an internal DVD drive used externally

[shakattack]

Hi there,

I've got an old gateway laptop sitting here, and I dont use it much except for listening to music, watching movies (AVIs) and browsing the internet.

Now what I want to do is add a DVD drive to it, the current drive only plays CDs (24x) and a replacement internal DVD drive is quite expensive...especially for the 3-4 year old gateway I have.

Now since I am getting a new computer to replace my current desktop, I have decided to use the DVD drive in the current desktop, in the laptop since the new machine will already have a DVD drive. I've browsed around quite a bit today and i've come on two items I need to purchase.

1) A PCMCIA(cardbus) USB 2.0 card (my laptop only supports USB 1.1)
2) An external drive enclosure that supports IDE drives and converts them to USB.

I'm going to get both items of newegg.

Cardbus card here
DVD Drive Enclosure here

Would it work? I mean, connecting the USB 2.0 cardbus card to my laptop, then into that the external drive enclosure, and into the that the DVD drive im gonna pull outta my desktop.

My laptop is a P3 500Mhz (or is it 600?), 128MB ram with not the best video card (ATI Rage Mobility).
I want to receive the performance you normally get when watching a DVD and nothing too slow and dodgy.

Would appreciate some comments

-Shak

 

[metalmania]

Yes it will work, but I don't like coolmax brand.

I did the same thing before on firewire, even ripping DVDs to laptop hd.

I suggest you get a $30 enclosure, or go firewire.

 

[EeyoreX]

Yes, it will work fine. I have no personally experience with the CoolMax brand, but I can't imagine the brand of a drive enclosure making that much practical difference. USB 2 should provide enough bandwidth for watching movies. I would be more concerned with the abilitiy of the CPU and GPU to keep up than I would with the USB 2.0 bus perdonally. IEEE1394 does offer slightly better real world speed though, and it does use less CPU power so it may be worth it to go IEEE1394, but I don't think there will be that big a difference.

\Dan

 

[shakattack]

Well...could you suggest an alternative brand? I would like one that only uses USB2 and not firewire (USB is more commonly used and i'll find other pheripherals to use my remaining USB2 ports on the cardbus card).

The one I showed above is itself $39.99...didnt get what you meant there?

-Shak

 

[zerogear]

The CoolMax cases aren't bad, they're just a little loud with the built-in fans and everything. But if you are putting in a CD-Burner or something, then it is useful.

 

[shakattack]

Thanks for your replies,

If you guys could give me a link at newegg that points to a cardbus card that has ONE USB2 port and ONE firewire port then i could use the firewire for the enclosure and Hub the other USB2 port and use it for other stuff.

The only USB and firewire cards I found have 2 USB ports and 2 Firewire ports and they are too expensive...(about $50) which is $30 more, i cant really afford that.

-Shak