LaCie 52x32x52 External Firewire CD-RW Drive P5 design by FA Porsche includes EasyCD Creator and Toast lite ( 300706U )

User Benefits :

Fast 52x CD burning
Record music, photos, videos
High-speed FireWire connection
PC/Mac recording software included

Stylish Design

LaCie's new family of rewritable CD drives was specially created by the famous agency Porsche Design GmbH to provide a simple way to burn pictures, songs or video footage onto personal CDs. With crisp edges and a reflective finish, the LaCie CD-RW Drive will add a stylish element to your desktop.

Fast 52x Burns

With FireWire interface and 52x write speed, the LaCie CD-RW Drive burns at speeds that are the fastest on the market, copying a full disc in two minutes. Record your favorite music tracks, share digital photos, burn home videos and store MP3 libraries.

Complete CD Recording Software

These compact, rewritable drives let you burn personal CDs with whatever you choose - family pictures, home movies or favorite music tracks. A complete software suite is also included, so you can immediately begin burning professional-quality CDs with drag-and-drop ease.

PC and Mac Compatible

Compatible with PC and Macintosh platforms, the LaCie CD-RW Drive can be set up quickly in a few simple steps. Offering unbeatable ease of use, the LaCie CD-RW Drive is ideal for storing and sharing music, digital photos and videos.

1 dont get duped by LaCie
Lacie are getting the wrong end of the stick from me. The fact that this company refuses to update drivers for old hardware for new versions of an OS is simply a farce in this day and age.

Lacie refuse to develop drivers to support a new OS or even an update. Back in the days of NT they would not even bring out Win2k support for the systems. When XP arrived most of their hardware the year before was simply left to dry up with age.

In short if you buy Lacie then it will only perform to your current system specs. Any changes to the OS and chances are you will be shelling out more doe for new hardware.

CON.

2 Go for it!
Owned this for over 7 months now. Never had any problems with it. I use it with a PC with an iLink port. Write speeds typically are around 42X which is very repectable (on a 48X max speed CDR, which is probably the best you will find in a regular store). Moreover, the Roxio software that comes with it is excellent. I had used Nero 5 for a long time, before I started using Roxio and realized Nero wasn't really that great.

A lot of people complain about their burners when its the quality of the CDRs (or even the software) they use. If you want a quality burner for a great price, this is it.

3 Attention iMac users
This external burner hooked up easily. I wanted to burn songs I had purchased from iTunes but iTunes would not recognize the burner. I could drag the songs into Toast and they would burn but the purchased music would not. After some reading, I discovered I needed to upgrade my system. I went to System Preferences under the Apple Menu and then chose Software Update. I have a phone connection and so the update took over an hour. However, now iTunes recognizes the burner and it works great! This is a great buy and the best price I found. Using the program Toast is easy to burn pictures and songs from CDs I already own. I highly recommend it!!

4 Good performace, Reasonably priced.
After being a computer use for decades my recommendation is: Don't buy expensive external peripherials,(unless of course, you absolutely need it). An external peripherial's usb or firewire interface is prone to failure, and in most cases replacing the interface means replacing the entire chasis, wich could cost close to the drive's price. And worst of all, in time (say 6 months) the drive will become obsolete and your computer peripherial graveyard will grow bigger. CPUs monitors and printers can expect longer lifetimes, but a peripherials life is like that of a fly. Go for lowest price, if it's good enough for your basic needs, go for it. This drive offers excelent performance at a reasonable price.

5 Solid performance at an unbeatable price
Solid Performance at an unbeatable price.

At the beginning of the year (2004), I acquired an iMac. I quickly found need for an additional optical drive as the primary DVD-R drive was constantly being used for DVD videos. I selected the the Lacie 52x32x52 for the following reasons:

-It had the fastest wright, rewright, read speeds on the market (at the time)
-Astoundingly low price
-Low profile design

I am pleased to say that the product has performed well. My first job for the drive involved converting over my music library to iTunes. On average each CD took about 3 minutes to upload (a speed that no doubt would be faster had I not asked iTunes to compensate for damaged disks). Nearly 1000 CD's later the drive still functions as it did when it was brand new.

My favorite aspects of this drive have been:

- Solid and light casing
- Fast disk access speed
- Predictable performance
- Hardware on/off switch on the back
- Stack-ability

On the down side:

- The drive can be very loud (although, this seems largely to be hinged upon the disc inserted. Even the whisper quiet DVD-R drive in the iMac can be voluble with the right disc.)
- There is a flimsy plastic bezel on the front of the drive which service to mask the headphone jack, volume control, disk access light, and tray open button. The drive does have an aesthetic quality when the bezel is closed, but other than that its presence is not logical.
- The drive tray has an extremely light tough; giving the mechanical elements a sense of fragility.

Ultimately none of the down sides outweigh the benefits of the product. Price, performance, and a competent aesthetic make this a worthy purchase.