Are external USB2 DVD writers as good/fast as internal ones

[rsclark]

Are external DVDrewriters connected by USB2 cables as good/fast/reliable as internal ones.

The reason i ask is because my 65 year old mum wants to buy a new pc. She has never burned a CD before and does not own a DVD player. Consequently, despite pressure from salesmen etc, I do not feel she needs a DVD writer at the moment. This would enable her to buy a sub £400 P4 2.93Ghz 512MB + 15" TFT monitor which would be ample for her requirements. She would then have the option of a DVDRW external upgrade if she needed.

However, I don't want to send her down this route if USB2 DVDS are not very good. suppose she could always install an Internal one at some point.

Thanks

[blutach]

No. Get an internal one connected on an IDE channel or SATA.

Regards

[joe113]

I have an external writer connected through usb. I don't have an internal one. Except for a few teething problems in the beginning, I dont have any problems and I've burned close on 1,000 discs now with it. My friend has an internal one, which does the job no quicker or better than mine. In fact I dont see any difference.

Just my two cents.

Joe.

[Chewy]

Internal dvd burners installed as standalone masters are inherently
better than ones using a shared interface(usb). Since better computers come with sata hard drives, that leaves the two pata(ide/atapi) available
for optical drives. As media matures hopefully 8x burning will become
more reliable, that speed is pushing the envelope with usb2 interface.
The new standard for external drives will become e-serial, as far as I can tell
it will be just as fast/reliable as any internal interface. At 50-60MB/s(HDD)
sustained I don't think there will be any problems with bandwidth or shared resources. Serial dvd burners and their interface with mobo chipsets is
still iffy!

[rsclark]

Thanks guys

It appears i have the option of either if my ma ever decides to start ripping & burning

I'll buy her a PC with just a CDRW/DVD-ROM for the time being.

[nwg]

Are external DVDrewriters connected by USB2 cables as good/fast/reliable as internal ones.

They can be, it depends on the drive.

My Pioneer 109 on USB 2 connection through a external enclosure. It is just as fast as it would be on a IDE a connection . I have used a firmware that removes the riplock and it goes to 12x speed. That is the same as it was internal.

It is also one of the first writer to be UDMA 4. Most particualrly older drives are only UDMA 2 like my LG 4040B. I get the same performace whether it is IDE, USB 2.0 or Firewire.

[NightTran]

external one is faster, because you don't have to change the disc when recode done, two click and you can walk away

[Chewy]

udma 2 = 33MB/s
udma 4 = 66MB/s
BURST of interface
sustained is what's at each end(bottlenecks)

16x burning(dream on) 21-22MB/s

firewire yes, usb2 no

based upon sustained transfers from dma 5/6 hard drives in
manymany usb2/firewire enclosures (100's of gigs worth)