SCSI cd writers: worth the cost?

[Drunken Sailor]

I'm looking to buy a burner (see my other post ) and I'm wondering if it is worth it to go the SCSI route. I have a mostly SCSI based system (all harddrives, cd rom drives), and a pretty good SCSI card (the Adaptec 29160).

What're the benefits of a SCSI burner amongst modern writers? Does it prevent coastering? Make for better/faster burns? Or is it really irrelevant these days? Thanks.

[kinneera]

Irrelevant. Since you already have a SCSI system, though, it can't hurt.

[Drunken Sailor]

Thanks for the reply. Can anyone else comment on the value of SCSI? Is it worth the extra cash to buy a SCSI writer?

[RAAGAAman]

SCSI drives generally cost more and you are not going to get any better performance with a SCSI writer over an IDE writer. I would by an IDE controller card(Promise controller) and a decent writer. Both together would be around $100. You will not find a SCSI writer for that kind of money unless it is really Slow and old.

RG

[pacoreguenga]

Since you don´t say what kind of burner (cdr or dvdr) you are planning to buy, I guess you refer to a DVDR Burner like those costly external models from Pioneer. If that´s it, there´s a huge difference between them and the new IDE breed.
For example, they are designed to burn the also more expensive 3.9 Gb DVDR´s for Authoring. There is also the 4.7 Gb Version of it.

What is the difference besides name and price?

The Authoring burners actually burn blocks of 2054 bytes versus the 2048 in the DVDR for General (the kind we mortals use at home)

What does this mean?

Well, you need that extra bytes to write the CSS encryption and all the anti pirate stuff, which is a desirable thing if you are authoring only original commercial titles. This drives also need expensive software (Scenarist costs $39,000 dollars) to unlock this features.
They also let you take your DVD right to a replicating facility for mass reproduction.
But indeed, you could prototype on the cheaper DVD-R for General drives and discs (they are easier to find and buy, too) and you could have a DLT drive for mastering purposes (they are getting even cheaper than DVDR drives these days). A DLT 2000 model is enough.

Now, if your question was about having a scsi CD burner or an IDE unit...
for the scsi option I would go for a Hi-speed Teac or Lite-on model (the ones used in duplicating towers)
But there are plenty of IDE drives even faster than these units.

Got it?