DVD-ROM question: best one, and external solutions (not what you think)

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers
#1

Due to IDE chain limits and physical case restraints, I cannot possibly get a DVD-ROM in my system. Yet I desperately need one, reading my burned DVD-R’s at 2x is horrible. I crave 16x blazing fast reading.

Well my first thought was an external USB 2.0 or Firewire drive. Can’t be too hard, right? I mean, I see external 48x CD-RW’s all the time. Turns out, there are no external DVD-ROM’s, at least no 16x ones. So then I happen across this beauty:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=168&item=2084982655

It’s basically just an empty box with a USB 2.0 connection to the PC. It can house any EIDE device and lets you connect it through the USB 2.0 port. Now this sounds like exactly what I need. With this, I could fill it with any 16x EIDE DVD-ROM I want and then conveniently hook it up through a USB 2.0 port. I’m just wondering, does this work well? Will I get 16x speed, or is an EIDE port too fast/has too much bandwidth to be emulated by a USB 2.0 port?

And secondly, what DVD-ROM would I want? I’m definitely getting a Lite-On, but which one is the best? I think the LTD-163

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3754&item=2084413796

is the best, just curious if I’m right.

#2

How am I supposed to tell what DVD-ROM drive is the best if I am not allowed to speak what I think?

Anyway, there are some external DVD-ROM drives but usually very expensive and less powerful than 16x IDE drives.

$39 sounds good to me. The Taiwan-made product is widely available these days.

#3

LOL, I didn’t mean you can’t speak your minds. I meant a different type of external solution then you might think by just reading the title of my thread, I didn’t want to give people the wrong idea about what my thread was about.

#4

The one I like most for now is Samsung SM-348B (48/24/48/16, 8MB) because it’s affordable and has a lot of features. Also, I heard from someone who contacted Samsung in Seoul saying Mt. Rainier will be added in the middle of January 2003. But it’s still at least 2x more expensive than 16x DVD-ROM drives like Pioneer -119 and Toshiba -1712.