Quick question: Recommended USB optical drives these days?

Apple's own works well with my son's mac mini.

I know MAC do make one, but it is a bit pricey for an optical drive on the end of a USB connection!

It used to be liteon in the old days, but you hardly see them now. Mine is a four year old LG, and has had a very great deal of use. But you don't see them either days.

Does not need to be fancy, just solid.

ATB from George

George I see Samsung and LG models on Amazon here in the States for $25 - $35 inc. shipping.  I would imagine that those are sufficient.  The Apple model is $70; paying a bit too much for the nice aluminum case and Apple logo IMHO.

Yes, I have been put onto Samsung as well by a friend.

I'll do a bit of digging and find out about it and the competition.

Thanksm ATB from George

George

this may be worth considering at £10.59 looks similar to one I bought  for 300% more from Maplin.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Exte...1271213063&rt=nc

Richard

I'm using  Samsung SE-506BB. Both with iMac and PC. Works fine and has advantage of bluray as well as cd and DVD. 

I agree Apple's own one seems to work well for CD and DVD and had no issues to date. Use with a Mac Book Air and Mac Book Pro.

Simon

Yep, ours has been flawless. Used with a MBP, Macbook Air and a Mac Mini. Of course, some will hate on it, and say it costs too much.

Many kind suggestions, and I do have a very nice official MAC dealership, but ten minutes walk from home, so perhaps I spring for the matching option ...

The thing is the difference between £20 for a Samsung, and three times that for the MAC Superdrive.

I'll mull it over ...

I could buy quite a lot of music for the difference!

ATB from George

The Apple optical drive has had quite a lot of negative reviews on Apple's own website concerning longer term reliability.

Any optical drive I buy will also serve as DVD reader, so as to watch films, and documentaries. 

It needs to either be cheap enough to be seen as disposable [at the electronic waste part of the local dump], or really durable if premium priced. Premium price and not reliable for a long time is the worst of all options.

I have used a computer for DVDs for the last 14 years, and would never consider getting a television and DVD player. The computer should be able to do that.

ATB from George

At least Apple have an absolutely brilliant after sales service. You get what you pay for! Mind you, that goes without saying on this forum! 

Job done. I found a Liteoe DVD and CD USB drive in my local computer shop. £23.

I had two Liteone drives in my first ever computer, and they worked well, so I took the punt.

Thanks for your replies.  ATB from George

Good luck!

Dear Loki,

The Liteon does work nicely, and ripped the disc perfectly, which the LG failed with. The LG has done a huge amount of work and still works okay on DVDs for viewing, so I'll keep it on for that, and reserve the Liteon for music rips.

When the LG breaks down completely, I'll take it to the recycling place.

ATB from George

Just a quick update.

The Liteon is a real consumer consumable. It will have a finite life, but in the meantime it works perfectly! The low price of it indicates that not a spare penny has been spent on making it robust!

Certain of my DVDs would not get past the main menu [if they got that far] with the LG. It used to work on the PC, but that is about two years ago, and now even Rumpole of the Bailey works perfectly. 

I watch the feature length episode of "The Return Of Rumpole," yesterday evening. I have never seen this film before, and it's certainly worth watching!

ATB from George