I have a "Mirrored Drive Doors 2003" G4, without a SuperDrive. I'm planning on buying a drive, but I would like to know what drive Apple ships as the SuperDrive. Is it the Pioneer 105?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What is the SuperDrive?
- Thread starter Nermal
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
More than likely it's the Pioneer 105.
I got a MDD 2002 and installed my own 'Superdrive' --- the Pioneer 103, at the time the A03 was the Apple installed Superdrive --- no real difference between the two except that Pioneer didn't provide firmware updates for Mac for quite some time and, for some reason the Apple supplied firmware updater wouldn't work - somehow 'knowing' that it was not an Apple installed drive...go figure.
Worst case scenario if you purchase the Pioneer 105: you might have to buy Toast Titanium to make full use of it (I think Roxio supports more drives than Apple does).
I got a MDD 2002 and installed my own 'Superdrive' --- the Pioneer 103, at the time the A03 was the Apple installed Superdrive --- no real difference between the two except that Pioneer didn't provide firmware updates for Mac for quite some time and, for some reason the Apple supplied firmware updater wouldn't work - somehow 'knowing' that it was not an Apple installed drive...go figure.
Worst case scenario if you purchase the Pioneer 105: you might have to buy Toast Titanium to make full use of it (I think Roxio supports more drives than Apple does).
I see MCE is selling a "SuperDrive Upgrade" for the G4, and they say it's got full support for Finder, iTunes, iDVD, etc. But their website doesn't seem to list delivery costs 
I think the 105 is one of the drives. I heard that apple also uses the Sony DW-U14A in some of the G5s...Anyway...i upgraded my AGP Graphics 400MHz with the sony from mwave.com. Originally it didn't work at all, but i downloaded some drivers off of xlr8yourmac and it works perfectly with finder, iTunes and iDVD.
The awesome part is that it was $140.
*Although i haven't upgraded to Panther yet.
I avoided the Pioneer upgrade because of the sleep problems people were having with leaving CDs in the drive for an extended period. I've had no problems with the sony for 2 months through 5 DVDs and about 50 cds.
The awesome part is that it was $140.
*Although i haven't upgraded to Panther yet.
I avoided the Pioneer upgrade because of the sleep problems people were having with leaving CDs in the drive for an extended period. I've had no problems with the sony for 2 months through 5 DVDs and about 50 cds.
I have one of the MDDs from before the Fw800 came out. The superdrive in it is a Pioneer DVR-104.
I took a look at mwave.com, but they won't sell outside the US
I'd rather get the Pioneer drive if it's what Apple supplies with the computer, it's possibly more compatible. And I never put my computer to sleep so that shouldn't be a problem.
Edit: I see that MCE has just dropped the price of their SuperDrive upgrade from $199 to $149
Edit Again: And they're charging $50 for delivery. No thanks