S6231 + Nec Nd-6650 Dvd Rw

My S6231 had a TEAC DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. I recently replaced the DVD combo with the new NEC DVD RW ND-6650 (firmware 1.23) I bought from newegg for $95. The bottom right corner of the face plate has to be cut to make room for the eject lever (see the pictures). I used a small hacksaw with a fine-tooth blade to cut it Once installed Window XP Home recognized the NEC ND-6650 without any problem. I tested burning some DVD-RW, DVD-R, and CD-R using the bundled software Sonic RecordNow! v7.22. All went well. The DVD playback is louder than the TEAC DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, but I don't watch much of DVD movies on the notebook. I don't know if the NEC ND-6500A would be quieter for DVD playback. The price of ND-6500A is a little cheaper.
I also put the original DVD combo drive in the MAPOWER external enclosure (model KC51SC1) that has USB2.0 and firewire interface. Now I use it a portable drive.
If you want to upgrade your S6231 DVD combo drive with a DVD RW you can do it yourself with a little modification. It is much cheaper than buying from Fujitsu. Or if you don't want to cut the face plate, you can get a new DVD RW drive and put in the external enclosure.

NEC DVD RW ND-6650


MAPOWER KC51SC1 External Enclosure for a 5.25" slim optical drive

 

Excellent work and well done. Thanks for the images!