help us outdo the Mac Pro optical drive

[tpyro]

I'm helping someone buy a new Mac. The iMac is a much better deal than the Mac Pro, but we're getting stuck on the optical drive. The person's work involves a lot of reading in burned DVDs (photos, artwork). The iMac optical drive is only an "8x Superdrive", while the Mac Pro's can supposedly read at 18x (specifications). I haven't found any drives that can read at that speed and can also burn.

Can we beat or at least match the Mac Pro's internal optical drive with an external? The iMac has USB and Firewire 800 but no eSATA.

Price is not an issue; it could help us save $1000 on the computer & monitor. If you had to buy an external drive, what's the absolute best drive you would pick?

[redk9258]

Exactly why I will never own a Mac. My sister has an iMac and her "Superdrive" is bad. I'm guessing that you cannot just put a normal (laptop) drive in because Apple wants to control the hardware. They want to charge 2-3 times the cost as opposed to just buying a drive of my choice from Newegg.

That rant doesn't answer your question at all. If you are burning mostly DVD, Sony/Optiarc seems to be a popular choice nowadays. I'm not sure how these work through a USB connection though. Whatever drive you get, you may want to get the one that comes with Mac software. That way you know it is compatible.

Good Luck.

[kahnage]

I do a lot of work requiring data transfer from DVD to internal hard drives.
I have recently upgraded to a Mac pro 8 core, but am finding that the transfer speed from the optical drive is approx 4 times slower than it was on my previous machine, a G5 Quad. The machine has been tested, and the optical drive is extremely fast, but is being limited by the Mac pro. Either the logic board, or the controllers for the optical drive. The problem has not yet been rectified.
My advise here is to test the actual speed of the drive with some known media before you buy. Do not necessarily believe the published specs.
Also I have found that an external FW800 optical drive can read and write at excellent speeds. So I would assume connecting one to an imac would be equally as fast.