Mobile optical drive with a dvd-r write speed of 16-20x exist?

Everywhere I look I can only find 8x speed dvd-r write speeds. Seems like mobile optical drives have been stuck on this speed for like 5 years. Is there any aftermarket companies making specialty mobile drives with 16x or 20x or 24x. I see desktop dvd writers are up to 24x now but I haven't even seen 24x certified discs in the store yet, 20x is highest I've seen as far as rated speed on discs.

So is there any possible way I can get at the minimum a 16x write speed dvd-r drive that will fit inside the alienware m17?

If not would you say the external firewire 800 burner would do the trick and offer me 16-20x speeds. I guess I could go with a smartbay battery than and increase my battery life. How much time does a smartbay battery give you extra?

 

External USB 2.0 burner will do 20x as well.

Laptop DVD drives are stuck at 8x because of space and ?power constraints.

 

that is ridiculous. There has to be a way to make a faster internal mobile burner. No companies are wishing to spend the R and D to do it but with everything else they are accomplishing in notebooks they could be making faster burners. If you can get a core i7-965 extreme desktop quad core inside a notebook you can make a mobile 16-20x dvd writer.

 

You'd be surprised how much more power those motors suck up. Also you need heavier bearings and such to handle the increased speed, so you would need a larger drive compared to the current standard. It's not really practical.

 

It's such a small segment, it's not worth it for them. Notebook drives are made with power consumption in mind.

 

Yea I think I am just gonna get an additional battery for the smart bay and just use an external firewire or usb dvd burner at 20x. I burn a ton of discs so this is actually really important to me.

 

Not really, a gearing change would handle the speed just fine without stressing the motor any more than it already is. BTW, a CD reading at 24X is spinning ~5100RPM, a single layer DVD burning/reading at 8X, spins ~ 4700RPM, and a dual layer at 6X @ ~3800. And you wouldn't need HEAVIER bearings, you'd just need higher quality bearings....if any at all. I'm fairly certain that the bearings in any drive out there right now are just fine.

The issue, as I see it, is getting the power to the laser and containing the heat.

 

Sorry,

That's not true. As an engineer I can tell you that DC motors are designed to operate within a specific rpm range and under a specific torque load. A "gearing change" necessary to allow operation of 16x-20x would significantly increase the torque load which would require a different motor and this would require additional power as well.

Also, generally speaking, only severe duty motors are constructed with "over built" components so it's very likely that the necessary motor would have better bearings as well.

 

If you raise the torque level of the motor, and lower the primary RPM, the power consumption will still be equivalent.

 

Well that's just way out there in left field.

Why in the world would you want to do that?

Raising the torque and lowering the rpm would allow you to spin a larger or heavier disc but at a slower speed than current laptop optical drives.

 

Primary RPM, with a final RPM higher through gearing.

 

"final rpm" is whatever the highest rated speed of a given optical drive operates at when at maximum speed.

So this takes us back to the beginning again. To increase the maximum rated speed to levels of a desktop drive requires more than just a gear change. To accommodate the additional torque needed to drive the taller gears and the faster speed, a more powerful motor is required.

If it was as easy as just "changing the gears" it would have been done already.

EDIT: Yup, don't worry Moo, I'm done repeating the redundant.

 

i think this is turing into a peeing contest ( granted rob is right but its OT)

 

I didn't say it was a SPEED issue. I said the speed issue wouldn't be hard to correct at all with a motor rated for higher torque and lower RPM, with the final RPM being adjusted through the gearing.


I said the issue was laser power and heat.

 

Couldn't you just buys some kind of external drive for your more extreme needs and use the built in drive for every day stuff?