HOT! Mad Dog 8X DVD Burner $50 AMIR at OM

M

MemoryInAGarden

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 26, 2003
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If you're like me and never heard of this brand, you probably are wondering about the quality of a "Mad Dog" DVD burner. I took the plunge today at my local OM and bought it, and here is what I found in the box.

upclose.jpg

boxandburner.jpg



Not bad for $60 AR, including tax. This is flashable to an NEC 2510A, a dual layer burner. An even bigger plus.
 
I am interested in the quality of that drive also, but your links do not work.
 
If I remember right these are rebadged NEC or LITE ON. I purchased 2 of these burners for some pc builds for friends.
 
fx10000 said:
Are the Nec 2500s any good?
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Yeah, they're great. The 2500 is not dual layer, but along with the Lite-On it's probably the best budget 8x drive on the market. Flashing to dual layer has been met with mixed results. NEC says the hardware is the same BUT there is some additional tuning that goes into the 2510 and therefore hacking to dual-layer is not advised. For every success report I've probably read 5 that didn't work.

But seeing as how you can get the NEC 2510 Dual Layer from Newegg for $79 shipped with no rebates, I don't think this is that great of a deal. The poster didn't mention how much the rebate was, and this drive doesn't show up on their website, but judging from their other drive prices I'm guessing you pay over $100 out the door. Rather than fool with that much out-of-pocket and a MIR I think I'd rather drop $79 and get the dual layer model from Newegg.
 
This deal is from last sunday.... I think they carried it over to this week but these drive are OOS at 90% of the B&M stores and are OOS Online, on backorder until about the 30th of July.

I'm trying to get this deal to work, I got the drive over the phone and it's on backorder until the 27th, not sure If I can still use the rebate then, if not I'll have to return the drive.

What I did was: 120 Drive - 40 Instant + 16 DSP - 25$ off 100 - 40 Drive MIR - 15 DSP MIR + tax = ~ $30.00
 
Malatov said:
Yeah, they're great. The 2500 is not dual layer, but along with the Lite-On it's probably the best budget 8x drive on the market. Flashing to dual layer has been met with mixed results. NEC says the hardware is the same BUT there is some additional tuning that goes into the 2510 and therefore hacking to dual-layer is not advised. For every success report I've probably read 5 that didn't work.

But seeing as how you can get the NEC 2510 Dual Layer from Newegg for $79 shipped with no rebates, I don't think this is that great of a deal. The poster didn't mention how much the rebate was, and this drive doesn't show up on their website, but judging from their other drive prices I'm guessing you pay over $100 out the door. Rather than fool with that much out-of-pocket and a MIR I think I'd rather drop $79 and get the dual layer model from Newegg.
Click to expand...

I paid $98.54, but tax is 9.5% in my area. Rebate is $40. After this, I get the drive for $60. If I bought the same drive of newegg, it would have been about $15 more. The 2510 would have been $25 more for me.
 
Malatov said:
Yeah, they're great. The 2500 is not dual layer, but along with the Lite-On it's probably the best budget 8x drive on the market.
Click to expand...

Actually, you are very wrong on this. NEC ND2500A drives can have new firmware placed on them to become dual layer. Herrie has released a great upgrade that takes all of 30 seconds to do :)

Yes, I did it to mine, Yes it is dual layer now


ND2500A_Mod.jpg



Firmware here:
http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=25904
 
STRESSTEST said:
Actually, you are very wrong on this. NEC ND2500A drives can have new firmware placed on them to become dual layer. Herrie has released a great upgrade that takes all of 30 seconds to do :)
Click to expand...
Umm, did you read all of my post? I'm well aware that it is flashable with 2510 firmware, and said so. However YMMV. Not everybody is sucessful. Dual-layer tolerances and requirements are tighter, and much like with overclocking CPU's and video cards, you may not get good results from one batch of product to the next. This isn't just a speed increase like with overclocking or flashing your 40x CD burner to a 48x burner (both of which I have done). The laser in a dual layer drive has to be tuned to burn each layer independently, and there is a good bit of engineering involved in that.

As I said, I've read numerous reviews and reports of the dual-layer hack. Most I've read were unsuccessful in one way or another after extensive testing. For example certain media worked okay while other media didn't. Playback compatibility was spotty in different drives/players. Some folks actually killed their drives. Others like you claimed total success.

If the 2510 were $100 more than the 2500, I'd probably be first in line to risk the hack. Or if I already had a 2500 before the 2510 was available. But if I'm buying a new drive I'd sure rather spend the extra $10 to get the genuine, guaranteed product than take a chance on the crapshoot of getting a stable drive for hacking. Plus you void the warranty and lose any factory support on the unit, but for a sub-$100 device that's probably not a concern for most folks.
 
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