Mac Pro replacement DVD drive

[iZac]

OK my DVD drive on my '06 Mac Pro is bust. Well not bust - it works, but has developed this annoying high speed click / whirr and im about ready to throw it out the window.

I really dont know whats the best DVD drive to get and am about to purchase one from this website, ebuyer.

Do you chaps have any suggestions on the best product, or even if i should get a blu-ray player/burner, so i can rip blu-rays for playback? (I know ill have to restart into windows to play HDCP content off the disk)

 

[J the Ninja]

Just get some IDE DVD burner. Lite-On and Pioneer are good brands. Honestly, I don't put much thought into the quality of DVD drives. They are so simple and cheap to replace, it's just not the big deal a dead hard drive or bad RAM stick is.

You seem to already know the scoop on Blu-Ray drives. It's just a matter of if you think it would be worth it to you.

 

[shroud]

I used sata burners and had an apple certified tech install them so that it would still be covered under warranty. My front fan assembly seemed to be stuck in the computer with gorilla glue, concrete, rivets, and anything else that would make you assume the plastic would break if you tried to pull it any more. Plus threading the sata cable through the tiny corner hole was tough enough. BTW, others may disagree but I tested numerous times. Burning 2 discs at once over the standard connection drops the speed to a crawl. SATA for the ODD if you want the best for your computer.

I searched endlessly and looked at all options (my friend also just happens to work for a cd/dvd replication company) and the best advice I received was to get a samsung super write master s203b but I chose the s-203n as I wanted lightscribe. They are more expensive than their newer versions but you get what you pay for.

The quality of that sucker is higher than any other since the plextor of old. Don't let the s-223 fool you though as the build quality and reliability is not as good as the previous version. You can blame the cheaper is better culture of the world for that.

S203-N is by far the best CD burner I have ever had. Not one coaster in hundreds of burns at even the fastest burn setting. However, DVD burning has room to be perfected and I think it was pioneer that was good for that...don't quote me though.

google cd freaks for some guidance. there is another good forum but I can't find it at the moment. good luck either way.