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MacAdmin

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 31, 2006
47
0
I was wanting to upgrade my powermac g5 1.8 to a dual layer DVD burner, does anyone know what make/model I would need, and if it is as simple as a swap out, or if a firmware upgrade is also needed.
 

CubeHacker

macrumors 65816
Apr 22, 2003
1,245
257
No firmware changes are needed. However, you do want to get one that works under OSX without any 3rd party drivers. Check out the drive database at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ to see which burners work natively under OSX.
 

paxx

macrumors newbie
Nov 23, 2006
21
3
I was wanting to upgrade my powermac g5 1.8 to a dual layer DVD burner, does anyone know what make/model I would need, and if it is as simple as a swap out, or if a firmware upgrade is also needed.
I've been checking this very thing out to add another optical drive to my MacPro and have found that most everyone says the Samsung SH-S182M drive is very compatible. It also has lightscribe and sells for $32 at http://www.newegg,com. There are some good threads at the discussions on apple's support web sight. I searched 'lightscribe' and found abunch out about this samsung drive.

Paxx
 

apfhex

macrumors 68030
Aug 8, 2006
2,670
5
Northern California
I'm partial to Pioneer Superdrives. The DVR-111D is the latest, I think, and can write to just about any type of disc (-R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL).
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Aug 1, 2004
15,028
3,003
St. Louis, MO
I'm partial to Pioneer Superdrives. The DVR-111D is the latest, I think, and can write to just about any type of disc (-R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL).


I've got one, but I think it's the DVR-110D or something like that, and it is an excellent burner. Works great in my G5, no firmware updates or anything needed. I think the reason they work so well is these are the DVD burners that Apple used at some point for their SuperDrives.

Mine's only produced 1 coaster, and that was my fault, trying to burn at 8x on a DVD+R DL meant for 2.4x burning.
 

Irish Dave

macrumors regular
Nov 20, 2006
221
0
The Emerald Isle
I'm partial to Pioneer Superdrives. The DVR-111D is the latest, I think, and can write to just about any type of disc (-R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL).

I have been using the Pioneer DVR-109 in my Power Mac G5 for two years and it has performed without problems. Removed the original and slid the 109 in ... job done.

Dave :)
 

Links

macrumors member
Oct 18, 2003
58
0
Hollywood North
I've been checking this very thing out to add another optical drive to my MacPro and have found that most everyone says the Samsung SH-S182M drive is very compatible. It also has lightscribe and sells for $32 at http://www.newegg,com. There are some good threads at the discussions on apple's support web sight. I searched 'lightscribe' and found abunch out about this samsung drive.

Paxx
It also reads AND writes to DVD-RAM,
not many burners currently on the market can do that.
 

apfhex

macrumors 68030
Aug 8, 2006
2,670
5
Northern California
I have been using the Pioneer DVR-109 in my Power Mac G5 for two years and it has performed without problems. Removed the original and slid the 109 in ... job done.
I have the Apple DVR-111D and a separately bought DVR-106D in the second bay of my Mac Pro. Both have never given me a single problem.

It also reads AND writes to DVD-RAM,
not many burners currently on the market can do that.
Yeah but... when was the last time you saw a DVD-RAM disc? 1998? :p
 
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