[Ham-Computers] DVD burner and 80 pin IDE cable, laser burning life

[Philip, KO6BB]

Hi all,

Today I "bit the bullet" and bought a DVD burner so I could back up my OTR 
(old time radio) files to DVD (up to 215GB worth of MP3's right now).

Following the suggestions made on this list I looked for a "Pioneer" 
internal unit, but only found one Pioner model in two of the local stores 
(don't recall the model number).  But the box said it required a special 80 
pin IDE cable for operation (not included).  I 'seem' to recall that the 
usual IDE cables are 40 pin cables, at least the ones I have here are. 
ALSO, the book that came with my computer suggested that any "upgrades" use 
the skinny round cables for all drives to keep from blocking airflow (it's 
what they used when it was built).  Naturally, none of the usual local 
sources had 80 pin IDE cables, skinny or flat!  AND, of course I'm not 
certain that my almost two year old computer could even handle an 80 Pin IDE 
cable. . .  I'd need to check the book on the MoBo (it has two IDE ports and 
4 SATA ports).

ANYWAY, I ended up buying an LG brand External 18X Multi DVD Rewriter that 
is supposed to do ALL DVD/CD formats, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM etc.   It even 
does "Lightscribe", so I guess it'll handle anything I throw at it.  I 
talked to the folks at the local Best Buy store and they said that they 
haven't had any problems with them coming back, so, we'll see.  So far 
they've never steered me wrong there. The price was reasonable and it seems 
to be well made, at least the case is.

It came with the same Cyberlink software that is already on my computer, and 
in fact the existing Cyberlink software recognized the drive before I put 
the Install CD in the machine.  Nero also came with it, but unless I use the 
lightscribe feature that is supported by Nero I'd probably stay with the 
Cyberlink, I like it.

As a final note, the instructions with this unit says it's expected life 
cycle is writing approximately 100,000 DVD's OR 1,000 Rewritable DVD's.  The 
Rewritable DVD's MUST put a lot more stress on the Laser or something?? 
I've never cared much for rewritable CD's and probably wouldn't use any 
rewritable DVD's anyway.

73 de Phil,  KO6BB
http://www.ko6bb.com
DX begins at the noise floor!
Ten Meter CW Beacon KO6BB/B, 20 Watts 24/7 on 28.248MCs.
Merced, Central California,    37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh