Building a duplicator or buying one. I have seen some duplicators that are pretty much fancy looking cases with a cheap powersupply and a Duplicator Controller. In the cases I'm looking at Athena is the name of the controller.
Now, it looks as though I could build one cheaper myself using an old server case, buying the controller alone and buying my drives alone each. As well, you could use an older "laying around" harddrive and throw in the add-on USB/HDD card to match your controller. I noticed that alot of the companies use drives like Pioneer dvr-112D, I've also seen Sony and Lite-On as well.
Is there anything special to the drive specs you would look for when considering building your own duplication rig to save cash but still use high-spec parts (just dodge the middle men making coin on you) say using Plextors instead of the Pioneers? I mean, could be any brandname drive just whichever can handle being abused best while keeping quality at top notch.
On a seperate note, can you use say a 1-7 Athena Controller and only fill 3 of the slots and have the 1-7 open for expansion later on or are you screwed and you have to indefinitely fill each slot for the controller choice (naming that there is ranging from 1-1 to 1-15).
edit: I just realized this probably should have sat in a different section of the forum...
