Best IDE Optical Drive for 2006 Mac Pro

[Harry322]

My stock Superdrive seems to have bitten the dust.

I'm looking to put a new one in, but I seem limited to IDE models since I'm using both ODD SATA ports for additional hard drives in the optical bay.

What is the best IDE Optical Drive (at least DVD-R, but I'm open to BD-R) for the 2006 Mac Pro? Preferably one that doesn't feature RipLock...

Are there any other considerations I should make when picking out the drive?

Thanks!

 

[gugucom]

Very few BD went out with IDE. I once got one and it was a heap of manure. It got quickly exchanged for a SATA drive. Another option if you are short of SATA ports would be USB 2.0. You do get nice adaptors from Delock which can turn your SATA BDD into USB. And you wouldn't put any money into obsolete technology.

 

[Tesselator]

I got this one:

as a replacement and I love it to death! Absolutely awesome! Fast, Quiet, and very robust in the formats department.

PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-116L:

  Firmware Revision:	1.06
  Interconnect:	ATAPI
  Burn Support:	Yes (Generic Drive Support)
  Profile Path:	None
  Cache:	2000 KB
  Reads DVD:	Yes
  CD-Write:	-R, -RW
  DVD-Write:	-R, -R DL, -RAM, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
  Write Strategies:	CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

I think it's region-less as I can put DVDs from many different regions in it and I never see a pop-up or anything and it always just plays. I can drag the contents of ANY DVD to the desktop and play it from VLC or use handbrake to turn it into an AVI so I guess there's no rip-lock" or whatever that is, in it.


Blue Ray to me is too silly to even consider at this point. It's slow, there's almost no commercial media available in that format, it's expensive, there's little or no OS X support for it, and the media price is completely ridiculous. All things considered you would be MUCH better off buying a hot-swap interface and just using 1TB or 1.5TB hard-drives as "media". Maybe in a few years when BlueRay players are under $100 and media is under $1.00 each but right now there's absolutely no sane rationale for purchasing one. Well, unless you have a client that demands work be submitted on BRDs or something - but I doubt there is such an employer or customer.

 

[Harry322]

Thanks for the advice Gugu and Tess.

I agree that Bluray seems impractical at this point. Maybe a year or so in the future it'll be a more viable option.

As for the Pioneer DVR-116L, does it have Riplock technology or anything else that would hinder performance? I hear good things about Samsung drives in this regard.

And this may seem silly but, the DVR-116L will fit in a Mac Pro and operate correctly when the eject key is pressed etc. ?

Thanks for the input guys!

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-116L:

Firmware Revision: 1.06
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Generic Drive Support)
Profile Path: None
Cache: 2000 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RAM, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
[/code]


Blue Ray to me is too silly to even consider at this point. It's slow, there's almost no commercial media available in that format, it's expensive, there's little or no OS X support for it, and the media price it completely ridiculous. All things considered you would be MUCH better off buying a hot-swap interface and just using 1TB or 1.5TB hard-drives as "media". Maybe in a few years when BlueRay players are under $100 and media is under $1.00 each but right now there's absolutely no sane rationale for purchasing one. Well, unless you have a client that demands work be submitted on BRDs or something - but I doubt there is such an employer or customer.

 

[pastrychef]

Stay away from Sony Nec Optiarcs, I've already had 2 die on me. Both died in less than 1.5 years of light to moderate use.

I currently have a Pioneer DVR-116D and an LG GH22LS40. I would've gone with two Pioneers, but, as far as I know, Pioneer doesn't support Lightscribe anymore while the LG does. So far both seem to be performing fine. I've had the Pioneer for about 1 year now and have burn quite a few discs. The LG is relatively new, so I can't say how it will stand the test of time. Both eject fine in OS X.

Sorry, I don't know about RipLock.

 

[nanofrog]

...that doesn't feature RipLock...

Take a look here, as it can get you around RipLock alltogether (works for a number of manufacturers drives). You need windows to do it, but it does work.

As per a SATA drive, I use a Samsung Lightscribe model, and haven't had any problems with it so far (6 months).

 

[hyram]

Wow, talk about timing, my optical drive just started making a grinding niose this morning. '07 MP1,1. So quick question: If you replace a PATA with a SATA drive; anything special you have to set up in OS X??? Any benifits to SATA over PATA or is the speed off the optical slow enough it doesn't really matter???

hyram

 

[nanofrog]

Wow, talk about timing, my optical drive just started making a grinding niose this morning. '07 MP1,1. So quick question: If you replace a PATA with a SATA drive; anything special you have to set up in OS X??? Any benifits to SATA over PATA or is the speed off the optical slow enough it doesn't really matter???

hyram

AFAIK, nothing special needed in OS X. Windows OTOH, you'd need to install the AHCI drivers.

As per throughput, no real difference, as it's slower than PATA.

 

[gugucom]

One thing to consider is the Mac OD booting capability. Only 2009 models will boot from SATA. All other Macs will only accept PATA and USB. But as I said a little SATA->IDE or SATA->USB adapter will take care of that.

 

[hyram]

One thing to consider is the Mac OD booting capability. Only 2009 models will boot from SATA.

Hmmm.... so does that mean that if I install a SATA optical in my MP1,1 that I can't hold the option key and get it to boot from the optical???

hyram

 

[gugucom]

Exactly. It needs IDE or USB to boot. If you want BD play back and OD boot you need two drives.

Apple and their junk firmware policies screw you again. They just do minimum drivers for what they deliver, never something that will cover wider after market options.

 

[Tesselator]

Thanks for the advice Gugu and Tess.

NP

I agree that Bluray seems impractical at this point. Maybe a year or so in the future it'll be a more viable option.

Smart.

As for the Pioneer DVR-116L, does it have Riplock technology or anything else that would hinder performance? I hear good things about Samsung drives in this regard.

I agree about staying away from Sony. Teac too! Other than that all I know is that for the past 12 years every time I ask a shop guru which DVD drives are good I get an odd look like I'm supposed to already know that and then a sentence like: "I never put anything other than Pioneer in my machines". Samsung have good specs but I don't trust the longevity of anything with the Samsung name on it - even including the three 1.5TB hard drives I recently bought for myself. I fully expect I will have to have them replaced at least twice each before their warrantee period is over.

On the speed of the Pioneer a 7GB CSS 40-bit encrypted DVD copies over to my HDD (3-Drive RAID0) in about 7 minutes via Option+Drag. Or about 16 MB/s. And once there is playable with VLC, or AVI'able in Handbrake - DTS, subs and all. I can Handbrake directly from DVD but it takes 10 to 15 min. extra so by copying it to the HDD 1st I save 3 to 8 minutes (depending on the codec, size, and etc. settings in handbrake).

And this may seem silly but, the DVR-116L will fit in a Mac Pro and operate correctly when the eject key is pressed etc. ?

Yeah. You have to take the front bezel off but on most players that just unclips. On mine I noticed Apple had a bumper added via double sided tape, to the original drawer clip-lock leading edge - so I took it off the broken Apple drive and put it on the new Pioneer drive. It's probably not needed but I did it anyway.

 

[nanofrog]

One thing to consider is the Mac OD booting capability. Only 2009 models will boot from SATA. All other Macs will only accept PATA and USB. But as I said a little SATA->IDE or SATA->USB adapter will take care of that.

Very good point , and given what you ran into, I doubt you'll ever forget it.

Good to keep posting it though, as it's important on the '06 - '08 MP's. Unfortunately, I tend to forget this, due to the amount of time I spend on the PC side of the hardware equation.

Samsung have good specs but I don't trust the longevity of anything with the Samsung name on it - even including the three 1.5TB hard drives I recently bought for myself. I fully expect I will have to have them replaced at least twice each before their warranty period is over.

I guess we'll both find out regardless, whether we like the outcome or not.

And in my case, it includes an LCD HDTV.

 

[gugucom]

I have Samsung LCD HDTV since three years. Never any issue with both units. The last I got is incredibly good. It got local dimming LED backlight. Fantastic TV, better than Plasma.

 

[nanofrog]

I have Samsung LCD HDTV since three years. Never any issue with both units. The last I got is incredibly good. It got local dimming LED backlight. Fantastic TV, better than Plasma.

I've only had this one since late Jan 2009 (46" 650 series, Rev. A). The picture quality is rather good. Even the stock settings weren't too bad, and as you say, at least comparable to decent plasmas (had checked into getting a Pioneer plasma). The price difference just couldn't be ignored.

 

[Tesselator]

Yeah I meant HDDs CDs DVDs and BRDs and stuff. I'm sure their other electronics (SSDs, LCDs, RAM, etc.) will make it through warrantee at least as good as any other manufacturer.

 

[nanofrog]

Yeah I meant HDDs CDs DVDs and BRDs and stuff. I'm sure their other electronics (SSDs, LCDs, RAM, etc.) will make it through warrantee at least as good as any other manufacturer.

Actually, I figured that's what you meant, but couldn't help myself.

 

[TheStrudel]

All of my Samsung gear (even HDDs) is as good as the day I bought it.

And again, BD's are aimed at the people who can really use them for archiving purposes, to mail HD video to people, and so on.

Media's actually down to about $2.10 apiece if you know where to look, which is only a bit cheaper than DVD-R DL. Price will not be an issue soon.

 

[gugucom]

I agree with Strudel that BD starts to make sense. The distribution is massively improving with the new licensing model they introduced in May. We are getting HDTV in mainstream TV next year in Germany. They did a lot of that at IFA last week. People will use BD the same way they use DVDs to record TV then. Unfortunately they also will introduce CI+ standard for Common Interface cards, which stops things like fast forward over advertising and more than 90 minutes of time shift. Another idiotic attempt to stop people watching content the way they want.

 

[nanofrog]

All of my Samsung gear (even HDDs) is as good as the day I bought it.

And again, BD's are aimed at the people who can really use them for archiving purposes, to mail HD video to people, and so on.

Media's actually down to about $2.10 apiece if you know where to look, which is only a bit cheaper than DVD-R DL. Price will not be an issue soon.

WOW! That is cheap. Care to share?

 

[Tesselator]

All of my Samsung gear (even HDDs) is as good as the day I bought it.

I don't have a lot of experience with Samsung drives but the gurus and SE's on the better Japanese forums say Samsung is good spec but dies soon so hang on to the warrantee. This jives so far with mine. See below:

 

[nanofrog]

I don't have a lot of experience with Samsung drives but the gurus and SE's on the better Japanese forums say Samsung is good spec but dies soon so hang on to the warrantee. This jives so far with mine. See below:

Ouch!

I presume these posts include both HDD & ODD for early death.

 

[Tesselator]

Ouch!

I presume these posts include both HDD & ODD for early death.

Yeah, the bulk focus of the Samsung comments I read in Japanese are ODD and HDD. And of course it's not going to happen to everyone 100% of the time.

Heck even detecting this trouble on my mac was not straight forward. There is only one app of the 6 or so commercial and free apps I own that read S.M.A.R.T. correctly. Other software reports no problems as shown below. And other than pressing your ear to the HDD 24/7 there's no other way to tell. I caught it by noticing that a beach-ball took too long on three separate occasions. So I tried every S.M.A.R.T. reader I had (about 5 or 6) and only one showed it.


BTW, the only one that works 100% is Smart Utility from Volitans Software.

 

[TheStrudel]

Handy tip there about SMART, thanks.

meritline.com routinely has sales on various media, as does supermediastore.com. If you're willing to go with less well-known brands, it's cheaper. I haven't had an issue with one yet.

 

[TheStrudel]

Hmm. Having tested the SMART utility, I find it to indeed be comprehensive and worth using. All that comes up in my two year old 750 GB Samsungs is 142 reallocated bad sectors on one drive. Isn't that pretty much indicating that some sectors are bad and the drive is working well? Either way, a handy tip.

I'll confess to a preference for Samsung drives because I like their tech better. Been thinking about upgrading to F3s soon, what with the nice 500GB platter design.