Here's a better burn for the same type of disc that I mentioned in my prior post using the same Ali chipset.

NScythe, the chipset is Oxford 1911 for the firewire on my enclosure.

Crashnburn, since the enclosure is aluminum is stays very cool. In addition, it does have a fan, which is actually very quiet. I have burned dvd-r 4x media at 8x speed but that is it so far. I did burn cd-r at 48x no problem.

OK I tested my new external USB2 enclosure (Chipset is Genesys Logic GL811E). First 2 Screenshots are with nForce2 Chipset, 3rd and 4th are with i845 Chipset.

As You can the the nForce2 isn't able to deliver a constant data stream @12x writing speed and ist limited to 15,5x reading speed.

With the i845 all works as desigend.

I,ve got NEC 3500, and external enclosure. But DVD writer not being recognised by computer ( Win XP Home), via firewire, or USB2 connection. Anything else I need to do? Jumper to master/ slave or cable select? Anythinf else in the settings?

Thanks

Did you turn the power switch on for your enclosure? Obvious but can be overlooked. Make sure you're in windows first then turn on the switch. Most switches can be found on the rear of the enclosures. What about your bios? When booting up did you see any error messages? Leave as default master.

You may have a bad enclosure as well or a bad drive. Try plugging the drive in the normal way using either the primary or secondary ide channel (For internal setups).

Are all cables firmly attached with no bent pins, dust, damage, etc...?
Are all wires including power cords, usb cords, etc... connected?

Do you see any error messages that you normally didn't see before after using the enclosure? Programs that normally work fine before may now not work, etc...

Make sure that you plug in the usb cable firmly and check it for damage, bent pins, etc... Try plugging the drive in a different usb slot as well. Try a different usb cable or power cord as well. I'm thinking the problem is most likely hardware-related. Post back on what you did and found out. Later.

DrOktor. What is the brand of enclosure that you're running? Thanks. Nice graphs!

Anyone here have any comments on this external enclosure?
Mapower 5.25" USB2.0/IEEE1394 Combo Aluminum External Enclosure, Model "KC51C1" -RETAIL

Newegg has it for $52. I did say that I will be getting another enclosure in the near future. Thanks.

Does anyone know if the kingwin enclosure is daisy chainable? If it is, does it work well? I've read basically everywhere that the oxford 911 chipset is one of the best for firewire but I'm stil sketchy about the reviews I read. This is partly due to reading pretty decent reviews about the prolific chipset, and it turns out that it's pretty much worthless. I ordered these two enclosures a week ago and the firewire ports don't perform as well:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...155-214&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...145-745&depa=0
For example, when I try to copy files to my hard-drive (200gb seagate barracuda) enclosed in the speeze product, nearly 1/2 the files copy over with errors. So I received an error like "file or directory is corrupted and unreadable". Also when i shut down the speeze enclosure, and try to plug it back onto my computer, the filesystem disappears so i have to reformat it. IT'S A USELESS PRODUCT, so I warn you not to get any speeze products.

Anyways, I'm thinking about getting the following kingwin enclosure, one for a dvd writer and one for a 200gb seagate barracuda:
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec....AA28800&Bag=yy
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec....AA28770&Bag=yy

I was wondering if someone has both and daisy chained them using the firewire port. If so, how well does it perform? Are you able to burn a dvd from the external hard drive? Also can you copy from the external dvd writer to the external hard-drive? Thanks in advance.

DrOktor. Never mind. I totally spaced it there for a moment. You already told me that you had the Kingwin enclosure. Nice graphs still though!

OK here a pic of my enclosure. I don't know if it is equal to the Kingpin - never posted something like that
It's the USB2 Version no FW

Here a reading Graph from a MaPower USB2/FW Combo enclosure attached to the i845 Chipset.

DrOktor. MaPower isn't the way to go then. Graph looks mediocre.

I just bought the Kingwin USB FW 5.25" for 53+Tax from AxionTech..

I added a 200 GB Seagate from Frys. I am having an issue and I wonder if someone can direct me. Appreciate it.

..............

BEGINNING:

I bought a Seagate 200 GB ATA 100 HDD recently from Frys.

To use it I bought the Kingwin enclosure KH-525-UF (USB2 + Fire Wire ) place the HDD inside and now I want to begin formatting etc.

I have 2 laptops:
- Lap P4 XP SP2 + PQ Partition Magic 8.02
- Lap P3 XP SP??1 or not even SP1 + PQ Partition Magic "Pro" 7.0x ??

THE FALL:

I connect the enclosure via USB2 to Lap P4, detects Mass Storage, I start PartMagic and it shows the drive connected and shows 19X... (appx 200 GB) of unallocated / unformatted space.

I begin to create partitions using Part Magic and then say "apply"... It does somethings and somewhere along the way it shoots an error and stops.

After this point I cannot access the HDD (via file system as there is none).. or partition it or anything... I boot into Pm8.0 in DOS that I have on a bootable CD and still I cant do anything.

THE REVIVAL:

For some funky reason I connect it to Lap P3, it detects device and shows some "disk" in windows explorer, and when I click it it says "drive has not been formatted, would you like to ...". I choose to format it NTFS (also it picks up size as the size I set for the first partition in "THE FALL" .. where i think it created one partition and then collapsed before it could format it or create other partitions.)

So, now XP SP1 or not even SP1 is able to quickly format and make that drive partition come alive..

So I go into PMagic here and start creating all partitions.. I get some CHS and LBA error messages and I ask it to fix it.. I get 3 x 8GB primary NTFS and 1 x 160+ GB Extended Logical NTFS.

Funny that a pre-SP1 XP was able to allow me to do this

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK:

I connect back to Lap P4.. it shows all partitions inside Windows Explorer like nothing happened.

As soon as I start PM 8.0 it again shoots error messages about Drive Geometry and shows the entire drive as "BAD" when PM 7 Pro on the other machine shows all partitions as okay.

QUESTION:

WHAT IS HAPPENED AND WHY IS THIS HAPPENING... IS THIS PURELY A PM 7 to PM8 conflict ? How can I use a 3rd tool / app to check which one is right.. is PM8 or PM7 correct and whether both are wrong ?

PS: I have studied CHS and LBA modes of access and internals of HDDs, PCI Bus etc... when I was studying MicroComputer Systems Design in school.... how cylinders platters, logical blocks etc work.. (did IDE, SCSI, PCI, ISA etc. )

Is this the ALI "M5621 A1" bridge chip?

There seems to be some differences of opinion on this chipset. From your posts, am I correct in saying that you found this chipset to work well with your drive and mobo?

I have an external box that uses this chipset (Welland ME-340U2) but I onlu use it for harddisks. The harddisks perform the same or slighty better in the external box than they do on either of the controllers on the mobo (Gigabyte Ga-7VAXP).

I haven't tried it with a DVD burner as I don't own one - I am on the quest to find the best for my purposes.

Regards,
Bob

Hmm! Good question, I never looked up the actual chipset. It is the Ali. I'll have to get back to you on that.

Opinions will always exist! People are so different, there's bound to be bias and opinions. For me, I know that it works great for my setup. No coasters yet! I've been able to do 12X burns on it. No 16X it since the media is still too expensive. If you have read most of my posts, you'll see that the Ali consistently averages 11X + transfer rate and ends at 15X + for a 4.31 GB DVD+R SL with bitsetting to DVD-ROM.
At times my numbers match or even best the more consistent firewire enclosures. I've seen posts here with much better mobo chipsets than mine, and the numbers aren't that much better than mine, and I most likely paid less for it as well.

If you want the best, you should look for a usb/firewire combo external enclosure. Firewire, since it's less cpu intensive and maintains more consistently the transfer rate than usb. This will likely be important in high 16X burns on some media. Keep reading this thread and you'll find out what works for you. What works for me may not work for you. I like my setup thus far, and it works great! I'm more about price/performance balance. If the best is too expensive and doesn't perform. You guess it! I don't care about it. Even if the best is too expensive and does perform near or above expectations, I'm not a fan! You'll have to do the research yourself and find what actually works best for you. I'm glad to offer my opinions, but "opinions are just that, opinions."

[quote=NScythe]Hmm! Good question, I never looked up the actual chipset. It is the Ali. I'll have to get back to you on that.
QUOTE]

I believe there are 2 ALI USB2 bridge chips available. ALI have a long history building mobo chipsets so a USB2 bridge chip should not cause them too much trouble, but then again incompatabilities can occur - I remember a Highpoint controller I once had, damn thing had problems with specific harddisks.

Thank you for comfirming that the ALI chipset worked well for you, that was all I was after.

I would go for a combo box (Welland ME-340U2F or ME-340F2U2) but although I can locally buy the USB2 version for a reasonable price, the combo boxes are priced at almost twice the price and thus not worth it.

Currently I am looking at the NEC ND-3500A as a possible drive but since I do a fair bit of music CDs the BENQ DW1620A is a possibility as its CD ripping and burning performance is very good and its DVD performance is improving.

Thanks for your help,
Bob

Well, I looked at the box and instruction manuals for my external enclosure, and it just says that it's Ali chipset. I'm wondering if I can find out the actual make of the Ali chipset in Windows XP Pro's System Settings.

If you're looking for a fast ripper of dvds, you may want to take a look at the Aopen 1648/AAP thread. I have one, and it's darn quiet and fast. Later

Very informative thread going on here I'm planning to buy an NEC ND-3500A (retail version) in the near future with either the Plumax Case or the Kingwin. Initially I wanted to get the Bytecc USB2/FW enclosure since most ppl have said it worked great for them & their ND-3500A.

Just to let everyone know, I have a HP ZT3000 laptop with 3 USB2 & 1 FW port. I currently have an internal TEAC DVD/CD-RW drive. My question is, do I leave the TEAC drive as master and the NEC (when I purchase it) as secondary? Also, does the NEC drive need to be in UDMA mode?

Where can I purchase the Kingwin drive (USB2/FW combo) for a good price & does it come in black as well? On Kingwin's website, only silver is shown.

Do u think this enclosure would work. Pcmicrostore gives you the option of getting this enclosure if you buy the nec 3500 from them and packages it in it.

http://www.pcmicrostore.com/PartDeta...x?q=p:10501944

Do u think the enclosure would allow me to burn a dvd at 16x? Also from the looks of it the enclosure is USB. One would think that they would not package the drive in the enclosure if it doesnt burn at 16x. Here is a link where you can get the drive and the enclosure.
http://www.pcmicrostore.com/PocketDe...x?q=p:10502037

Hi,

I am not sure I understand your question. The master/slave convention used on parallel EIDE/ATA/ATAPI devices (40 or 80 pin ribbon cables) is to allow 2 device to cohabitate on a single physical interface. If the two devices are on different physical interfaces, e.g. an internal harddrive and a device connected via USB, the master slave convention does not apply, i.e you can ignore it.

For external single device enclosures, people usually recommend that you set the device to master. However, with my ALI "M5621 A1" bridge chip case setting the drives to master, slave or cable select seems to make no difference, although I have only tested this on Seagate 80,120,160gig and WD 200gig drives but no DVD drives.

The transfer mode is set by the disk drive controller (the ALI "M5621 A1" bridge chip in my case) and, as far as I can discern, it sets the mode automatically to the best possible for the drive.

Regards,
Bob

Get the ND-3500A + USB case package and think of it as you are buying a PX-716 for US$100 and get a free USB case and an instant rebate of several dollars.

your points are valid slave/master means nothing on external enclosures. But USB2 will generally not send a steady stream faster than 10x. Have you tried the firewire connection? Firewire suports faster streams than usb2 (not burst). I have found to get to 16x on external enclosures is to use the Oxford new 911 or 912 chipset enclosures with firewire. Also a factor is your bus speed..you need a pretty fast computer to get a good external bus speed. My p4 3.2 laptop will not burn faster than 12x even using a oxford chipset becuase it shares its pci bus with firewire and usb2. My Athlon fx53 desktop has no issues with 16x with the same enclosure.

Byteccs are good becuase they use oxford chipset for firewire. the jumper does not matter..I generally leave it as master. Use the firewire connection, you will need it for the nec as it uses udma2 transfers (pioneer and liteons use udma4).

hmm that enclosure is usb2 only, you may have issues getting it to write at 16x through usb2. I would just buy the 3500 then find a good firewire enclosure.

Sony blue laser PC drive uses external SCSI 160 interface instead of USB or 1394. Future external drives should use either SATA or SAS.