[G4] Innie or Outtie . . . CD-RW, that is?

[Mel]

Fast external burners are getting pretty cheap, so I would recommend 
you go for a FireWire 48x12x48 or better. There is not really much to 
recommend you going to the trouble of swapping out the DVD with the 
burner because neither of them would be able to tax the throughput of 
the FireWire bus. Don't get a USB drive, as the USB 1.1 drives max out 
at 4x record. USB 2 drives will do better, but there's only one adapter 
card (I think - Orange Micro) that works with OS X, and you don't want 
to go to the expense of buying one along with the drive. Don't even 
think about the case modification unless you're pretty good at cutting 
and bending metal. I have a Lite-On 48x24x48 burner that I put in a 
FireWire case that was on sale.  The whole thing wound up about $120 
and works great. It works with Disk Burner and iTunes. Check 
DealMac.com or Other World Computing (eshop.macsales.com) among many 
others for good deals.

Mel


On Friday, April 18, 2003, at 05:27 PM, Michael Oldfield wrote:

> G4 Sawtooth gig / ethernet has the original DVD. I need to add CD 
> burning. I've checked the terrific http://www.xlr8yourmac.com site and 
> have read that some brave souls (who seem so much handier than I am) 
> have actually added a CD-RW and placed it in their Zip's lower bay. 
> This looks a bit beyond me!
>
> I would really like to keep the current DVD player function. Switching 
> to a DVD / CD-RW combo drive is beyond my cash resources. At this 
> point it looks like my best choice is to add an External CD-RW but am 
> confused as to whether this would be thee best move.
>
> Would appreciate some thoughts / suggestions based on experience:
> Go Internal and switch with the DVD * Go external - USB or Firewire * 
> Keep the DVD and tackle the cut and snip work and use the lower bay 
> for an internal CD-RW?????
> Mike