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    External Optical BD Combo drive recommendation

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by BlazerMFT, Dec 19, 2011.

  1. BlazerMFT

    BlazerMFT Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hey guys, with the help of some very useful posts I was able to take the plunge and make a purchase of this wonderful machine. Still waiting for it in the mail though, Dell should also sell "Patience" on their site.

    Kidding aside, I am wondering what a best buy BD Combo drive would be for this baby. What's everyone buying? Here are my requirements:

    1. Can also work for a MacBook Air. (I recently bought my wife one and this would kill two birds with one stone)

    2. Plug and play. (am I being too obvious?)

    3. Slot loading, something thin and light but of course a good make.

    4. USB powered; MBA doesn't have eSATA.

    Thanks y'all. I can't wait for my machine to arrive! Want to see how Skyrim looks like on this baby.
     
  2. Shuflie

    Shuflie Notebook Enthusiast

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    Don't worry too much about buying a drive that can attach directly to the MBA, it can share another computers optical drive via the network with a download from Apple, even comes in Vista 64 bit which should work for Windows 7 too. Instructions are here. With that being said though most external bus powered drives will be USB not eSATA, they also tend to be tray loading notebook style drives too. Plextor do a top loading combo drive which looks interesting as it one less thing to break on a portable drive.