CD/DVD burner for Inspiron 7000

I think you would be better off with an external model even if an internal could be had.

One major problem with current CD-RW and DVD burners is that many I have seen specify CPUs signifcantly faster than 700 MHz as a requirement.

For example, the Pacific Digital Mach 52 CD-RW drive only works at its rated speeds with fast CPU systems of relatively current vintage, although it will record at 8X on an "aging" 700 MHz PC. Burnproof does not function at this "low" CPU speed, however.

I recently purchased an external HP dvd420 DVD/CD-RW burner that, although not rated as able to run on a 400 MHz Celeron, does in fact work on such a machine. Although it takes a good 2 hours to record and verify DVDs burned, versus a few minutes to do the same on an Athlon 2500+ PC. I found this out when offered to do a backup of a friend's old PC for her, using the dvd420e.

At 300MHz you might be out of luck, internal or external . I would check the FAQ's for any external drive you plan to buy or call the manufacturer to ask ft it will work on a 300MHz PC.

I think it is unfortunate that older PCs are not well support by current drive models. As ever, the PC hardware makers seem dedicated to selling only to owners of recent-vintage hardware.

By the way, you might also run into USB issues as USB 2 seems to be preferred.

Thanks, Polar.  That is one of the main reasons I was asking.  Is the USB I have 1.1 or 2.0?  I too had noticed that all the after market DVD burners seemed to require at least 800 mhz processors and USB 2.0.  However I am not interested in speed.  I do not need it for movies or music.  Just to play and record catalogs, photographs, books, data, or computer back up.  I would prefer to add CD/DVD burning capability to my internal drive. Dual layer DVD would be nice as I could put my whole computer on it.   I think Dell offered a cdrw with dvd read but no dvd write for the I7K that I know of.  Most of the external drives I have seen are not very portable.  When I purchased my I7k I bough an extra Iomega 100mb internal floppy drive.  Its never been used.    Come to think of it I've never tried a DVD movie in my I7K.  I've got a TV adapter and camera but it is not very good picture quality. 

You noted "Is the USB I have 1.1 or 2.0?  I too had noticed that all the after market DVD burners seemed to require at least 800 mhz processors and USB 2.0.  However I am not interested in speed.  I do not need it for movies or music.  Just to play and record catalogs, photographs, books, data, or computer back up.  I would prefer to add CD/DVD burning capability to my internal drive. Dual layer DVD would be nice as I could put my whole computer on it. "

My guess is that it would not be USB 2. I suggest you look up the specs on the Dell web site for your notebook model. I don't think you'll have much luck installing an internal drive; the cost would be high and considering the age of the computer the cost for an internal drive would be a big risk to take. An external model on the other hand can be used again on any new PC you later get.

With older machines one is better to first ask why you want the internal DVD drive. The slow CPU--relative to the need for DVD drives to be coupled to faster CPUs--means that the only use for the drive would be to backup your data. I do not think playing DVD movies, would be a realistic possibility on a slow old notebook, for example.

So, assuming it is data you want to back up, it might be better to buy a largeer capacity hard disc for your notedbook, and an external DVD drive. You would then use the extra hard drive space to store data until you return to home base to offload data or backup the drive.

Even so, I suspect that it would be gamble finding an external DVD drive that is actually rated for your aging CPU.

In my small company we have a grand total of one notebook PC and four desktops. We judge laptops to be enormously expensive and inflexible. Notebooks are a oor value unless you need one for a use a desktop cannot serve. I would also ask at this juncture if you really need to spend money on the laptop. If your laptop serves well as is and the DVD need can be served by a desktop system, a desktop PC bought new may be the better choice.

Dell has excellent offers on desktop systems. For what one pays to tinker with laptops it is sometimes possible to get a complete new desktop PC--and one with A DVD recordable drive built in, for the bucks tossed out on the laptop upgrades.

So I suggest you think in terms of how you can continue to benefit from your laptop, perhaps by purchasing a desktop system.

Thanks, Polar I believe you are correct.  That Iomega 100mb internal I have never used would probaby store 90% or more of what I need .   I guess I was just in a tinkering mood wanting to turn a donkey into a race horse.