Quick sanity check on drive speeds (1 Viewer)

[Matt Stryker]

Ok, I'm looking to buy an external DVD burner for my wife's new IBM thinkpad G40, and I found this one:

http://store.yahoo.com/meritline/tdk...writer-4x.html

the only hangup I have about buying it is that it recommends a 5400RPM hard drive speed; laptops for the most part run below this, and the IBM has a 4800 RPM HD. Is that going to make a big difference when burning at 4x?

If this is going to be a problem with all the burners I look at, I may just get it and notch it down to 2x. Just wondered if anyone else with a laptop / external burner combo could chime in.

 

[Matt Stryker]

Ok, I'm looking to buy an external DVD burner for my wife's new IBM thinkpad G40, and I found this one:

http://store.yahoo.com/meritline/tdk...writer-4x.html

the only hangup I have about buying it is that it recommends a 5400RPM hard drive speed; laptops for the most part run below this, and the IBM has a 4800 RPM HD. Is that going to make a big difference when burning at 4x?

If this is going to be a problem with all the burners I look at, I may just get it and notch it down to 2x. Just wondered if anyone else with a laptop / external burner combo could chime in.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

I've got my external burner connected to my Dell notebook and its been fine burning at 4X so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

I've got my external burner connected to my Dell notebook and its been fine burning at 4X so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Carlo_M]

Matt I think that's just a catch-all warning. Not all drives at the same speed are equal. Some 4200rpm drives will keep up no problem w/ the 4X burner. Also, if you've got a nice, defragged and not-near-filled-to-capacity drive you're more likely not to encounter slow data transfer from the HD. But I think they put that there in case someone is running an old 4200rpm drive, badly in need of defragging, and filled to 70%+ capacity, just to be able to say "we told you it wouldn't work" if they get a trouble call.

 

[Carlo_M]

Matt I think that's just a catch-all warning. Not all drives at the same speed are equal. Some 4200rpm drives will keep up no problem w/ the 4X burner. Also, if you've got a nice, defragged and not-near-filled-to-capacity drive you're more likely not to encounter slow data transfer from the HD. But I think they put that there in case someone is running an old 4200rpm drive, badly in need of defragging, and filled to 70%+ capacity, just to be able to say "we told you it wouldn't work" if they get a trouble call.