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[tedtropy]

NEC Black IDE Slim DVD Burner Model ND-6750A - OEM
$77.99

This is a seriously good price for what is essentially the fastest DVD burner you can shove in a laptop. It's based on the really reliable modern NEC chipset, obviously, but be sure to research how compatible it will be with your particular laptop. I'm buying it for my Dell Latitude D600, but it will involve me having to place it inside the caddy that my present CD-RW/DVD is using. This may result in it not being perfectly flush with the side due to the design of the drive's faceplate, but I'm hoping I can just ghetto swap the existing faceplate. Trust me, this will be considerably cheaper than buying a DVD burner through the original vendor that won't likely be nearly as fast or compatible. I'm hoping this will result in one less thing I need to turn my home PC on for.

 

[EGM92]

I got one of these inside my Dell, really nice, and compatible with a lot of media (previous laptop burners wouldn't recognize Sony or Maxell DVD media) very good price.

 

[tedtropy]

I got one of these inside my Dell, really nice, and compatible with a lot of media (previous laptop burners wouldn't recognize Sony or Maxell DVD media) very good price.

Did you order your Dell with it or buy it after the fact?

 

[golduck342]

Do you think these are generally compatible with Dell's? I was just looking for one yesterday for my Inspiron 600m, and the ones I found were $200+. I was just about to give up, but this one looks good.

 

[EGM92]

The one I have is a Dell one, but it looks to be the exact same. My friend bought one of these last month for his 9200 (UK) and it worked prefectly he just ahd to flash it with the Dell Firmware to get to work properly.

 

[tedtropy]

Do you think these are generally compatible with Dell's? I was just looking for one yesterday for my Inspiron 600m, and the ones I found were $200+. I was just about to give up, but this one looks good.

I know with my laptop the drive itself is encased in a caddy that connects the drive's standard connection to Dell's own proprietary connection that then slides into the laptop. Others have bought this very drive and just replaced the one that was in the caddy and report it works fine. The caddy itself if fairly easy to take apart. It takes a few minutes of extra effort, but it should be perfectly compatible.

 

[Diablos]

NEC and BenQ make the best affordable DVD writers on the market... so you've made a good choice.

 

[tedtropy]

NEC and BenQ make the best affordable DVD writers on the market... so you've made a good choice.

The same NEC chipset is even used in the pricier Pioneer burners, and quite a few others. It's quite solid.

 

[tedtropy]

Just an update: got the drive in today from Newegg, fitted it into Dell's goofy caddy so it'll work in my laptop, fired it up, and ripped a video DVD and proceeded to burn it to one of my Ritek DVD-Rs. Played perfectly on my PSTwo. The drive isn't perfectly flush with the curved side of the laptop, but is recessed a little and looks fine. I may take a snap of it later. End of the day, it was a good $100 cheaper than what you're going to get through Dell's site and is currently the fastest dual-layer laptop DVD burner out there.