiron 5150) and consumes all the resources but with the external drive it's a lot faster and less painful to burn stuff.

I did think about that, athough I got told there wasn't much of a difference in general. :S

Originally posted by karahd
I bought this one:

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...urn_DVDBurners

And I am COMPLETELY satisfied by it.

Is it still useable for linux? I keep getting told to switch, and that one says its for windows (assorted types). Don't want it to stop working if I do change OS!

[Rosuav]

Originally posted by Carrah
I like the external because when I use my internal CD writer it more or less tanks my laptop (Inspiron 5150) and consumes all the resources but with the external drive it's a lot faster and less painful to burn stuff. And if you're already lugging that much around, a writer won't be that big of a deal!

Inspiron 5150? That's a decent P4 3GHz or thereabouts. Burning a CD on that shouldn't be a problem. You may have a problem with your CD burning software.

With external CD burning, you're dependant on (usually) your USB port. I've seen a number of laptops where a USB port is actually high-speed capable, but either Windows gets something wrong, or some other USB device has throttled it, or something - end result is that it runs at USB 1 speeds, nowhere NEAR what it takes to burn a DVD decently. (I think it's the fault of the mobo too - it only happens with certain models.) Internal drives are immune to this.

Fundamentally, though, the main choice with internal vs external is... do you want to have the external device dangling off. And you've already decided that. Go internal!

[kiania]

Slightly worried, I checked dell's webside for DVD writers that are compatable with my machine, and it didn't appear to have any listed. Concern is currently flooding over me

[Carrah]

You gave me a lot of numbers there, Rosuav. All I can tell you is what I experience when I burn with my internal CD drive. And that is noise that sounds like a jet taking flight and an unresponsive laptop =P.

[Rosuav]

Originally posted by Carrah
You gave me a lot of numbers there, Rosuav. All I can tell you is what I experience when I burn with my internal CD drive. And that is noise that sounds like a jet taking flight and an unresponsive laptop =P.

So you have two alternatives. A noise like a jet taking off, or a noise like Rosuav talking... and it's hard to tell them apart. :|

Try a different CD-burning program. You might find an improvement. Don't get rid of your old one though, just in case.

[Carrah]

I don't use one! I just stick the files in a windows explorer folder and hit burn.

[kiania]

My laptop -always- sounds like a jet taking off...so noise isn't an issue!

I need some cute fluffy black earmuffs though...

I'm told that I want an internal. I'm also told that Grantref's suggestion is for a desktop, and someone else looked at me in absolutely horror when I mentioned Karahd's suggestion.

I'm happily lost once more, so back to ebay I go!

[Rosuav]

Originally posted by Carrah
I don't use one! I just stick the files in a windows explorer folder and hit burn.

Oohhh... that just means it has "Explorer Integration", which is one of those buzzwords that doesn't really mean all that much in usefulness. There's a number of free CD burning utilities around.

Originally posted by kiania
I'm told that I want an internal. I'm also told that Grantref's suggestion is for a desktop, and someone else looked at me in absolutely horror when I mentioned Karahd's suggestion.

Ehhh. I never actually clicked his link until now... Yes, that's a desktop model.

If you have a small phillips screwdriver and half an hour to kill, you could probably buy a bare DVD-RW module, and rig it to fit into your computer by taking parts off your DVD/CD-RW combo drive. But you'd probably do better not to.

This might be more the sort of thing you're after.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=330086703603

[kiania]

I'll attempt to find one of them in silver, and in the uk then!

(and no, best not to try ripping bits apart - I'm liable not to be able to put it back together again!!)