Looking for inexpensive external writer/burner

[lilblu]

I'm considering buying an external DVD writer. It would be my first one so I'm not sure what I should be looking for. All I know is that it either has to be external, or an internal with an enclosure. I would prefer external. I also want it to be able to burn to both DVD-R and DVD+R discs. And finally, I'd like to keep it under $90 but I don't want it to be a piece of crap that will break in a year.

The stores where I live either don't carry external DVD writers or they cost over $125. I've looked at a couple websites and so far the ones I've seen are Philips, Mad Dog, and Lite-On. Are any of these good brands?

My main use for it would be to backup media files.

[lordsmurf]

http://www.aicmicro.com/productdetail.asp?id=32290
Good burner. Not sure about the case. But it fits the price.
Found via www.pricewatch.com

This looks good too:
http://shop4.outpost.com/%7BSvrRa6-r2ojICgPT-XgNAw**.node3%7D/product/4809240;jsession...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG
This is Fry's Electronics, good store.

You can always buy from a store like supermediastore.com, shop4tech.com or meritline.com. Buy an internal drive, and external enclosure, use the $10 coupon from Google checkout, then buld your own.

In fact, look at this one:
http://meritline.com/pioneer-dvr-111d-with-usb-enclosure.html

[enutz]

In the Sunday Best Buy ad, they had a LG duel layer dvd external burner w/lightscribe to label your dvds that is + and - for $79.95 & internal for $49.95

[OneSickPup]

In the Sunday Best Buy ad, they had a LG duel layer dvd external burner w/lightscribe to label your dvds that is + and - for $79.95 & internal for $49.95

Yes - I saw that. The external one implies it's an LG GSA E30L. Not a model seen often and rarely seen here in the US. It's one of the Panasonic/Matsushita based chipset SATA drives. I'd be curious to see more info on that drive. Could be a good one.

If you go the route of the internal model mounted in an external enclosure - I would stick to drives that support UDMA4. Best options are the Pioneer 111 or 112 followed by LiteOn 6S or newer model lines (160P6S, 165P6S, LH-18A1P, LH-20A1P, etc). Most enclosures perform better with UDMA4 capable drives. Safest bet on enclosures are ones based on the Prolific chipset or the Cypris ATX chipset. Just my opinion though. Good luck.

[bevills1]

About 4 weeks ago I got an external USB LiteOn that contained the LiteOn SHM-165P6S for $30 after $50 rebate from Office Depot. This was an in store only special and wasn't found online, but you might check for possible repeat of special if you're in no hurry.