Slot load Blu-Ray burners for an M17xR4?

I posted about this a few weeks ago and have been doing some research with allot of disappointment, but I may have a solution now.

My M17xR4 was delayed because of parts not being in stock and should arrive next week.

I want a Blu-Ray burner. Dell/Alienware does not offer the one they had in the R2-R3 anymore:

I believe the one Alienware used back in the day was this Panasonic:

• Optical Drives : Blu-ray Disc Drives : Electret Condenser Microphone from Panasonic

Now, most of the blu-ray burners support Blu-Ray XL (burning to 128gb 4 layer discs):

Sony:

• BD-5850H | Sony Optiarc

Teac:

• Teac Slim Internal Blu-Ray XL Burner Slimline SATA (Slot Load) Drive-TEA-BDW26SSB

Panasonic:

• Panasonic Slim Blu-Ray Burner Slimline SATA (Slot Load) Drive-PAN-UJ-265A

So between the 3 Blu-Ray XL Slot loading burners..... The Sony is discontinued, no replacement listed..... The Teac is crazy expensive and it looks like the Panasonic is relatively new and priced at $129 + Tax and Shipping online.


I guess it is a no brainer to go with the Panasonic for $129. Has anyone bought one and used it in an M17x (r1,r2,r3,r4)? I would like to get your experiences with any of these on which ones worked, which ones to avoid, etc and which Blu-Ray XL media you are using.

 

Installed the Panasonic one on a neighbor's R4. Haven't heard any complaints from him, so I suppose that is a good sign. I bought the desktop version of the Panasonic blu-ray burner. After having an NEC, then an HP DVD burner in that desktop, I can say with no ego that Panasonic makes a far better optical drive than the other two.

 

Anyone know if this one works: Panasonic Slim Blu-Ray Burner Slimline SATA (Slot Load) Drive-PAN-UJ-265A

How easy is it to replace the optical drive in an R4?

 

watching this thread

 

i have an BD-5850H | Sony Optiarc, probably bought it in time.
replacing optical drive almost requires a complete tear down of the laptop including screen..
done it a few times now but it will take at least an hour to dissasemble and reasemble.

 

That is good to know that he/she is not having any issues with the Panasonic one, I hoped to get more input on this but I guess not many people worry about backing data up to blu ray...... This is my plan C if I loose my backup hard drives and the blu rays are stored off site in a fire safe

 

A complete tear down? I think the newer laptops have a cover and 1 screw and then it slides out?

 

R4 has no slide out optical drive..

 

Yes it uses the side of the case of the machine as a bezel to the drive so you need a drive without a bezel and it wont fit though that small a gap otherwise it would just fall out all the time

 

That's because most notebooks use tray loading optical drives, so there can't be any obstruction in the way for the tray to pop out (i.e. the chassis). In our Alienware's, the chassis has a slot cut out of it for the disc to be inserted into the optical drive. Slot loading drives don't need their front side to be unobstructed. In any event, it is a royal pain to tear down our systems just to access the optical drive. Not excessively difficult, just tedious and time consuming.

 

If apple has taught us anything, you have to pay for aesthetics.

 

I saw the complete R3/R4 teardown video online, I also saw the one for the ram, and the hard drives, is there a video tutorial on removing the DVD-ROM drive somewhere?

 

So I have canceled my search for an internal blu ray burner for my M17xR4...... The R4 has 4 x USB 3.0 ports so I decided to go external.....

I went with this Blu-Ray burner after reading the reviews....:


Amazon.com: Pioneer BDR-207MBK Black 12X SATA BDRW DVDRW BDXL Quad Layer Bulk no software: Everything Else

and this case for it:

Amazon.com: Vantec USA NexStar DX External 5.25-Inch Optical Drive Enclosure USB 3.0 External Interface Optical Drives 14700365 (NST-530S3-BK): Computers & Accessories

The only thing I have really been able to test with it so far is ripping audio CD's to Flac format.....

My old USB 2.0 would rip flac at a rate of 8.0x max...... this thing rips at 24.0x . I have not bought any media yet but I am looking at 50gb dual layer 6x discs from Digistor....... they seem to be the best price/performance ratio on the blu-ray media.

 

Hopefully this one will work for you also.