Gateway Essential Dilema

[Hideous_Hog]

Yet another problem from the Gateway folks...

This issue is for a friend from work. He wants to add a Plextor 12/10 burner, but there is no room in the case! Plextor does not sell an external IDE burner, and going SCSI is not an option (for cost reasons).

What sounds like the best recommendation for this guy? He will mainly be burning CD's (he is a DJ on the side). Can he get away with just the burner, and no second CD-ROM? Maybe a USB CD-ROM?? I'm stuck giving him the best, most cost-effective solution.

 

[Zenmervolt]

USB burners are currently limited to 4x burn speeds. The best solution I can think of would be to get an IEEE 1394 (firewire) card and an external IEEE 1394 burner. Because of IEEE 1394's increased bandwidth over USB, there are 12x IEEE 1394 burners available. That solution will cost more than the USB burner, but it will be much faster and probably less likely to make a coaster, though I could be wrong about the coaster part.

Zenmervolt

 

[FatFree]

Buy New cheap ATX desktop case lol

 

[Barrak]

There is no room in case? what else do you have in there? Most cases come with at least 2 if not 3 5 1/4 bays. Did he open the case and see if he could rearange anything? If you cant make room, its eather USB or New case for him.

 

[PCAddict]

Is it one of the new-style Essential PC's with the Flex-ATX case? If so, the options are limited. A Plextor CD-ROM with burnproof is his best bet, installed in place of the CD-ROM he has now. Maybe adding a USB CD-ROM wouldn't be a bad idea. Or, maybe you can get an external enclosure to house his existing CD-ROM and connect it to the PC via USB.