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Upgrading from a CD-RW to a DVD burner

post #1 of 28
1/18/05 at 1:49am
Thread Starter 
I realize now that when I went cheapo and didn't get a DVD burner with my 8890 I was stupid. Being able to save 700mb at a time just isn't working for me anymore so I have been thinking about upgrading. I checked out PCTorque's site looking to see what they have and all I saw was a 2nd bay DVD burner for a little over $300. That seems pretty high priced to me and I want it to go in the 1st bay anyway (where my CD-RW is now). I'm not so worried about speed but I would like to get a dual layer burner.

Anyway, my point is that I'm curious if anyone here has been in this situation and if so what you did you did to upgrade it. I saw a post where Aussie said he was going to use a NEC drive (/me hopes he reads this thread and says how that worked out).
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post #2 of 28
1/18/05 at 2:14am
I am still waiting to order my NEC 6500A.
Real Soon Now
From what I know jeffro the NEC is the best unit to get.
Newegg has them for approx $US125
AFAIK they slot straight in.
G-Omaha has been testing one in his new Sager with great results.
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post #3 of 28
1/18/05 at 2:25am
Thread Starter 
$125 is a lot more in line with what I expected to spend on it. I don't want to be the first to have a go at it though, I think I'll let you jump into that pool first.
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post #4 of 28
1/18/05 at 8:05am
Could be a few more weeks yet dude.
I was hoping that Seagate might have released their Momentus 7200.1 100GB 7200 RPM notebook drives by now but alas it is not so.
I was going to get the whole lot as one bundle shipped here to Sydney.
When I do get it I will let you know.
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post #5 of 28
1/18/05 at 12:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aussie
I am still waiting to order my NEC 6500A.
Real Soon Now
From what I know jeffro the NEC is the best unit to get.
Newegg has them for approx $US125
AFAIK they slot straight in.
G-Omaha has been testing one in his new Sager with great results.
I like the NEC 6500A. So far it has done a good job even though it doesn't burn at 8x for all media. I guess I really didn't expect that it would, just was a bit disappointed that the Ritek's only burn at 4x (I have tons of Ritek Media).

On the 8790, the drive just slides in. It is retained by the slight pressure extended by the power/IDE connector. No screws hold it in. On other computers, I'm not sure. It is the same size as the Toshiba SD-R6112 (2x DVD-R/RW) and SD-R6372 (4x DVD+-R/RW) that Sager included with a number of laptops.

The NEC 6500A has a bracket mounted on the rear of the unit that may not be needed. Just unscrew two tiny little screws and the bracket is removed.

The USD price at newegg has flucuated between $125 and $135 for the past few weeks. The price goes up when it becomes backordered; however, then there is a special deal on shipping (in the USA - that is).

The NEC 6500A is a recommended buy, IMHO.
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post #6 of 28
1/18/05 at 6:45pm
Dude
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post #7 of 28
1/18/05 at 7:30pm
I just got one too for my Inspiron 1150 and works pretty well so far. G-Omaha, do you know then if the problem is just with the media? Im using TDK DVD-R with latest version of Nero and I can only burn at 6X.
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post #8 of 28
1/18/05 at 10:36pm
It's the firmware of the burner that is the limiting factor. The TDK DVD-R works quite nicely in my Pioneer-108 Exteral DVD+-/DL 16x burner at 10x without any problems. I have a review regarding the NEC 6500A and my 8790 in the Sager General Forum that shows my results for various different media. I'm assuming that you are using the 8x TDK's. When I get some more media, I will again update that thread.
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post #9 of 28
2/4/05 at 6:44pm
Does anyone know if any of the DVD burners would fit into the 8886?
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post #10 of 28
2/4/05 at 7:34pm
They are all the same size; however, the mounting bracket (if it has one) and the face plates may be different for various laptops.
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post #11 of 28
2/4/05 at 8:45pm
mac001 the 8886 has the same basic chassis as the 8887 and 8890 so I would say yes it will fit.

As to mounting bracket, if you already have a DVD and/or CD drive in bay 1 (nearest the front of the laptop under your left hand) then you have the correct mounting bracket. The face plate should be the same. I am still trying to find someone to ship these little buggers to me so I can't give you a perfect answer but they are a flat front plate just like the ones Sager install by default.
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post #12 of 28
2/5/05 at 2:15pm
Aussie, thanks for the reply
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post #13 of 28
5/2/06 at 9:01pm
Hey guys, I want to replace my SD-R2412. I have a sager 8890. Any suggestions?
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post #14 of 28
5/3/06 at 12:17am
NEC 6650A
Does everything including DL + and - formats.

Forgot to say it is the newer model up from the NEC 6500A.
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post #15 of 28
5/3/06 at 12:25am
Same thing I said in another thread. There is now a NEC 6750A; however, I don't know if it is good or not - but, suspect that it is the all new and greatly improved replacement of the 6550A/6650A models. Anyway, they are going for about USD $70 here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827152069

Steve - Nice to see that you are "Still in the hunt"
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post #16 of 28
5/3/06 at 5:27am
Thanks for the update G-Omaha.
I notice the 6750 (and 6751 Labelflash version - similar to Lightscribe - still prefer stick on labels and CD Stomper ) have the same read/write speeds as the older 6650A.
Seems like the only change is the power requirements are a bit lower (could not verify this as no online user manual seems to be available yet). Older 6650 uses 1.3A @ 5V

Useful link for others:
http://www.de.nec.de/productoverview.php/id/666
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post #17 of 28
5/3/06 at 10:35am

Upgrading

Thanks aussie, Do you own the NEC 6650A? And if you do, How good is it? And which DVD burning program you suggest is the best out there?
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post #18 of 28
5/3/06 at 10:43am
Hey G-Omaha, Thanks for all your replies. Do you know of anyone that owns the NEC 6750A? And what are their reviews on it.
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post #19 of 28
5/3/06 at 1:25pm
Google it and see the reviews (CD Freaks and the like) are forums to review for starters.
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post #20 of 28
5/4/06 at 3:05am
Yes I have the 6650A.
Burns DVD's well.
I am only using Verbatim (Mitsubishi Chemical Company - MCC) disks.
Had some problems with the car's CD player playing some disks but that could have been due to the fact the original CD I started with was badly damaged. Need to check that some more.

I use Nero 6, dvdshrink, dvddecrypter.

One thing on the 6750 I was reading on the CD freaks website is some people (notably Dell owners) were having problems getting their laptops to recognise the drive. Check later posts to see if that has been sorted out with a firmware upgrade.
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