Is there a SATA Lightscribe drive?

TeeJayHoward

TeeJayHoward

Limpness Supreme
Joined
Feb 8, 2005
Messages
12,271
I'm looking for a SATA DVD+/-RW LightScribe drive. Preferably something with a decent ripping speed. Unfortunately, I only see one SATA DVD drive on the market, and, well... It doesn't do the nifty LightScribe thing. Am I missing something? Are they not out there?

Oh, and yes, I realize there's no speed difference between SATA and PATA DVD drives. I'm just trying to dispense with the one IDE cable in my computer.
 
benamaster said:
That doesn't always work well with optical drives.
Click to expand...

QFT... I've tried 2 different adapters, with a third on the way... and I can't get any of them to put an optical drive onto the ICH7R SATA ports... The controller is in AHCI (native SATA) mode and none of the opticals work properly in Windows. I could put my SATA controller into enhanced mode (ide emulation) and it would work... but then I'd lose things like NCQ that I gain in Native mode!

My NEC 3550 or Yamaha CRW-F1E won't work using the adapters in AHCI mode... they show up in the Intel Matrix Storage manager, but don't show up in my computer/device manager/computer management/etc, leading me to believe that opticals are useless to hook up to those adapters. I tried an IDE hard drive on the adapters in AHCI mode, and it works fine... just ATAPI doesn't.

So, like yourself, I am looking for SATA optical drives. Plextor seems to be the only company at the moment. Plextor's work fine in AHCI mode, I just need one that's silver, and the only place they make those is in Japan :(
 
I know some of the older Plextor SATA drives just used a PATA to SATA converter. Possibly you could find one on eBay and then take that part off the back and try it on a drive like the 3550A.

That Yamaha is an amazing CD burner.

There was a post about the Plextor drive and I think they got the part working on other drives.

I'd love a SATA drive in my Small Form Factor computer beacuse I would have alot more airflow.
 
I'm not going to buy a $150 Plextor just for an ATA->SATA adapter... lol. That said, I've tried 2 different ATA->SATA adapters and neither have worked as the Plextor certainly would. I have a PX-712SA (black) on my other machine, and it works just fine on SATA in AHCI mode. My computer, however, is silver... and they only sell silver Plextor PX-716SA drives in Japan :(

I wish I could find out which exact SATA adapter was used in the Plextors, so I could try it myself. I've tried a "SunPlus" chip and a Silicon Image chip, and I believe there is one with a Marvell on the way, too... nothing seems to work it properly.

Yeah, I'm also certainly glad I have the Yamaha, as they now sell for >$100 on Ebay. It's too bad Yamaha doesn't make 'em anymore!
 
I wasn't sure how desperate you were about needed a SATA Optical drive in silver. I wouldn't go the Plextor route.

I know that Abit used to make an adapter I think someone said that it worked well with optical drives but I am unsure what chipset it used.
 
I've been looking for somewhere to by the Abit "Seriell 2" I believe it was called, but to no avail. I just simply need an adapter that works in AHCI mode, as the ones Plextor use do. Or maybe they have special ATAPI instructions in the drive itself, which is why it works? I wish I could find some kind of list with which drives work with which adapters on which controllers :p
 
I can't find any place that sells the Serielle 2 either. I think they were mostly bundled with motherboards when SATA first came out.
 
Plextor does make a DVD Burner that's Serial ATA. However, does not match your color needs - only black / white. However, there's always spray paint ;)...
 
They make it silver, too... in Japan only. I'm not very good at the spray paint thing, so that's why I'm trying to gauge my options. Either I find a way to import it, or I find an adapter that works on my NEC 3550 :confused:
 
Heh... I would rather not use something like that on my nice silver case... regardless, if anyone has more information about these SATA adapters in AHCI mode, I would appreciate it... sorry for the thread hijack, but I'm looking for alternate SATA solutions too... if only NEC made them...
 
1. I have had a Light Scribe drive, and personally, I wouldn't pay for one again. Slow, ugly results, fun to play with once or twice, hard to find DVD-R media for, so I ditched it for a new NEC 3550A which is much faster anyways.

2. I have a Abit Serillel 2 adaptor sitting here, black SATA->PATA adaptor and 4 pin molex to 4 pin floppy cable adaptor, never been used, sold the Abit IC7-G board some time ago, forgot to throw it in the box. First to Paypal me $5(to cover S&H, gas to post office) gets it USPS, will ship Wednesday (tomorrow) :D
 
Lightscribe is OK. I like to use a labeler from Casio called the CW-100 you put the CD in it and it labels it single color with a permanent ink and does a great job.

steviep, if you get that adapter please tell us how it works out for you.
 
nobody_here said:
1. I have had a Light Scribe drive, and personally, I wouldn't pay for one again. Slow, ugly results, fun to play with once or twice, hard to find DVD-R media for, so I ditched it for a new NEC 3550A which is much faster anyways.

2. I have a Abit Serillel 2 adaptor sitting here, black SATA->PATA adaptor and 4 pin molex to 4 pin floppy cable adaptor, never been used, sold the Abit IC7-G board some time ago, forgot to throw it in the box. First to Paypal me $5(to cover S&H, gas to post office) gets it USPS, will ship Wednesday (tomorrow) :D
Click to expand...

You've got a private message! :D
I wonder if it will work with ATAPI in AHCI mode, as it seems that none of these damn PATA -> SATA adapters do (though, I hope you got your SATA -> PATA reversed) :)
 
benamaster said:
Cooler Master makes a stick on Aluminum front for Optical Drives.
Click to expand...
They don't fit on the Plextor drives! I have a black one sitting on my desk as I type this hoping to change the faceplate on my Plextor, but the eject button is about 1/8" off to the right of the CoolerMaster cover. :mad: Would have solved the color issue instead of the white/black mixed front cover.

-E
 
If only we could import the PX-716SA/JP2 model... they come with the damn silver faceplate, and I'm having trouble finding a way of getting it short of calling Plextor of Japan and begging. lol
 
steviep said:
If only we could import the PX-716SA/JP2 model... they come with the damn silver faceplate, and I'm having trouble finding a way of getting it short of calling Plextor of Japan and begging. lol
Click to expand...

Have you called US Plextor and asked if you could buy a silver bezel? If not the Cooler Master stick on Aluminum isn't that bad either.
 
Yep, I've done that already. They told me the following 2 things

1) The latching mechanism for the Japan bezel is slightly different
2) it would have to be ordered in bulk (500 units) :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I've got dibs on that Abit adapter. I want to try it... even though ALL of the SATA->PATA adapters I've tried say "works great with all of your cd/dvd/dvdrw/etc/etc optical PATA drives!" it seems that's only true if your controller can run in IDE mode, eliminating SATA and RAID features. That said, I still want to try it :D
 
benamaster said:
If not the Cooler Master stick on Aluminum isn't that bad either.
Click to expand...
Trust me, they don't fit the Plextor drives. The eject button is off and you cannot simply mod it to work or the stick on button won't work.

-E
 
Yep, Marvell... (not a big fan of Marvell). Regardless, I don't know where you'd be able to buy one of those :p

Anyway, I'm still waiting on that Seriell but I need a PayPal address to pay the guy. I DID, however buy a couple more of these adapters.

This one did NOT work in AHCI mode... However, this one DID! The drive is recognized in device manager/my computer, and does read/write.

A couple problems with it though (which is why I'm hoping that Seriell 2 works).
1) It's ugly as hell and somewhat unstable physically (port plugs included). It is so long in length, that I bet it would be nice and easy to bend the IDE pins. I'm glad I have a big case :p
2) On my NEC drive, I'd occasionally get a failed burn with a bunch of errors at high speeds. I only did these tests with CDs (didn't want to waste DVDs) and at 48x it was very finnicky and often failed mid way through. At 16x it burned fine. So, I hooked up my NEC back to the IDE port, and tried putting the Yamaha CRW-F1 on the SATA bus (lol what a waste of a port). The test burns seemed to work fine, to my surprise, even at the top 44x speed, so I guess I'm leaving it like this for now! It's certainly better than spending $200 to import a silver Plextor drive :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top