chosing a multiburner for T42

[dcouzin]

I have a T42 2378-FVU, and am shopping for a DVD burning drive to replace the supplied CD-RW/DVD drive. 40Y8623 (39T2677) and 40Y8624 (39T2723) are readily available here. According to Lenovo's online data pages these aren't compatible with T4x series machines, but according the stores they are. Whom should I believe? The 40Y8624 costs 50% more than the 40Y8623 here. What are the significant differences? For that matter, USB 2.0 external DVD burners cost 50% less than the 40Y8623 here. What is special about the Lenovo multiburners except their fitting into the slim bay?
Thanks.

[Johan]

I suggest you get the 40Y8622 - see more info in the thread Swapping T60 Multiburner w/ T42 DVD/CDRW.

The 40Y8623 may be used, but is in principle intended for T60's, owing to its "flat bezel".

According to Notebook Super Multi-Burner Ultrabay Enhanced Drive - Overview the 40Y8624 is intended for the following ThinkPad models: R50/R51, R50p and Z60m.

Best regards,

Johan

[kyrotech]

40Y8624 is not physically compatible with the T42 ultrabay. 40Y8623 "might" work, but if you want a plug'n'go option just get 40Y8622 .

[superboss]

Any recommendations where to get it from? Never seen one on ebay... its ridiculously expensive from my local dealers, like $400 :S

[Johan]

Any recommendations where to get it from? Never seen one on ebay... its ridiculously expensive from my local dealers, like $400 :S

I am also trying to find a cheap (if possible!) 40Y8622 (or as FRU: 39T2729), but except from the ones which rarely are seen at eBay in different countries (try eBay in USA, Canada, Germany, England, Hong Kong, Australia), I haven't seen any cheaper places than here in Denmark (?!) - see for yourself at the Danish site: EDBpriser. The price there is DKK 1181,- which amounts to USD 219,- and to SEK 1423,-

Please let us know if you find and place which sells it cheaper!

PS: A (hypothetical!) cheaper option than buying a brand-new 40Y8622 is discussed in the thread Swapping T60 Multiburner w/ T42 DVD/CDRW - see the two posts of Sat Sep 22, 2007 6:46 pm and Sat Sep 22, 2007 7:03 pm. The DVD-RW drives suitable for this experiment are those listed in ThinkWiki's UltraBay Slim Super Multi-Burner Drive.

Best regards,

Johan

[dcouzin]

The ultrabay multiburners being so expensive, I chickened out and bought a cheap LG external multiburner. GSA-E40L offered twice the speed at one third the cost. What have I sacrificed? Is the error rate of a DVD burner an issue? I used Nero to back up 3.7 GB on the LG(at 16x speed). During verification Nero reported "Sector [nnnnnn] on disc has different content to source" no less than 40 times! Can there really be 40 errors in the backup? Does Nero add a patch with corrections of these errors? If errors are so common, what does "verification" mean in other burning software, like RecordNow, which doesn't report errors? One can't really have 40 errors in 3.7 billion bytes and have a usable data DVD, can one? Please, someone with knowledge about DVD read-write accuracy, explain whether there quality differences among drives.

[note added: windiff.exe found a DVD file written by the LG and the original 1.4 GB file identical. So the Nero report was a false alarm -- my misinterpretation.]

[bill bolton]

Is the error rate of a DVD burner an issue?

In my experience error rate reports from Nero are almost always directly related to media quality. Are you using known good quality DVD recordable media?

Cheers,

Bill B.

[cruzlite]

"One can't really have 40 errors in 3.7 billion bytes and have a usable data DVD, can one?"
--------------------------------------------------------
It depends on the type of error...you can have thousands of errors & still have a usable dvd...
Conversely you can have 5 errors & lose data...
AnandTech Reviews use Plextor software as their benchmark-link:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2260&p=16
Bill is correct...media choice is crucial...
I have found Taiyo Yuden to work best in LG drives...
(Verbatim is also good)...
Nero is my choice for burning SW...However I am not familiar with
their version w/error reports...That said, once you understand the nature of write errors, (Study AnandTech), you should be able to use the Nero error report to your advantage...
best lu7k...
d

Edit; On review...I believe 'external' is the key to errors in your case.

[dcouzin]

I used Maxell DVD-R. The multiburner specs recommend this, Mitsubishi Kagaku and Taiyo Yuden. For DVD+R, the specs recommend just Mitsubishi Kagaku and Verbatim. Curious.
After looking at Anandtech's data, I can't judge what the 40 errors reported by Nero were, or whether to care.
My main question is: when burning software (such as RecordNow! supplied by IBM/Lenovo) verifies a disk and says that the disk was made successfully, are the errors then ignorable, due to the redundancy in data bits?
The underlying question is: how good are the Lenovos for our ultrabay? When we pay with speed for the miniaturization, are we also paying with quality? And paying indeed.

[rbena]

The ultrabay multiburners being so expensive, I chickened out and bought a cheap LG external multiburner. GSA-E40L offered twice the speed at one third the cost. What have I sacrificed?

The advantage is really the portability of a DVD burner when travelling. I use the 40Y8622 when away from the office, and also have a USB external burner to use most of the time - as is faster.

I use Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden discs, and my tests show very low errors with the internal drive. I was able to get this on special from Lenovo for $189 last year, and has been well worthwhile on the road.