Hi,
I've searched and read reviews and such about external enclosures....and I'm still confused!

I've finally decided that I want to go with the BenQ DW1655 burner, but I need to find an external enclosure that will let this drive burn to its fullest potential.

I would like to stay under $60 for the enclosure.

It will be running off my laptop, with USB 2.0 and Windows XP. I think I read that an enclosure with the Cypress chipset is the standard?

Please help.

Thanks!

Currently you cannot use DW1655 externally to "its fullest potential" with the current firmware. The latest firmware BCDB is suitable for use internally since it support UDMA2 with burst rate of around 24MB/s. For external use, you need UDMA4 which gives higher burst rate and in turn higher continuous data transfer rate for high speed DVD burning and reading. There is no info on when will BenQ release external firmware for 1655.

If you insist you can still put the DW1655 in an enclosure and burn at 8x. You will also get slower read-back speed and time.

Get an enclosure with Prolific chipset PL-3507 with Firewire and USB2.0 support, for example: Plumax PM-525C2-PPS.V4 silver or black from dealsonic.

Thanks for the reply.
So is there another internal drive that you recommend that would outperform the 1655 with its current firmware in an external enclosure?

I'm obviously very new to this

be careful with the external enclosure you choose. Do not buy Cypress/Oxford combo USB/Firewire chipset because the oxford 911 chipset is not compatable with BenQ drive. They are great chipset, just that they are not compatable with BenQ drives. You can buy them USB cypress chipset by itself or Oxford 911 firewire by itself, do not buy them as a combo USB/Firewire enclosure. I dont know the technical detail about it but the combo chipset is not compatable with BenQ drive.

The oxford 911 *chip*, by itself, only does firewire not usb.
That chip is *not* great for optical drive use, as it will limit you to aprox. 10X dvd read rate. The burst rate is only 13MB/sec with the oxford 911, as measured via nero cd-dvd speed. The cyprus at2+ chip (usb) also has poor performance with optical drives.

Are you saying that the BenQ 1655 in a PL-3507 based enclosure won't even burn reliably at 12x?

I had three BenQ drives in Prolific PL-3507 Cases to date (1620, 1640.1655)...

With the internal drive firmware via Firewire your burst rate will be around 21MB/s. This is good for up to 12X burns. With external firmware the burst rate jumps to 24MB/s via Firewire and will hit 16X. Just limit your burn speed to 12X until external fireware is available for the 1655.

In addition, the comments about Oxford and Cypress are CORRECT !!!

Yes, the Oxford 911 chips have slower transfer rates than the Prolific ones, but I would argue that they are actually more compatible with BenQ drives than the Prolific ones. There are a few reports on this board of people having issues (unrelated to transfer speeds) with Prolific cases that are solved by using an Oxford case.

I was talking about the burst tranfer rate issues...
Yes, there are some issues between Prolific and Benq (I've reported them)...

Yes and No. Others have said they can burn at 12x. But since the original poster mentioned he will use his laptop, I was suggesting the safe speed of 8x.

From my experience, if we're talking about external drive we need to include the enclosure chipset, the card and the PC specs. I've tested PL-3507 cases with 6 different cards (3 firewire/usb2.0 combo and 3 dedicated firewire) on 3 different machine (P4 3Ghz, P4 2Ghz, Centrino 1.6Ghz) connected to PX-716A, DW1620, DW1640 with their UDMA4 firmwares. All burst rates are above 24MB/s. The only PC that can burn at 16x is the P4 3Ghz.

wow, thanks for all the responses.
I'm so sorry to say, but I'm more confused now than ever.

I think I need to pose a new question. Is there ANY DVD burner that you can recommend for me? Both retail external burners and internals with external enclosure. Lightscribe would be nice.

For me, burn speed and quality are the biggest factors (I'm sure they are for everyone)

I'll be burning with my laptop, a P4 1.6Ghz on USB 2.0

Thanks in advance, and sorry to kinda drop my old question

Ok, lets try and clear things up

1. The BenQ1655 does not have enough bus speed to support burning at 16x in an external case. You will need to wait for BenQ to release an external version of the 1655 before we can get 16x burns.

2. The prolific 3507 chipset seems to give the best performance with the BenQ drives, Prolific also seem willing to look into problems with compatability when they crop up as we can see by the reent firmware updates to fix DW1640 problems with them.

3. Your laptop specification and chipset will also limit your maximum burning speed. I have firewire and USB2 on my laptop and performed a test write using CDDVDSpeed onto a blank +R disc (Use Qsuite and enable test burn option so as not to waste a disc). This gave me the maximum speed of 12.5x over USB2 and 11x over firewire on my specific system (Yours will be different). You can see these tests here (http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=161637). I have noticed that the 3507 chip will read data alot faster than it writes data, this leads to the discrepancy when you get a burst read rate of 23MB/s but still cant write at 16x.

mine worked well at 12x & reading speed was upto around 15x. the enclosure was HP dvd640e which is "for sale"

i tested on different pc and found that the burst rate is depending on the usb controller & the chipset of your pc board.

i have not tested not even most, but based on my experience, intel chipset usb2 is the best bet.

athlon xp era via chipset seems to be the worst of all

burst rate isn't the whole story.

when i tried my external drive on athlon xp + via kt133a(no builtin usb2) + nec usb2 pci card, burst was around 15mB which isn't that bad for 12x writing, but when i tried to burn burning speed was dropped to 4x.

nero cd/dvd speed showed that the burst rate could not be maintained. i optimized the pci performance as much as possible, then the problem solved even though the burst rate remained same 15mB (however audigy 2 sound was cracking)

i tried same nec usb2 pci card on my p4 + intel chipset (845i), the burst rate was 18mB with 12x writing without any issues
when i connect the same enclosure to the builtin usb2 port; the burst was 20mB

dell x1 notebook could pull 20mB also & was working well upto 12x writing.

if you have problems with your external enclosure, try transfer rate testing with known good media & see whether the curve is smooth or not.

i hope this helps

ps: for the old via chipset pc owners, i think there was a patch called "via latency patch" which should help your pc's stability & pci performance

pps: via/ali chipset usb2 pci cards sucked big time, nec chip seems to be the best

I recently purchased a 1655 and a Syba case that uses the Prolific PL-3507 chipset. When I plug the drive into the case though, the drive is neither recognized via firewire nor USB by my Dell 700m. It just sits there like it wasn't even turned on, although it sounds like the enclosure and drive combo is working for others. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions? I had a USB 2.0 only enclosure before and used that to flash the DW1655 to BCDB firmware. Thanks!

Where do you get this info from? Does it relate to 911 and/or 911Plus? Is it only the combo Oxford/Cypress which doesn't work, or do all combinations Oxford/xxxwork not work with BenQ drives (all models?)?

mumdigau

Im in the same boat... here is the location of 5.25" cases at new egg... is one of these good for the 1655 and 1640? Ive got 2 of each I want to put in cases.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...Subcategory=92

The problem with NewEgg, they don't give you any details, so you really don't know what you are going to get.

Check www.dealsonic.com they do list the chipset used in they cases so you know what you are getting.

One good thing to be said about newegg though, they provide a link to "Manufacturer's Site" when you click detail link of enclosure.

ok i looked through dealsonic, but dont know which one will take my benq 1655 via firewire best?? can anyone help me? I want the best one...

I think this is a nice one: http://www.dealsonic.com/plpmblcousb22.html
with a black BenQ DW 1655.

It's a plastic case, isn't it?

mumdigau

I am using the original BenQ 164B external Drive and burning at 16x with my Dell Inspiron 6000 with no Problem. A Burn takes approx 6 Minutes.
Centrino Pentium M 1.6

regards

amaedl

This Sony retail drive is pretty good. DRX-810UL. There are still a few of them around. Add a $30 rebate and it's around $80. The drive is a re-badged BENQ1640. I'm getting 24MB burst speeds on USB and 25MB on firewire.

Maybe buy the sony external drive. Take out the drive and put in the DW1655. eBay the 1640 and you have yourself a deal. I for one have no need for a lightscribe so, I just kept the drive as is.

Do not get the Plextor 740UF external drive. It's so loud when idle. In addition the USB chipset doesn't work well with Nero's CD-DVD speed.

I will be eBay the Plextor drive shortly.

The DealSonic website shows 2 different Plumax USB/FireWire combo enclosures with the Prolific chipsets.

http://www.dealsonic.com/plpmblcousb23.html
and
http://www.dealsonic.com/plpmblcousb22.html

I would prefer the 1st enclosure ("slim") because it is smaller in size. Can it hold the BenQ 1655? What are the reasons for getting the 2nd enclosure (the bigger one)?

Double post by accident. Really sorry.