Ext. DVDRW enclosure: FW or USB & enclosure recommendati

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fbrdphreak · #1 Post by **fbrdphreak** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 7:05 pm

Hello all
I've got a Pioneer DVR-108 (16x DVD+/-RW & Dual Layer) in my desktop that I want to use on my T42. I'm planning to get an external 5.25" case, but I'm wondering if I should bother with Firewire. I've heard it is faster, but wanted user impressions.
As far as adding Firewire, anyone have any recommendations for an inexpensive PCMCIA card? I found this one with both USB 2.0 & Firewire, and the price seems right!
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 013&depa=0
Thanks in advance!

lfeagan · #2 Post by **lfeagan** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 7:47 pm

Going the route of getting an enclosure that does both is definitely the way to go. Good choice on that. As far as the great Firewire vs USB 2.0 debate. I will say this from a technical standpoint. The USB 2.0 protocol has a slightly higher overhead and was designed for multiple devices which are sharing the 480Mbps, with none of them using it all, just some of it for each of them. Firewire is also capable of having a large number of devices on a single bus, but it was also geared with the intent that a single device might saturate the entirety of the bus (i.e. streaming things like video).

FMI I highly suggest reading this article over at TechTV
http://www.g4techtv.com/freshgear/featu ... e_pg1.html
The benchmark numbers are rather convincing.

/me thinks to self....Hmm, I have a dual interface drive, I should benchmark it. Will do so right now.

I use Firewire and feel that it has been worth it. It really is a nice standard.

fbrdphreak · #3 Post by **fbrdphreak** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:03 pm

Thanks for the info! Now as far as the PCMCIA card I linked, any feedback?
Also, does anyone have any recommended enclosures? I'm seeing a WHOLE bunch on newegg that would work. Prefer aluminum for the build quality, initially only looking @ USB2 but Firewire is a plus. And definitely an internal PSU & cooling fan. thanks!

lfeagan · #4 Post by **lfeagan** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:34 pm

My personal vote goes for the Macally enclosure as I have a couple of various enclosuers from them. But I have heard that the Vantec one is a good choice too.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... 607&DEPA=0

As far as a Firewire card, I would recommend getting one from Adaptec or some other known brand in general. I bet this IOGear one is nice, and it comes with the handy AC adapter, which you will need if you want to power devices over Firewire.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... 312&DEPA=0

fbrdphreak · #5 Post by **fbrdphreak** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:40 pm

Yeah, the Macally ones seem to be the best from what I hear. Vantec is a good company for their cooling products, so maybe I'll check out their enclosures. Thanks for the input
As far as the PCMCIA card, I thought I glimpsed in another thread here that the Adaptec card doesn't work. Did I read wrong? Also, what about the one I linked @ NewEgg up top? I don't care if it offers 100% of the theoretical throughput, if it works well then I am happy as I won't be using it too much. So $23+shipping is a good price to me

Also, the only Firewire device I'll be plugging in for a while MIGHT be the external HDD/DVDRW, so bus power isn't a huge deal right now. Not enough to double the price

If I decide to go Firewire, I might just bite the bullet and try the cheap one I linked up top out.
Thanks again!

krymson · #6 Post by **krymson** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 11:57 pm

Hi there,

I believe you may be better served visiting http://club.cdfreaks.com/
and finding the forum for your brand of dvd burner.

There are many discussions of enclosures + DVD writers there.

Ext. DVDRW enclosure: FW or USB & enclosure recommendati

Ext. DVDRW enclosure: FW or USB & enclosure recommendati

Enclosures and dvd burning

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