Cheapest way to add dvd-burning to T41?

Message

pufftissue · #1 Post by **pufftissue** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 3:53 am

Hello,

Man, those multi-burner drives are butt expensive everywhere. I like my ibm laptop, but I REALLY would like your advice on how I can get dvd burning on my T41.

Here are my questions:
1. Is there any other choice besides the multi-burner ultrabay slim for a T41 for ~ $300? i.e., can I buy the OEM drive anywhere for cheaper?
2. If the only choice is the multi-burner sold by IBM, how much should it cost?

skanky · #2 Post by **skanky** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 4:40 am

will external usb2 ones do or are you specifically after ultrabay dvd writers?

pufftissue · #3 Post by **pufftissue** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 4:41 am

skanky wrote:will external usb2 ones do or are you specifically after ultrabay dvd writers?

just ones that'll fit in the ultrabay. i want to take everything with me in one piece.

skanky · #4 Post by **skanky** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 5:29 am

i think the only alternative is the costly multi burner, i'd love to be proved wrong as i wouldnt mind a cheaper alternative too!

Volker · #5 Post by **Volker** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 8:23 am

Unless you absolutely must burn DVD-Rs while travelling (i.e. CD-Rs are not big enough), consider external USB drives. They are faster and you can already buy dual-layer drives (double capacity).

lfeagan · #6 Post by **lfeagan** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 11:04 am

Yes, along the lines of what Volker said, I think a bit more information about specifically why you need such a product would help. The basic answer to the alternative to buying from IBM is that there is no alternative source for an Ultrabay DVD-R drive. So, now we turn to alternatives, such as Volker suggesting an external hard drive.
There are some pretty slim DVD-R drives out there if I remember. (i.e. not the form factor of a 5.25" drive stuck in a box)

Here are some possibilities I quickly found at Newegg.com in the category: All Products> CD/DVD ROM/RW Drives - External

Addonics External Pocket DVD+/-R/RW Drive, Model AEPMRRWII44, Retail $214
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 013&depa=0

NU DVD±RW Drive, Model EDW042C, Retail, $159
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... 022&DEPA=0

I am not recommending, etc etc, ad nauseum and all the normal disclaimers about these products, Newegg.com, etc...

On another note, and not to sound like an [censored], but if you really desperately need a DVD-R drive, I don't really see why the expense is an issue. If ya gotta have it, then ya gots to have it. It's just as simple as that.

pufftissue · #7 Post by **pufftissue** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 11:59 am

lfeagan wrote:Yes, along the lines of what Volker said, I think a bit more information about specifically why you need such a product would help. The basic answer to the alternative to buying from IBM is that there is no alternative source for an Ultrabay DVD-R drive. So, now we turn to alternatives, such as Volker suggesting an external hard drive.
There are some pretty slim DVD-R drives out there if I remember. (i.e. not the form factor of a 5.25" drive stuck in a box)

Here are some possibilities I quickly found at Newegg.com in the category: All Products> CD/DVD ROM/RW Drives - External

Addonics External Pocket DVD+/-R/RW Drive, Model AEPMRRWII44, Retail $214
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 013&depa=0

NU DVD±RW Drive, Model EDW042C, Retail, $159
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... 022&DEPA=0

I am not recommending, etc etc, ad nauseum and all the normal disclaimers about these products, Newegg.com, etc...

On another note, and not to sound like an [censored], but if you really desperately need a DVD-R drive, I don't really see why the expense is an issue. If ya gotta have it, then ya gots to have it. It's just as simple as that.

Thanks guys. So the deal is that I probably really don't need one. But when I go on trips, maybe q6 months on average, I like to burn copies of slideshows onto DVD, photos, digital camcorder videos etc., for relatives who can't burn anything and dont' know anything about computers. So I am anal enough to not want to hand everyone 2-3 cds each. O/w, cdr would be enough. So most of the time I don't need one in the laptop, but when I do "need" one, i really wish I had one.

Just have to think about whether I want to spend the money I guess.
The astronomic price of a dvd burner vs say, dell, as well as the premium I paid for the a/b/g card (proprietary bios) and my battery life that seriously doesn't seem as good as my sister's 600m, has made me wonder if i should just abandon IBM as a whole. Seems my total cost of ownership is kinda high, and I think i'm basically an el cheapo who desires the good stuff still. I am a thinkin' hard about it b/c my T41 doesn't seem quite as luxurious as my old thinkpad 600E.

lfeagan · #8 Post by **lfeagan** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 7:59 pm

True, IBMs don't tend to be the cheapest around. One of the biggest differences that I know of it just the overall build quality of their notebooks. If lots of big name features and a low price are what you want, then a Dell would be much more your style. Personally, Dell is not my style, but I know that for many people it is. But IBM focuses a great deal on ergonomics and durability of their systems and they have an amazingly good track record at consistently producing high-quality notebooks over the years. If you don't travel much and don't mind the slight extra weight of the very plasticy Dell cases, then go for that as Dell can likely offer more CPU/HDD/extras for your dollar. I, personally, find the IBM to be very elegant and don't really mind the increase in price but I definitely understand where you are coming from.

taphil · #9 Post by **taphil** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 11:00 pm

Yeah. Two days ago, Dell had a $750 off >$1500 coupon. Just for fun, I configured a Dell 600m to see how much it would cost...

PM 2.0GHz, 14.1" SXGA+ LCD, Radeon 9000 64MB, 60GB HDD, 512MB RAM, CDRW/DVD, 802.11a/b/g, 5.1lbs with CD drive

Price: $1450

Add $100 for 2 year warranty. IBM doesn't have a 14.1" at 2.0GHz from what I see, but a comparable model from IBM is about double the price. That's an insanely high premium for an IBM.

Back on topic....if you don't need it to be ultra portable, you can put together a good one yourself. A NEC 16x dual format dual layer DVD burner is $70 from Newegg, and a USB2 case of your liking is $20.

jacque26 · #10 Post by **jacque26** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 11:18 pm

I also priced a Dell and was considering it, but then I got to looking at the differences:
Dell: cheap plastic case, slower ram (266 Mhz), slower hard drive, cheaper video card, bad customer service reputation

So even though my IBM is going to cost more, I feel that it will be worth it in the long run.

pufftissue · #11 Post by **pufftissue** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 11:29 pm

taphil wrote:Yeah. Two days ago, Dell had a $750 off >$1500 coupon. Just for fun, I configured a Dell 600m to see how much it would cost...

PM 2.0GHz, 14.1" SXGA+ LCD, Radeon 9000 64MB, 60GB HDD, 512MB RAM, CDRW/DVD, 802.11a/b/g, 5.1lbs with CD drive

Price: $1450

Add $100 for 2 year warranty. IBM doesn't have a 14.1" at 2.0GHz from what I see, but a comparable model from IBM is about double the price. That's an insanely high premium for an IBM.

Back on topic....if you don't need it to be ultra portable, you can put together a good one yourself. A NEC 16x dual format dual layer DVD burner is $70 from Newegg, and a USB2 case of your liking is $20.

Ta Phil,

Yeah, I got in on the $750 off deal. This is what set all this stuff in motion. I have been patiently waiting for the multi-burner to #1: exist #2: come down in price for my T41. It's like $275 or so on ebay, while a brand new 8x dvd burner, dual layer, is $179 at dell.
I agree that the IBMs are made better than Dells across the board. But with the coupons and especially the 700m and 8600 model that I ordered for roughly $800, and a T41 costing twice that (at least), I believe the majority would choose the dell. They're not as good as IBM, but they're not THAT bad, either. After having owned dells and now my T41, the premium is probably not worth such a large order of magnitude of difference.

I'm torn between a 700m with dvd burner & hi-capacity 8-cell battery for ~$1000, 8600 for $800, or my T41 which I'm going to have to shell out $250 at least for a dvd burner.

I change my mind all 3 ways every day it seems.

lfeagan · #12 Post by **lfeagan** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:31 am

Yeah, Dell has all those coupon deals that you can throw together. As a note to anyone who wants to keep track of the Dell deals http://www.gotapex.com is a good site to check out. I know there are others, but this one tends to focus on Dell deals moreso.

I too seriously looked at the small(er) Dell notebooks. For me it came down to wanting a really nice screen no bigger than 14.1" (mainly because the 15" ones tend to be a lot heavier). I also wanted a MR9600 or better video card. I have had Intel integrated graphics...been there, done that, don't need to be back

Getting a Dell that doesn't have some lower end graphics card that is sub 5lbs is not as easy a task as it seems. I really had trouble finding a Dell that I wanted as I too saw those discounts and really looked very hard at Dell trying to find one that would work for my needs. I am just glad to hear that someone gets to take Dell to the bank and take it out of their account....

skanky · #13 Post by **skanky** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 1:27 am

i wish dell UK would do £750 off coupons

WilsonF · #14 Post by **WilsonF** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 2:22 am

My suggestion is to get a 40 or 80 GB extra hdd (a toshiba 9.5mm) and a USB 2.0 HDD enclosure (almost fits in a shirt pocket), copy your slides etc to the external HDD and burn to DVD when you get home using a heavier external DVD-R etc. drive. The external HDD can also work to back up your system with rescue and recovery or Ghost.

The IBM internal DVD writers are quite a bit slower than externals that are currently available, so you incur both an unnecessary financial cost and a performance hit to burn on the road.

Vestaure · #15 Post by **Vestaure** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:12 pm

Does anyone know if these "IBM Multi-Burners" will work on a T41 2373?

I found these on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... RK:MEWA:IT

Bidding starts at only $1.25, but the "catch" is (I'm thinking) you need to have a ThinkPad Dock II 2877 in order to get it working. They also have other multi-burners at his auction store. (So I'm wondering if those other ones might be capable of DVD burning. Hmm)

rhema83 · #16 Post by **rhema83** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:42 pm

Vestaure wrote:Does anyone know if these "IBM Multi-Burners" will work on a T41 2373?

I found these on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... RK:MEWA:IT

Bidding starts at only $1.25, but the "catch" is (I'm thinking) you need to have a ThinkPad Dock II 2877 in order to get it working. They also have other multi-burners at his auction store. (So I'm wondering if those other ones might be capable of DVD burning. Hmm)

If they need the dock to work, then you might as well get an external drive. A good one won't be too heavy (as compared to the dock plus the burner).

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