Great deal on Lite-On CDRW

[Paddy]

Been tossing around the idea of either replacing my stock CD/DVD in the Sawtooth or the slow-as-molasses drive in the external LaCie CDRW, so was perusing the online stores yesterday looking for the best price on the Lite-On 52X32X52 (LTR52327S), since folks at XLR8yourmac seemed pretty happy with it, using the driver available on that site. I also came across at least one site that mentioned that 10.2.8 & up included drivers for it, though there is no mention of this drive on Apple's perennially out-of-date list of iTunes compatible CDRW's...

NewEgg had it for $37...I almost bit, until I sat down for lunch and went through the weekend flyers, just in case. Bingo! Same drive at Circuit City for half the price after rebates. ($69 less a $20 rebate and a $30 rebate).

The only catch - you'll have to move quickly, AND have a Circuit City nearby, since the online warehouse is out of them and you can only secure one of them by ordering online for pickup at a store. Or you could go to your nearest store, but ordering ahead guarantees that it will be there waiting for you (and saves phone calls and car trips!).

This is the first time I've seen one of the Mac-compatible CDRW's at this price - all my PC's/PC's refurbed for others have CDRW's I've snagged at this price after rebates, but none of them were Mac compatible.

[Bill]

Noticed that "Lite-On 52X32X52" number/model ~ whatever before.
When did it come out anyhoo?
Mine's the 52X24X52.
Isn't the '24' rewrite?

[Bill]

Check out ebay under Lacie "firewire" cdrw.
There's a seller who has four or five externals that's listed 52x32x52.
Yet the info on any of his/her sales, they're stating 52x24x52.

[Epaminondas]

Lite-Ons are very good drives.

This is as cheap/cheaper than a CD-ROM.

Go for it!


In regards to Macintosh compatibility -

I have the Lite-On 48/24/48 ($50) and the Plextor 48/24/48 ($60 after rebates).  Both seemed like great bargains at the time - both models are about two generations back.

Both the Lite-On and the Plextor play nice with my Linux box (a Cyrix C3 800 MHz).  When I switch them over to the Macintosh world, however -

The Lite-On will not boot my B&W 450, but will work on it otherwise.

The Plextor boots and works on my B&W 450 seemlessly.  Booting from a CD. of course, can be very important in troubleshooting and in MacOS installs.

Looking through the www.xlr8yourmac.com database, one sees that a lot of compatibility between specific Macs and specific CDRWs can be hit and miss.  Some boot fine, some do not.  It can be hard to predict.

Troubleshooting can include updating to the latest firmware, but that requires access to a Windows machine for the Lite-On drives.


At this  price I am almost tempeted to buy in, although I have no earthly reason to do so.

Hmmm . . . hook one of these into an empty firewire box and you have a nice external CDRW, should you want one.

Too bad I don't have any need for such a set-up.


This is a great deal and will probably work on many Macintoshes - but if it doesn't  you can always return it or convert it into a Christmas present for someone who can use it.

Or put it in your Linux box.  ;-)


Now - if only were any deals out there that good on a good inexpensive inkjet printer . . .


Regards,

Epaminondas

[krissel]

Paddy, I have that Lite-On 52x24x52 in an external USB 2/FW case which I got from newegg.com.

Run it with my 9600/700G4 via FW PCI card and it works just great. Of course I can't boot from it cause FW is not native to my old machine but it's ready for when I get my new G6.

...or G7.
 
 

[Paddy]

Well, it's sitting atop my scanner awaiting installation. I'm leaning towards putting it into the Firewire case, for a couple of reasons - no need to worry about whether it can boot the Mac from a bootable CD, and I will be able to copy CD's directly without having to make disk images, should I need to do that. Of course, the reduction in desktop clutter is an argument in favor of the other option...(and heaven knows THAT is attractive right now...I'm drowning in wires and boxes with blinking lights. )

The next question...will the Lacie/Plextor 8X4X32 currently in the Firewire case boot anything in either our G3 or my sister's G3? I think it's on the drive compatibility list, so it may be worth a try. Since both those machines have their original 24X CDROM drives, it's an upgrade for just the CD drive, as long as it works, let alone adding CD burning capabilities.

[Epaminondas]

<< The next question...will the Lacie/Plextor 8X4X32 currently in the Firewire case boot anything in either our G3 or my sister's G3? I think it's on the drive compatibility list, so it may be worth a try. Since both those machines have their original 24X CDROM drives, it's an upgrade for just the CD drive, as long as it works, let alone adding CD burning capabilities. >>


The Plextor, trasferred into a Macintosh, will probably work seemlessly.


Plextors have long been the audio professional's CDRW of choice.

Macintoshs have long been the audio professional's computer platform of choice.

Plextor and the Mac therefore tend to work well together.

Plextors are also quieter than Lite-Ons.

While Plextors are the gold standard, Lite-Ons are the value guys.  They are the guys who have brought down the high prices of the Plextors and driven other companies out of the CDRW business.  Lite-ons are a good buy and they can work very well, but the company is more high volume/value oriented than Macintosh-oriented.

Plextor sees it as its job to work with the Macintosh platform.  Lite-On sees it as the Macintosh platform's job to work with Lite-Ons.


Consider also -

(1) What does the www.xlr8yourmac.com database tell you?

(2) Probably the simplest way to find out if it will work is to try it.

(3) If it does not work, you might consider updating the firmware - just check out the Lacie and the Plextor sites for current versions.

(4)  Or contact Plextor directly - I have found Plextor technical support to be very helpful.


Regards,

Epaminondas

[Paddy]

I've already checked at xlr8 - the Plextors listed are newer (faster) ones, so I'm going by the iTunes compatibility list. There are some firmware updates, which are available at Plextor's site and there is a Mac utility for updating things, which I just downloaded, so I should be all set.

Prices on the CDRW's sure have changed. I paid well over $200 (maybe closer to $300...can't remember exactly) for the Firewire LaCie three years ago...at least the Firewire case is still worth something!! The silly thing is that I've used the built-in CD burner on my Ti and the ones in my PC FAR more than I ever used the Firewire drive. One does tend to take the path of least resistance...