Which external burner...

[fasterthanlight]

Hey,

 

I know there's an entire forum entitled burners, but its not really what I'm looking for.

 

I'm looking for personal recommendation about external dvd drives. I have a laptop and my built in one has been giving me lots of problems lately.

 

I want to burn dual layer dvds.

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

Also, I apologize if there is somewhere else I should put this. I can't seem to find that place, so I decided to put it here.

[ianymaty]

Go for an Optiarc 72xx and find a nice USB 2.0 (and/or eSATA if you have it on laptop) external enclosure for it.

 

Those that come bundled as external burners may not be as good as the Optiarc drives.

[dbminter]

The only USB drive I've ever had that worked right was an old Sony one. So, going with an Optiarc and getting an external enclosure is a good way to go as Sony and Optiarc are basically the same thing now. The Sony USB external I have does not have the semaphore timeout issue with its chipset.

[montmorency]

May I re-open this thread, writing as a fairly non-technical sort of person (at least in this sort of area):

 

I've only ever used built-in drives (that came with the PC or laptop, not that I installed!), or external USB drives. I used a cheap Qbuz external USB drive reasonably happily for a year or more, but I think it is wearing out. I bought what I thought was a better one, branded "Leicke", but it seems to be a crock, and I've all but given up on it. It seems that all the external USB drives nowadays are USB-powered only, which I'm not happy about (even secondary power comes from USB). Could live with that if this worked, but it doesn't seem to.

 

 

However, finding this thread made me think with a fresh mind.

 

So, just so I have this straight, would something like this be what I want?

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Drive-Enclosure-External-Connector/dp/B0006ZQ6N4

 

(OK, that one is not available, but that sort of thing?).

 

 

Then I buy a good quality internal drive or drives of a type recommended elsewhere in this forum (LG, Pioneer, Optiac...?), install that or those in this enclosure, and then connect the enclosure to a USB slot in a PC or laptop?

 

But how complicated is installing an internal drive in one of these enclosures? (given I've never installed one in a PC or laptop)?

 

 

Many thanks.

 

 

EDIT: This is something similar that is available:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Icybox-External-Enclosure-Blu-Ray-Drives/dp/B0083RBVRS/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_t_3

 

Well, I've lined that up to buy plus an LG drive that gets a clear 5 stars plus some SATA cables.

 

I guess I may need some fixing screws, unless the enclosure comes with those.

 

But apart from that, does this seem a reasonable combo? I'd be using this in a desktop environment (i.e. I'm not worried about portability, although it will actually be plugged into a laptop).

 

 

Am I right in thinking you can get enclosures for multiple drives? Not spotted any so far.

 

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited September 9, 2012 by montmorency