At 06:57 12/27/00, Frank R. Brown wrote:
>Could people make some hardware recommendations
>for an athlon / abit-ka7-based w2k system?  The system
>has an adaptec 19160 scsi card, so it supports ultra 160,
>plus slower scsi devices on a second scsi bus.  Is has
>the two unused ide controllers on the mobo, and has
>two usb ports.  So all of these are options.
>1)      Flatbed scanner
>                 (decent quality, price / performance matters)
>2)      cdrom drive (scsi acceptable / preferable?)
>3)      cdrw (one that won't burn coasters)...

1) Get a SCSI scanner. Because you already have the SCSI
controller, there's no excuse not to.
2) Plextor UltraPlex CDROM drive
3) Plextor PlexWriter CDRW
Again, get SCSI models. They're better and you already
have the controller so there's no excuse not to. Get the
fastest Plextor CDRW that you feel you can afford.

If both your CD and CDRW are Plextor, you can use the
Plextor cloning software to make fast perfect copies.
I use the latest release of Nero 5 for the rest of my
burning chores.

Check out the CD and CDRW drives at
http://www.hypermicro.com/store/index.htm
I bought my Plextor CDROM and CDRW drives there.
You're going to find that a new SCSI CDROM drive
costs about $89. (Unless you can get it wholesale.)

Be aware that you might want to flash the firmware
in the Plextor drives. (I did. But it was very easy
to do and it was worth the effort.)

In case you eye the Plextor UltraPlex Wide CDROM drive,
I don't think it's worth paying extra for. Benchmarks
showed that the narrow UltraPlex performed just as well
as the UltraPlex Wide. (The UltraPlex and PlexWriter
are 50 pin devices whereas the UltraPlex Wide is a
68 pin device.)

The only reason I can see for not getting a Plextor
CDROM drive is if you want to get a DVD reader instead.
I don't think Plextor makes one of these (yet).

Note the PlexWriter 12/10/32S w/ BurnProof technology
($300). I don't think you could produce a coaster with
this if you tried.

Regards,
Bill

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