Lite-On 32x12x40x + Acard SCSI bridge = A-OK

[Mercutio]

I got a couple of Lite-On 32x CD-R drives drives today, along with an Acard IDE to narrow-SCSI bridge.

Installed a drive in a Windows 2000 Server machine (actually, in an external enclosure. Whatever), loaded Nero 5.5.6 (included in the box - not a bad deal for $75)... oddly, the installer crashed until I rebooted the machine. No idea why. Maybe the bridge?

So, 32x CD-R, over the SCSI bridge.

Works pretty well. The drive exceedingly quiet while burning - a little louder when reading a plain old CD. No louder than my surviving Yamaha 8x burner. I was able to make 10 CDs in 44 minutes, with disc sizes varying between 655 and 690MB, and including the time I spent futzing around with Nero.

Another positive: Optical cable interface.

Haven't had any disconnect problems yet. Near as I can tell the drive and the bridge both work flawlessly.

The only down side is that the tray mechanism seems cheap. It "stutters" when I pop it open, like some low-cost CD-ROM drives. It's a Lite-On unit, so I'm not worried yet, but something I'm going to keep an eye on.

Net of this deal: For a total of $132 including shipping, I have a 32x SCSI CD-RW. Compare that to $180 on pricewatch. Not bad at all.

[Fushigi]

Mercutio -

Where did you buy from? I added the same Lite-On drive to my fiance's PC (pure IDE) and have enjoyed it's performance. However, I'm all-SCSI and don't want to enable IDE in my system. My Yamaha 4x4x16 is really ancient now and no longer works reliably so I'm quite interested in a replacement.

PS: Even if it's a local dealer, that's cool. I'm in Schaumburg now but will be moving to Aurora on the 29th. Trips to Indiana are frequent.

Thanks,
Fushigi

[Mercutio]

The drives came from my local distributor. One for a customer, one for me to replace a SCSI burner that failed (in warranty, thankfully). The card came from http://www.emaxasp.com/drpcs/details.asp?item=AC09AEC7720U

When I bought mine, the price was actually $7 lower than what I see now. It's kind-of a chintzy outfit, which is why I only bought one card. I had to call in my order after finding what I wanted.

Supposedly there can be disconnect problems with the bridge, but I haven't run in to any yet. If this thing runs pretty well, I'll probably buy several more bridges just to keep them around for later additions like DVD-burners.

Retail on the Lite-On drive is supposed to be something like $90, but retail for the 40x Lite-On is only about $15 more. I'm not sure whether shaving another 20 seconds off the time you spend burning a disc is worth $15, though.

[Pradeep]

Very interesting. So it uses a floppy power connector for power? It would be nice to escape IDE cable limits for my optical drives.