Hi all.

I bought the NEC 3500A from Newegg and put it in a Plumax USB 2.0 External Enclosure.

I have not been able to get the burns to go faster than 4.1X with these 2 types of DVD-R 8X media.

Dynex RITEK-R03-02
Memorex CMC MAG-E01-00

Is it the media or am I in need of a firmware update? Could it be the external case?

Thanks.

You need to run Nero CD/DVD Speed Program to determine your maximun DVD transfer rate first. Then post results... Not all Cases are equal... I have seen the range of 7MB/s to 19MB/s. At 19 MB/s you can support a 12X drive. At 7 MB/s you CAN'T EVEN SUPPORT an 8X drive...
Hope this helps...

I am getting 5.79x Transfer rate. It did not give results in MB/s. Do you think it's the enclosure?

Here are the specs on the enclosure:

* New Version Includes EMI Shield!
* Cypress Semiconductor Chipset
* This USB2.0 External Enclosure uses the latest AT2 MicroChip for Mass Storage
* Capacity, supports 300GB HDD.
* Operates at high (480-Mbps) or full (12-Mbps) speed
* Supports 48-bit addressing for large hard drives
* Converts IDE drive to USB 2.0 drive.
* Support UDMA 33/66 or ATA 100/133 CD-ROM, CD-D, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM.
* Support for MAC OS 8.6 or later and Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000 and XP.
* Includes audio jack to connect your CD-Audio to a Stereo System.
* Hot Swappable, Plug & Play features
* Removable front panel to cover 3.5" hard drive or 3.5" tape drive.
* Support sustained data transfer rates up to 25 MB/sec.
* Internal ball bearing fan to keep drive cool for long life cycle.

More than likely it is the enclosure. I have heard that the Cypress chipset maxes out just under 6x as you are reporting. I have the same enclosure with a 851s@832s and have the same problem.

Shawn

Great....Should I call DealSonic and get a comparable product since this one does not meet their advertised specs? What case do you guys recommend? So does this mean this statement is false?

Support sustained data transfer rates up to 25 MB/sec.

I believe their statement is true for harddrives however I don't believe that the enclosure supports dma on ATAPI devices such as CD Roms. Do a search to see what is recomended. There are many articles on what people recommend.

Shawn

I have had a lot of testing with Cypress ChipSets for USB2 support. Both in a standalone USB2 case and a combo USB2/Firewire case. In all cases, the maximum speed I was able to obtain was only 7MB/s.

If you want a standalone USB2 case go for a NEC or ABI chipset unit. I prefer ABI because it's faster than NEC except for the latest NEC chipset.

If you want a combo case go for the Prolific chipset, stay away from Oxford. Oxford is the leader for hard drives but doesn't work real good with DVDs.

Regards...

Here is a transfer rate of a Sony DDU-1612 (LiteOn 166S) and not a 3500A (in my case) using a Cypress-based chipset from a Plumax external enclosure. Although the enclosure itself is a 3.5" form factor for my external hard drive, I had the ODD sitting on top. CD-DVD created the test disc on a YUDEN000T02, burned originally on the 3500A @ 16X CAV. Needless to say, it's pretty pathetic.

Are there any cheap NEC or ABI chipset cases? When I say cheap, I mean around $30.

Anyone know what chipset this uses?
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...pe=pi#moreinfo

I have another case that's about 2 years old that's ALI, would that be slow as well?

Thanks for answering all my noob questions. Guess all external enclosures are not created equal when it comes to DVD burning.

Best place to purchase cases is Dealsonic.com. Their prices are really really cheap and thet list the chipset used in the case.

If it's a HD/DVD case I bet you it will be great. Just try it...
Be careful Ali also makes a chipset only for hard drives...

Not to be the rain in your parade concerning the Ali and Cypress chip set with external enclosure from your previous posts in this thread...but obviously your info is incorrect or outdated (old chip set model???)
But i have a bytecc (using Ali) and KingWin ext. enclosure and the burst rate for both is 22 and 20 MB/s....I *would* however like them to be around 23 or more to burn at 16x. The enclosures is for my nec3500 burner (the one with Ali chip) and aopen dvd rom drive (Cypress) ...so obviously ali is not only make/support hard drives only.

Do a burst speed test on your enclosure and see what is the speed. Open Nero CD/DVD speed and go to "Run Test" then down to Burst Speed Test (F6) and hit it...see what the actual speed supported by the enclosure with your system first. I don't remember if you need a DVD in the drive or not...haven't done it for awhile

I got my unbrella open !!!!

@RandomWalk101

This is my testing over the past 6 month. Any Case I have tested with a Cypress USB ChipSet only yielded about a 7MB/s transfer rate via Nero. I have used six different cases by 6 different manufacturers (Almost all cases are made by the same company in China called Welland any way).

I have had great results will all the ALI chipset cases. The warning was in using the ALI chipset that is only designed for HD enclosurers. If you try a DVD on this HD ALI bridgeboard the DVD is not detected.

In the case of Cypress, don't know if it's an OS problem or SP level, but it doesn't work for me. My OS is WinXP/Pro SP2.

Regards...

Are these the good NEC chipsets?

http://www.dealsonic.com/synecchusb201.html
http://www.dealsonic.com/becoplseal5i.html

bump

anyone have an external case they can recommend? 4x is killing me....

I have used external cases for about a year and never noticed any problems till I started using writers that could go above 8x.....now i dont use them for writing anymore.

So who has a model number on ALI or NEC Cases that worked well for them on 16x?