Can i upgrade this?

[DannyMacD]

hey guys, i brought my self a powermac G5 and it has a 4x PIONEER DVD-RW DVD-117D drive installed, i was wondering is it possible to replace that with a 16 dual layer drive myself?

i was wanting to get this one...

DVD Drive i want

now if i buy this drive..

A) will this fit into my mac and replace the one i got?

B) if Yes, then is this drive mac compatible?

many thanks

your mac n00b, Danny ;)

[thetechroom]

You know what, I've never actually noticed what kinda drive can fit in a Powermac G5, just looked on http://www.apple.com/powermac/ and it looks its a standard sized IDE drive. Me best bet would be to email the manufacturer and ask them.....

Isn't this the new drive that's just been announced because there may not be any suitable mac firmware and may not be for a while....

[Pilsbury]

It should take any ATAPI standard optical drive - no need for any firmware.

However:

1) The built in burning in OSX may not support the drive. This can often be fixed with a hack. Or you can use DragonBurn or Toast

2) (Although this is much less of an issue on more modern fully ATAPI compliant machines and drives) The drive may not be bootable.

Check http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ for the drive.

[KeR]

from what I understand you can take any PC compatible burner and install it in a Mac.

[BTallack]

I was able to upgrade the drive in my Powermac G4 reasonably easy, and from what I can tell, the Powermac G5 shouldn't be any harder. However the drive may be incompatible with Mac OS X without drivers or patched firmware.

[Pilsbury]

Reviewer's Name: John LaBrasca

Date Submitted: 12/18/2004

Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives

Drive Interface: Firewire

Drive Brand: NEC

Drive Model Number: ND-3500A 16X DVD+R, 4X DVD+RW, 4X DVD+R9, 16X DVD-R, 4X DVD-RW, 48X CD-R, 24X CD-RW

Driver Used: Patchburn 3

Mac Model: Apple G4 Dual CPU

Mac OS Version: OS X 10.3

Reader Comments: I have a Quicksilver 800DP. I put the dive in an older ADS Firewire case (with the Oxford 911 chipset).

Toast 6.07 recognized it immediately. I was able to burn movies to DVD-R at 8X (on TDK 8X media) and burn CD-R at 24X on HP 48X media (not sure why Toast wouldn't let me select anything faster then 24X).

Ran Patchburn 3 and the drive was recognized by the Finder, System Profiler, Disk Utility, iTunes, and iDVD 4. I was able to burn a CD from iTunes and burn data CDs from the finder. Haven't tried burning a DVD from iDVD yet.

Able to play DVD movies, music CDs, DVD-RAM and CD data disks with no issues.

I am looking for some cheap +R9 DL media to give that a try.

The drive is bootable (from CD).

Mike Comments: (Reader FYI - Patchburn 3 for Panther download is at http://www.patchburn.de/download.html.)

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Reviewer's Name: Richard Kroc

Date Submitted: 12/17/2004

Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives

Drive Interface: IDE

Drive Brand: NEC

Drive Model Number: ND 3500AG w. Silverfront (matches)

Drive Size: appx 8.5GB w/dual layer disc

Driver Used: Patchburn 3

Mac Model: Apple G4 Single CPU DDR

CPU Upgrade Brand: Apple

CPU Upgrade Speed: 1.42GHz

Mac OS Version: OS X 10.3

Reader Comments: Have put this as a second drive with my Pioneer DVR 105 and applied Patchburn 3.

(using Patchburn 3 for iApps burn support.)

Supports Apple disc burning, but not in iTunes (but plays music). (odd - i don't remember other 3500AG owners using patchburn3 mention any itunes problems - at least with burning non-dual layer discs. I assume itunes allows selecting the drive for burning in itunes prefs? did you try CDRs?-Mike)

Tried different bootCDs. MacOS 9.2 DiscWarrior 2.1.1 OK, MacOS 10.3 system CD and DiscWarrior 3.0.2, also OK.

Have some problems in Toast 6 that maybe 20% of the CDs get stuck in middle of burn. This reacts not on simple forced Quit, but is only cured by Hard reset w front panel btn. This can also happen when using Apple disc-burning. (is energy saver set to never allow drive sleep? plenty of free space on the boot drive?)

Used NecFlash with the LD_V1.4.zip firmware on www.micheldeboer.nl.

Applied it with the Mac-specific NecFlash instructions found here (in FAQ's dvd section), without problems.

Original firmware was v2.16, after update v2.18, but did not cure getting stuck in burning.

Both NecFlash and ASP stated the same directly after flashing.

But when wanting to demonstrate NecFlash to a friend a few hours later, NecFlash wouldn't work at all, (do you mean binflash?) stating I had no drives that where supported by NecFlash!!!

Had followed the manual exactly as last - I thought. Finally solving the problem, there is an important note about NecFlash: It is not sufficient to place NecFlash on the desktop, it must origin from your boot-disk, when doing so!!!

I had also put it on the desktop the second time, but from another partition- not the bootdisk! This will results in malfunction!

(The first time I used NecFlash it was freshly downloaded into my user folder which automatically always resides on the boot-drive.)

(the next day he wrote)

Looking in iTunes prefs I now can choose between the 2 DVD- burners! (In MDD towers that have 2 optical drive bays, adding a 2nd drive still means past apps have you old drive prefs setting) Maybe I had tried this before restart after the flashing (remember clearly there was no option then).

Thanks for the note, that it should work. Yes I tried music CDRs - work perfect!

No - it's not the energysaver. (reader FYI - as noted for years here in tips/feedback - many drives may go to sleep (becoming inaccessable) if a disc left in the drive for long idle periods like during dvd encoding, so make sure you set energy saver to never allow drive sleep. The FAQ's DVD section has other tips for that issue also.-Mike) But I tried optimising the diskimages (it was data-CDRs that got stuck) with TechTool. Both defragmentation and directory optimize used. This seems to make the burn get totally smooth both with DVDs & CDRs.

I also got lots of verification errors before! These also disappear totally, if I optimize before burn. Maybe dataflow is to big?!? Even burning 4xDVDs at 8x get totally error-free in this way. Got lots of space on my drives and 1.5GB RAM. (Drives optimized w. DiskWarrior & Norton SpeedDisk.

Yes, it's the latest BinFlash/NecFlash v1.03a I use.

Finally DVDinfo.app says:

Vendor: PIONEER

Model: DVD-RW DVR-105

Firmware: 1.33

RPC-1 (region free)

Vendor: _NEC

Model: DVD_RW ND-3500AG

Firmware: 2.18

RPC-1 (region free)

(The Pioneer I flashed in an 5 1/4" USB 1.0 box in VPC6 with a Macversion 1.33 RPC-1 fw from RPC1.org, same method on the original Toshiba combo. I also use the UserOpPatch4.0.dmg from RPC1.org)

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Reviewer's Name: Abster

Date Submitted: 12/8/2004

Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives

Drive Interface: IDE

Drive Brand: NEC

Drive Model Number: ND-3500AG (4x Dual Layer DVD+R, 16x single layer DVD+R/-R, 4x DVD+RW/-RW

Drive Size: 8.5GB (Dual Layer disc)

Driver Used: Apple Standard

Mac Model: Apple G4 AGP Slot

Mac OS Version: OS X 10.3

Reader Comments: Powermac G4 single CPU 733Mhz Quiksilver

MacOS X 10.3.6

NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG build-in and Bootable (from CD)

Not compatible with iTunes 4.7 (not recognized)

Mike Comments: You must have missed the past reports - you can use Patchburn 3 for 10.3.x iApps burn support. (and as a FYI for DL burner users, Toast 6.0.7 was the first to support dual layer burning.)

(reader FYI -Illustrated CD drive install guide here covers G4 towers up to the Digital Audio Model)

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Reviewer's Name: Patricio

Date Submitted: 12/4/2004

Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives

Drive Interface: IDE

Drive Brand: NEC

Drive Model Number: NEC-3500AG (ND-3500AG)

Driver Used: Patchburn 3

Mac Model: Apple G4 Single CPU DDR

Mac OS Version: OS X 10.3

Reader Comments: hi mike,

i bought today the NEC-3500AG (ND-3500AG), placed in into the second bay of my G4 MDD 1.25, in the upperslot i have a Pioneer DVR-105 which was acting funny lately.

Decided to go for the NEC because its the same one La Cie uses. (that would not mean much to me, I'd and they often use more than one OEM mfr's drive in their cases. the Pioneer DVR-108 has similar specs/speeds except the NEC 3500 has faster CDR b burn rate speeds i think. but the Pioneer drives have OS X firmware update/flashers that seem more proven than the one OS X NEC flasher out there now (noted in the FAQ's DVD section.)-Mike)

Installation was simple, put both drives on cable select. also downloaded and installed Patchburn 3 (thanks for the link)

Till sofar burnings goes very well, Itunes, Toast 6, DVD with Toast also.

I didn't use the dual layer option yet because i don't have those discs.

Dvd 's play fine also

here is my system profiler in Dutch:

NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG:

Fabrikant: _NEC

Model: _NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG

Revisie: 2.16

Serienummer:

Schijftype: CD-RW/DVD-RW

Schijven branden: Door fabrikant ondersteund

Verwijderbare media: Ja

Externe eenheid: Nee

Protocol: ATAPI

Eenheidnummer: 1

Sockettype: Intern

Unfortunatly i'mn't a techie....so questions about speed or firmware or terminal i can't answer.... (the entry page asks to note the drive speed rating, usually on the box or dealer's page for the product. ASP reports the drive firmware version as the 'revision' of the drive usually and toast's recorder info will show it also.-Mike)

when i will use the Double Layer function i 'll post my comments.

Price was ? 67,-

Mike Comments: Dual layer discs (in my opinion) are too high right now (cheapest I've seen here is about $10 each) so I'm not buying any at that price. (and they're slow to burn also).

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Reviewer's Name: Frank

Date Submitted: 12/1/2004

Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives

Drive Interface: IDE

Drive Brand: NEC

Drive Model Number: ND-3500AG

Driver Used: Patchburn 3

Mac Model: Apple G4 Dual CPU

Mac OS Version: OS X 10.3

Reader Comments: Read Speed: 16x max. DVD-ROM and 48x max. CD-ROM

Write Speed: DVD+R: 16 max., DVD+RW: 4x max.,

Dual layer DVD+R9: 4x,. DVD-R: 16x max,. DVD-RW: 4x. CD-R: 48x max,. CD-RW: 24x max.

Applied a region free firmware patch (2.17) using a pc

Used Patchburn 3 for iApps support tested booting (from CD) - was fine

Haven't used it much - but haven't encountered any problems so far - only burned a dvd+rw with toast 6 titanium. Can't wait for DL media to become available (and reasonable price),

It was dirt cheap at a pc meet for 69(australian)

I just got tired of swapping the dvd-rom/cdrw all the time! Annoying, this single bay policy of Apple!

fyi: system profile has this to say (dutch localization)

_NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG:

Fabrikant: _NEC

Model: _NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG

Revisie: 2.17

Serienummer:

Schijftype: CD-RW/DVD-RW

Schijven branden: Door fabrikant ondersteund

Verwijderbare media: Ja

Externe eenheid: Nee

Protocol: ATAPI

Eenheidnummer: 0

Sockettype: Intern

Mike Comments: (Reader FYI - Patchburn 3 for Panther download is at http://www.patchburn.de/download.html.

Illustrated CD drive install guide here covers G4 towers up to the Digital Audio Model, Beige G3 MT and B&W G3 Macs)

[DannyMacD]

wow cheers for that dude gonna spend like a million years reading it now ;) very much apreciated