Hot Deal: CenDyne DVD-R/RW Drive - $149.99 @ OfficeMax.com

[Ian]

Office Max has CenDyne's DVD-R/RW writer on sale again, and the deal is better than ever. Starting this Sunday, the <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=4LdR8jHyYWs&offerid=32481.109292&type=2&subid=0" >Cendyne 2x4x8x24 Internal DVD R/RW Drive</a><IMG border=0 width=1 height=1 src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=4LdR8jHyYWs&bids=32481&type=2&subid=0" > is on sale for $299.99. The drive also has a $50 instant rebate and the <a href="http://images.officemax.com/pdf/2002_10/Cendyne_1.pdf" target="_blank">$50 mail in rebate</a> takes the price down to $199.99. To sweeten the deal, Office Max also has a <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=4LdR8jHyYWs&subid=1&offerid=32481.1&type=10&tmpid=80&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.officemax.com%2Fspecial%2Freq28B" target="_blank">$50 off $250</a> coupon that will bring the price down to $149.99 with free shipping. The lowest price I found for this drive on <a href="http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=556889" target="_blank">Pricegrabber</a> was $272!
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Keep in mind that this sale starts Sunday. To see what else is on sale at Office Max this Sunday, <a href="http://www.officemax.com/max/solutions/product/prePrintSelect.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=no&structure=11" target="_blank">check out</a> the ad for your area.<br><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1"><a href="http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6731" target="_top">[discuss this in the forum]</a></font>

[Ian]

For that price I might need to buy one.

[VEFF]

Nice deal!

If you include tax, the CenDyne is $66 less (after $50 rebate though) than
what I paid for the DRU500A ($228 inc shipping, NO rebate needed).

I don't care about the dual (-R/-RW and +R/+RW) support advantage
of the Sony that much, but I do like the fact that the DRU500A burns a full DVD-R in 15 mins, as opposed to 30 mins for the CenDyne.

If they both wrote to DVD-R at the same speed, I would cancel the 500A order in a heartbeat, since Dell messed up the shipping sequence in a big way, and could not provide any explanation as to what went wrong...

[BuddhaTB]

What drive or chipset is this Cendyne drive based on? Anyone have the complete stats of this drive too? Looks like a good deal.

[VEFF]

What drive or chipset is this Cendyne drive based on? Anyone have the complete stats of this drive too? Looks like a good deal.

Probably the Pioneer DVR-104.
That is what the one I saw at CC tonight said on the back of the box.

[Ian]

It is indeed a Pioneer A04.

Specs:

http://cendyne.com/products/dvd-rw/CDICD00106.htm

With CenDyne's new 4x DVD-R drive shipping at the end of this month, this drive will only get cheaper.

VEFF, do you know off the top of your head whether or not the 500A uses CLV or CAV when writing at 4x? I'm guessing CLV.. but I haven't seen the drive write at that speed yet, so I'm not sure.

[VEFF]

It is indeed a Pioneer A04.

Specs:

http://cendyne.com/products/dvd-rw/CDICD00106.htm

With CenDyne's new 4x DVD-R drive shipping at the end of this month, this drive will only get cheaper.

VEFF, do you know off the top of your head whether or not the 500A uses CLV or CAV when writing at 4x? I'm guessing CLV.. but I haven't seen the drive write at that speed yet, so I'm not sure.

Sorry Ian, I don't have any idea
Maybe someone who received it already or bought in a retail outlet it can help us out.

[Kennyshin]

$150. That's cheaper than Yamaha 24x CD writers in Seoul.

[paps33]

Oh well. It looks like this drive is only available for purchase in-store. So the extra $50 off for purchasing online isn't available.

[WaferJ]

Try printing the web page with the discount shown - some stores may take it. Also sign up for the MaxMail Newsletter and they will e-mail you a coupon for $20 off of $150. It all depends on the manager. I got them to take the $20 off coupon... And someone in line told me of another local store that will honor the online deals no problem, so if one wont take it go try it at another one.

[Pasha]

I bargained with Store Manager to get the drive for $249-$50 (Instant Rebate)-$50 (Mail-in Rebate)=$149. It is my first DVD Burner, so I still have to learn what I can do with it. System reads it as Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-104.
It took me over 1 hour to format DVD-R/W Disk for Ahead InCD - not that fast .
I haven't bought any DVD-R Media yet, any suggestions? Also, how long is it going to take to burn a full DVD-R?