Looking to buy an external CD writer...

[Deleted User]

What features should I be looking for?

It seems there is a lot of choice.

It's for occasional use to make music cds so ideally I'd like something that's quick in what it does and straightforward to use.

many thanks

bluep

Well, possibly the cheapest but not very portable is to buy a normal internal cd writer and stick it in a USB 2 or Firewire IDE inclosure that sell on ebay for £20 or so. This has the added bonus that you can swop it for an internal Hard Drive if you want more backup space, then swop it back in again etc....and if you wanted to at a later stage, you could put it inside a desktop pc.

Otherwise, if portability is more your thing - I bought a Jackrabbit burner and found it great as we can also take it on holiday, link it up to the tv in the hotel and play dvds on it! There are lots of slimline external cd burners out there though, I guess someone else will recommend what kind/what specs

blinky

It is not unknown for there to be issues with CD/DVD writers in these external boxes. It seems the USB/Firewire to IDE conversion can sometimes screw up the commands to the writer.

MoneyWastingMe

look around, CD-RW drives are CHEAP!! I have seen recently on eBay, an artec retail boxed CD/RW and DVD Drive brand new boxed with all software (powerdvd/nero) for like 20 quid. That is worth it.

Do not bother with the internal drives with the external boxes from eBay - they are crap and will eventually fail!

I have seen some cheap external cd-rw/dvd combo's i think PCW Romford had the Artec DVD/CD-RW Combo reduced...

Dont spend over 30....35 at most i rekon...

and you can easily bag a 52x speed burner.....!

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the replies.