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USB DVD burner for MBA.

S

stchman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Hello all.

I know that Apple's SuperDrive will work, but can you get any USB DVD burner for the MBA? I just don't want to drop $79 for something I'll use < 0.001% of the time.

Thanks.
 
Yes. I purchased this Asus model which works just fine with 1 USB port.
 
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As long as we are on the subject, a single USB cable model would be preferable. Since the MBA's USB ports are on opposite sides, a two cable model would be less than ideal.

Thanks.
 
Look for cheap Netbook drives on sale. I have a Asus and a Rosewill drive (I think I got them on Newegg.com sales for about $25 each. They have worked fine on my Airs using just one port.
 
darbklue said:
will every usb dvd reader/writer work on macbook air?
Click to expand...

Out of the box? No. There are some which will require more power than others, using 2 USB ports. WIth the design of the MBA having the 2 USB ports on opposite ends, most supplied USB cables cannot reach both sides.
Here is an example of a model which does NOT work on the MBA out of the box as it requires 2 USB ports to be powered.
http://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-Technology-MediaStation-Indicator-DVSM-PC58U2VB/dp/B004ZMVQRA/
 
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The way I understood it (historically) ... The Apple external DVD drive requires more current from the USB ports than the specification allows. The original MacBook Air and the later Mac Mini Server used to be the only Mac computers without a built in optical drive, and in the case of the original MBAir, only had a single USB port ... so their USB ports were designed to provide more current than the specifications in order to support the Apple DVD drive. I assume they still do in current models to allow use of the Apple branded drive.

Add on optical drives for PC's included a USB Y-adapter in order to draw current from 2 ports (common on PC's) to avoid having a single port shut-down due to overload. The ones I have tried with the several generations of MacBook Airs I have owned have worked fine with a single plug-in, leaving the pig-tailed connector loose.

I would assume that the maximum current drain would be when writing (burning) to a DVD, reading from the drive should not present any problems at all. I also think newer drives are more efficient in their power use and probably don't present a problem to single USB port usage with the MacBook Air.

If someone has more current information to the contrary, I hope they will share it with the rest of us. 🙂


-howard
 
I bought a LG "Portable Super Multi Drive" at Walmart and it works just fine with my 2010 MBA (and with only one USB). MOdel Number is GP10NB20
 
I have a 13" MBA 2012 and a Samsung SE-S084 as my external cd/dvd reader/burner. It too requires 2 usb connections for enough power and uses a Y-cable for that. But...the Air 2012 has usb3 and usb3 puts more power on the usb ports although the Air has always put a bit more power on the usb ports. I now only need 1 usb cable to power it whereas my Mac Pro and older MBP require both usb connectors to be plugged in. The same applies to my external hdd (Seagate Momentus 100GB 7200 rpm).
 
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