The NEC 6500a drive is sold by Dell for the 9100/XPS. It was offered in new systems as of last week. Even on the website under "help me choose" it shows +/- RW.
The drive is actually a rebranded LITE-ON SOSW-852S. Worked perfect for me and now I can burn -R discs! DO NOT TRY THIS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!! DO NOT TRY THIS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!! DO NOT TRY THIS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!! DO NOT TRY THIS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!! DO NOT TRY THIS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!! DO NOT TRY THIS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!! DO NOT TRY THIS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!!
Message Edited by jasondcannon on 11-21-2004 12:36 PM
There isn't a part number. The drive is only available when ordering a new system. There are firmware updates for both the Sony drive and NEC drive that enables + and - R support though. It's sad that Dell isn't selling the drive seperately.
I bought two inspiron 9200's. One had the NEC ND-6500A 8x DVD-/+RW drive, the othe had the Sony DW-D56A.
The packing slip on both identified the part number of the DVD R/W as R4242, and the item number is 313-2930, even though they were different manufacturers.
You can also find the NEC ND-6500A at www.newegg.com if you can't find it at Dell.
I found the seek time on the NEC to be faster than the Sony (tested it with "Nero CD-DVD Speed"). Also the NEC recognized my DVD-RW RIDATA media as 4X and the Sony would only see it as 2X (Took 16 Min to fill the disk with the NEC, 24 minutes on the Sony). Also on a Verbatim 16x-24x CD-RW the NEC filled it in 6 minutes, the Sony took 8.5 minutes. They both recoginezed Imation DVD+RW 4X media. The Sony had bit setting options avilable in Nero, the NEC did not, but the Dell NEC firmware is supposed to automatically tag your DVD as DVD-ROM, I read it on a forum - haven't tried it myself.
Totis
96 Posts
0
November 15th, 2004 13:00
call in for tech support to get the part number...
regards totis
jasondcannon
17 Posts
0
November 15th, 2004 14:00
jasondcannon
17 Posts
0
November 16th, 2004 22:00
Totis
96 Posts
0
November 18th, 2004 14:00
jasondcannon
17 Posts
0
November 18th, 2004 17:00
jasondcannon
17 Posts
0
November 18th, 2004 17:00
Totis
96 Posts
0
November 18th, 2004 17:00
well according to what i know about dell is that they only support +....
jasondcannon
17 Posts
0
November 21st, 2004 16:00
Message Edited by jasondcannon on 11-21-2004 12:36 PM
dcivy
6 Posts
0
November 25th, 2004 00:00
Thanks
jasondcannon
17 Posts
0
November 29th, 2004 01:00
kdb4
12 Posts
0
January 28th, 2005 05:00
I bought two inspiron 9200's. One had the NEC ND-6500A 8x DVD-/+RW drive, the othe had the Sony DW-D56A.
The packing slip on both identified the part number of the DVD R/W as R4242, and the item number is 313-2930, even though they were different manufacturers.
You can also find the NEC ND-6500A at www.newegg.com if you can't find it at Dell.
I found the seek time on the NEC to be faster than the Sony (tested it with "Nero CD-DVD Speed"). Also the NEC recognized my DVD-RW RIDATA media as 4X and the Sony would only see it as 2X (Took 16 Min to fill the disk with the NEC, 24 minutes on the Sony). Also on a Verbatim 16x-24x CD-RW the NEC filled it in 6 minutes, the Sony took 8.5 minutes. They both recoginezed Imation DVD+RW 4X media. The Sony had bit setting options avilable in Nero, the NEC did not, but the Dell NEC firmware is supposed to automatically tag your DVD as DVD-ROM, I read it on a forum - haven't tried it myself.
Message Edited by KDB4 on 01-28-2005 01:46 AM
kdb4
12 Posts
0
January 28th, 2005 06:00