OK, so nothing's perfect, but it's darn good, and a great value.

THE PROBLEM: Needed a DVD burner for my ThinkPad T41.

THE OPTIONS:
1. Internal. Must be super slim (9.5 mm high). Currently available
drives are expensive and/or problematic.
2. External. More affordable and capable, but I didn't want to be
carrying around a lot of weight and bulk, including power.

THE SOLUTION:
Slim (12.7 mm) drive mounted in compact case, powered by the computer.
Small and light enough to keep in my computer bag. USB 2.0 doesn't
limit performance. External makes it possible to copy CDs and DVDs on
the fly from the internal CD-RW/DVD, or burn 2 CDs at once.

THE HARDWARE:
* NEC ND-6750A <http://www.nec.co.uk/ND6750.aspx>
3rd generation slim drive, fast and capable
Got mine on eBay for less, but only $66 from Newegg
<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152069>
* Centrix EX-BLK-01 USB 2.0 External Slim Line Enclosure
<http://www.centrix-intl.com/?DirectBuy=yes&ItemPartNumber=EX-BLK-01>
Includes two cables: standard USB, plus combo USB/PS2 passthru for
extra power (needed for reliable burning). Matches black ThinkPad
nicely. Great value. Assembly is dead easy. $15

TOTAL COST: $81 plus tax and shipping. Another $5 for a soft black
cosmetics case at Target that fits the enclosure and cables nicely.

PICTURE: <http://i1.tinypic.com/20fahhl.jpg>

CAVEAT:
NEC slim DVD burners are conservative about blank media, often limiting
speed to less than the advertised rating, but better that than coasters.

RESULTS: The NEC ND-6750A has performed very well thus far on both
reading (much faster on DVDs than the internal Panasonic/Matshita
UJDA745 CD-RW/DVD drive) and writing of several types of media.
Quality of 4X burns on Philips-branded 8X DVD-R media has been good.

DRIVE SPECS:
Transfer Rate Read CD: 24x
Transfer Rate Read DVD: 8x
Transfer Rate Write (CD): CD-R 24x; CD-RW 20x;
Transfer Rate Write (DVD): DVD-R 8x; DVD-R DL 4x; DVD-RW 6x;
DVD+R 8x; DVD+R9 4x; DVD+RW 8x

Makes a great portable drive for use with desktop systems as well.

--
Best regards,
John Navas

In article <lv4vb2140pkv13e0kvv99pu42035s4jodk@4ax.com>,
John Navas <spamfilter0@navasgroup.com> wrote:

Other caveats.

The USB-to-ATA interface in the external drive case may not be supported
by the NEC firmware update program. One type of peripheral where I find my
self updating firmware often is optical drives. I constructed a similar
package last year using the ND-6650A and an external slimline case which,
curiously, bears the IBM logo (I'm not sure whether this is legitimate or
not ... I see a lot of small peripherals and supplies at flea markets that
bear the IBM logo; perhaps they truly are used under license). In any
case, the NEC firmware updater refused to detect the drive. I was
eventually able to update it by using the generic NECFLASH program and a
binary firmware image downloaded from a third-party site.

Beyond any performance or burn quality issues associated with optical
drives designed for laptops, I've read specific comments that the NEC
slimline drives simply don't last too long ... specs notwithstanding.

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:28:31 +0000 (UTC), retsuhcs@xinap.moc (Mike S.)
wrote in <e9qh9f$md1$1@reader2.panix.com>:

Thanks for your feedback and comments.

....
....

I personally don't see this as a significant issue with this particular
drive -- it's the 3rd generation of a series that includes your
ND-6650A, and the firmware is now quite stable. I previously had the
ND-6450A, which I flashed to ND-6500A, the start of the series.
I tested several different firmware versions in that drive, and found
very little real difference. I doubt that I will ever feel the need to
upgrade the firmware in the ND-6750A.

It looks to me like IBM is using the same case and cables, presumably
sourced from the same Asian manufacturer. I suspect IBM logo cases
you're seeing at flea markets are dumped overstock, a not uncommon
practice.


My own experience with the ND-6450A/ND-6500A was very good -- I burned
literally hundreds of discs without any signs of deterioration in the
drive.

I suspect most complaints stemmed from damage to the drive from poor
handling -- I recently watched in horror as a colleague forced a disc
onto an unsupported tray in one of these drives, nearly breaking it off.

I've now burned a dozen DVD-R discs, several DVD+RW discs, several CD-R
discs, and some CD-RW discs with the ND-6750A, and the only burns that
weren't good were due to cockpit error on my part. I'm particularly
impressed with being able to burn on the fly when copying from the
internal CD-RW/DVD and when authoring DVDs with NeroVision Express.
All in all I'm very pleased with it.

--
Best regards,
John Navas

On Thu, 20 Jul 2006 15:16:30 GMT, John Navas
<spamfilter0@navasgroup.com> wrote in
<lv4vb2140pkv13e0kvv99pu42035s4jodk@4ax.com>:


UPDATE:

The NEC ND-6750A has proved to be a remarkable drive:

* Having nothing else better to do on a recent BART train trip I decided
to burn a DVD, with my ThinkPad and external drive sitting on the seat
beside me. I miscalculated the time, and the burn wasn't complete when
I reached my stop. Since I had to get off the train, I closed the lid
on my ThinkPad (configured to keep running), placed the drive (still
burning) on top, and carefully carried it to my car. I was pretty sure
the burn would be toast from all the movement, but to my surprise the
burn tested 100% good!

* Ripping audio CDs is fast and clean for a slim drive, giving excellent
results at up to 14x speed.

--
Best regards,
John Navas