Thanks OP! I've been looking for a slim external drive for awhile and $50 was my price point.

Now, the idea of a netbook is to maximize portability. While the mfrs work towards reducing every extra ounce on a netbook to increase its portability, is there a point in tacking on extra lbs like this accessory ? If it was needed, it would have been integrated into the machine itself for much lesser weight. If you are going to buy this and carry it as extra baggage with your netbook, you might as well buy a laptop. Yes, the price is right, I agree. But the point is not with the price but with the essence of what a netbook is all about. There is nothing you can do with this external drive that you cannot do with a flash drive. Want to watch a DVD ? Rip it into the flash drive. Music ? the same. Want to install software ? Copy the CD into the flash drive. This is how I work with my netbook.

Am only expressing MY opinion. If it's not yours, please express it without flaming.

laidbacklarkin said:Now, the idea of a netbook is to maximize portability. While the mfrs work towards reducing every extra ounce on a netbook to increase its portability, is there a point in tacking on extra lbs like this accessory ? If it was needed, it would have been integrated into the machine itself for much lesser weight. If you are going to buy this and carry it as extra baggage with your netbook, you might as well buy a laptop. Yes, the price is right, I agree. But the point is not with the price but with the essence of what a netbook is all about. There is nothing you can do with this external drive that you cannot do with a flash drive. Want to watch a DVD ? Rip it into the flash drive. Music ? the same. Want to install software ? Copy the CD into the flash drive. This is how I work with my netbook.

Am only expressing MY opinion. If it's not yours, please express it without flaming.
I don't take my external DVD drive with me wherever I go, but it does fill a need. It's all about having the right tools for the right job when you need them. For watching movies, an external drive is a much simpler and less time consuming proposition than ripping DVD's or downloading torrents. It's also a lot easier to rip CD's directly onto my netbooks HD rather than rip them on a desktop, copy them to a flash drive, and then onto my netbook. It saves steps and time. The same is true when it comes to installing commercial software. Precious little of that is sold on a flash drive...

mounao said:laidbacklarkin said: There is nothing you can do with this external drive that you cannot do with a flash drive. Want to watch a DVD ? Rip it into the flash drive. Music ? the same. Want to install software ? Copy the CD into the flash drive.
g.

When I take a long trip, I don't want to have to rip a bunch of movies and music to the hard drive. It's just easier and more convenient to bring along an optical drive.

For me, $50 is a good price and the drive is light enough to carry when needed.

There are many occasions when I don't need an optical drive, and carrying around that extra weight is a drag. So a portable optical drive can stay in the office/hotel/home when I go to class or a meeting.

Some people may not like the various trade-offs between cost, weight, function, and convenience. Those people probably have multiple laptop computers for different uses.

A netbook and an external optical drive are a good, flexible combination for my needs.

RE:
Those people probably have multiple laptop computers for different uses.

Yes, tell me about it.

anyone know whether this could be removed from the enclosure and used as a replacement for an internal laptop drive?

0AfterRebates said:You don't need this if you have another computer with a DVD drive. Just connect to your main computers drives over a network.

So how does this work? I already have a Windows Home Server. I enabled sharing on my DVD burner. My netbook see's it as a shared hard drive and not a disc drive. I can't burn.

This is as far down as they've ever come to be honest. There might be a first time buyer coupon for Buy.com, but that's about it.

Thanks OP. I have two laptops (without functioning dvd drives) and a netbook. I have no patience to rip dvds to flash drives and this will come in very handy. Especially if the kids and the wife simply need to watch a movie.

3FXC said:As far as power requirements, do these USB slim burners (without a brick) work without an issue as the slim ones that use a power adapter? I know it is nice not to have the brick but if the USB power is not enough for a certain case, then that could be a problem. (There used to be this problem with some USB powered external HD)

apples vs oranges

but you can use one of the dual usb cable setups, which provides twice as much power to the drive.

No, it doesn't work with the MacBook Air. You need the MBA drive. You can get them pretty cheaply on eBay