I ordered one of these things Sunday and it should be in my hands this afternoon - FEDEX ground shipping from NewEgg.

If there is interest, I will spend the time to write a review, if there is not, I'll use the time for other purposes.

Feal free to provide topics/items that you would like included in the review and I will try my best to address them.

Moderator: Please reposition this post wherever you think is most appropiate as I am at a loss for the "best" place. Just let me know where it was moved so I can find it. Thanks.

Moderator:
What is wrong with listing an evaluation of a hard drive that was put into a Sager 8790? Or, why would you object to placing that review here?

yes I would be curious to know how the NEC 6500A compares to my Toshiba drive listed below.

I just received the drive. I will have to wait afew minutes for it to warm up to room temperature. It is currently "frozen".

Just how cold is it outside where you live G-Omaha!? Maybe you should consider moving DOWN UNDER where the weather's a bit warmer...

By the way I'd be interested to know if there's any other brands of DVD+/-R media (other than Verbatim) that you can get to burn at 8x on the NEC 6500A.

The drive was a "snap" to install. Fits like a glove.

The "drawer" appears to be less rigid that that of the Toshiba (4x+- Drive - 6372 I think) that I am replacing. The drive makes less noise and "rumbles" much less than the Toshiba. It does; however, "whine" a bit as it switches speed and such. The drive runs much cooler than the Toshiba, IMHO.

The drive DOES NOT appear to like the RITEK/RIDATA DVD media. Both the 8x + and - media are capped to 4x. I need to do some more testing as it also appears as if the 8x DVD+ may be actually be capped at 2.4x. Having said that, the other media that I have had an oppurtunity to use appears to work well at 4x. The very cheap Sonic media (MUST001 ID) 1x-4x media that costs $23 per hundred which usually skips a bit when played burned perfectly and played with very one skip so far (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly copied using DVD Shrink to ISO and NERO to burn and verify the ISO to DVD). I will need to burn a few more copies (and play them) to insure that this initial observation is not a fluke.

I have ordered some Verbatim media, including some DL DVD+R to see if the drive will be able to write to these without problems (Expensive, but I have a real need for 1 8.5 GB Disk). I also need to test my external Pioneer-108 for the DL usability. Verbatim is expensive!!! I wanted to order some DVD-R's; however, I misordered and got more DVD+R's that I intended (Oh well).

My old Toshiba attained the rated 4x recording speed infrequently and when it did, some of the finished product was not of good quality. Most of the time the burn speed was either 1x or 2x even though the burn program indicated that the speed was 4x.

Well now - off to do some more testing. Will keep you posted.

I don't have that drive, so it will be hard to provide a comparison. The drive that I am replacing is the Toshiba R-6372 (I think) -- memory is the first thing to go. So far, I'm not really impressed as it doesn't like RITEK/RIDATA media and I'm one of their "fanboys".

Today it's a warm 24F. Real "heat spell" considering the last week or so. I'll put it though the paces for the media that I have and let you all know.

If "Down Under" descibes Austrialia, does "Over Above" describe Omaha? Always wondered about that.

Brrr... that's colder than the coldest winter temps in Canberra (the capital of Australia) which is Australia's coldest city!

By the way I reckon Omaha might be called "Up Over", another bit of Down Under trivia - New Zealanders (i.e. Kiwis - like myself) are often referred to as being "On the other side of the DUUTCH" - a dig at the Kiwi accent which makes "ditch" sound like "duutch", the other side of the ditch (duutch) refers to New Zealand being on the other side of the Tasman Ocean in relation to Australia.

Well, it was around -20C here at my workplace (in the plant, mind you) yesterday and the day before. So if andre's Down Under and G's Over Above, what's that make me? Up and Over Over Above? Or just Up and Over Above? Or Somewhat Above Over Above and a Lot Over Down Under?


Is there anything you didn't like about your Toshiba, G? Just wondering as I'd gotten the impression that the Toshibas were quieter and faster than the initial Pioneer units like I have in my machine.

Fried,

I think that you are: "Over Down Under, and To The Side of Up".

Nothing really wrong with the Toshiba other than it really doesn't have the speed that I wanted. Looks like the NEC may not either; however, the jury's still out on that. As you might know or not know, I cut a lot of DVD's. It's just too bad that I don't make it a side business. Now, it's mostly for family and friends and the cost for them is just the media (I'm free as far as they are concerned). Anyway, more of a hobby for me and keeps my mind off of my "real job".

I did look at the Pioneer A14 (I think that was the model); however, it did not impress me and appeared to be a lessor value.

-20C, Now that's cold enough to "freeze a fart".

Update: The Firmware is version 2.22

I just tried an Imation and it did burn at 8x -- eventually. Started at 8x, then gradually went to 2x, then to 4x, then to 6x and finally to 8x.

I used Roxio Version 6.0 Platinum for the ISO burn to DVD.

DVDInfo-Pro shows the media ID as: MCC 02RG20

This was the DVD Dash R media.

This is something you will probably notice when burning DVD-R on a laptop. If you are doing something else at the same time, burn speed WILL decrease. Also very rarely will you start out at the maximum burn rate on any drive. It has spool up time and the max rate is for the outer layers of the disc where it can burn the fastest.

just tried an Imation and it did burn at 8x. Started at 8x, then gradually went to 2x, then to 4x, then to 6x and finally to 8x.

I used Roxio Version 6.0 Platinum for the ISO burn to DVD. It shows the requested and actual write speeds.

DVDInfo-Pro shows the media ID as: RICHOHJPNRR02

This was the DVD Plus R media. End result is that it burned a bit faster than the Dash R media.