The less you have to do with Dell the better off you and your computer will be.  Go to newegg.com or zipzoomfly.com and purchase a Plextor CD DVD +/- R RW internal drive. Better than a Sony IMO.

I would buy a Retail version of this drive and not an OEM version.

Message Edited by BrickYard on 03-05-2005 06:46 PM

I'll reiterate some things Brickyard said. If you search this forum, you will find two brands consistently recommended, Plextor and Pioneer. The current versions of these are the Plextor PX-716A and the Pioneer DVR-A09 (same as DVR-109). I suggest you do a Google search for reviews of these two burners and see which makes an impression on you.

When you're ready to buy, I wholeheartedly recommend Newegg.com. Here is a link to their DVD burner page:

http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=5&DEPA=1

There is no difference between "white box" and "retail" except that the retail will include a cable (which you don't need), so screws (which you don't need), and maybe software. However, even with a "white box" or OEM burner, most vendors offer a program call Nero OEM Suite for a very nominal cost (<$10) with the purchase of any drive, so make sure you get that.

Thanks!  This is the info I have been searching for...wish I would have remembered this board a couple days ago..I would have saved a lot of time and headaches.

I checked out the site you recommed , neweeg and well...you 2 have turned me to the other side.  Would you agree that the Plextor is the better of the two?

I am still a bit confused with the software though.  It does not show the Nero program to be included like it is on some others..and the cheapest I saw to buy it for was $33, am I looking in the wrong place.  I am just worried that I will get this , get it installed only to find out I still have to buy another program to make it work.....take my scanner for example I bought it about 5 years ago and have only used it as a copier.  The software that came with it was not user friendly and I do not have the time (or enough working gray matter ) to read and study manuals.

Thanks,

Vic

Vic:

Right now I'm not seeing Newegg offering the Nero OEM Suite included with their drives. They offer this periodically, but not at all times. Here's another vendor that is offering these drives for a bit more, and you can add Nero for $6.75 to any drive ordered:

http://store.yahoo.com/livewarehouse/dvd-r--dvd-rw-drives-atapi---eide.html

By the way, this is where I bought my two Pioneer drives. If you're willing to wait for a deal, I recommend checking http://www.techbargains.com/ often. Some vendors will sell Nero without hardware.

Lampshade:

Pretty much any of these drives will work with your system. Either Pioneer or Plextor will work as well, but Pioneer tend to be a bit less expensive.

Regarding your internet access, there's going to be a pretty big difference between DSL and dial-up. DSL is typically 10-20 times faster for downloads, but loading web pages may not make as much of a difference. Whether it's worth the price depends on what you want to do with your connection.

Vic:

Downloading 30 minutes of any type of video over dial-up will be painful. Consider that a DVD holds about 4.5 GB of data, about two hours of video. A decent dial-up connection downloads, say, 40-50 kbps, or 5-7 kilobytes per second, or 25 MB per hour (these are very optimistic numbers). A 1-GB video would take 40 hours.