Any real world experiences with Plextor PX-608CU ("world's smallest" external dvd burner)

I've got a Lenovo X60s, which as you all know, has no built-in optical drive. I'm thinking about getting the Plextor PX-608CU, which is very compact and powered by the USB bus (2 headed cable). I don't mind paying a bit extra for the small size and weight, and I don't expect blistering performance. That said, I would like to know if anyone has anything good, bad, or neutral to say about the drive. One consumer has reviewed the drive on Newegg, and he said it wasn't recognized by Vista out-of-the-box. I'd like a little more to go on before I plunk down my money. I understand that bus-powered drives are theoretically more problematic than their external-powered brethren, but I'd like to hear real-world experiences if possible (or even, "my friend has one of these and he says ... ."

Specifically, I'd like to know the following:
1) is it respectable under XP for producing error-free burns (such as with Nero)?

2) has anyone tried to boot from the drive in a Windows environment?

3) has anyone used it in a Mac OSX setting (I might try to use it to install OSX86). If it does work, is it recognized by the iLife apps (iDVD, iTunes, etc)?

4) how reliable is the bus power for DVD burns? for CD burns? for DVD reads? etc.

5) if there are problems with bus power use at times, are they fixed by using the included power supply?

6) If the drive really sucks, do you have a currently available bus-powered alternative which you recommend (e.g., the LaCie slim external dvd burner with lightscribe or one of the options from http://www.centrix-intl.com/?

I've already posted on forum.thinkpads.com, and I haven't had much success in getting replies.

Thanks very much!

 

This review should answer most of your questions:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Plextor-PX-608CU-Portable-DVD-ReWriter-Review

 

Thanks for the reply, ChangFest, I did read the Club CD Freaks review of the burner (that may have been the thing that got me excited about the Plextor, actually). I always like to read about the experiences of real consumers to see if their experiences vary from the "experts," and whether the drive will work well over time. NewEgg reviews are good for this sort of thing, as the people who tend to buy from NE are more technically savvy than, say, the consumers at Amazon.com. If I can read 40 reviews at NE, I can get a pretty good feel for the device. Unfortunately in this case, there's only one, and it was a 3 star rating (out of 5).

Bonmot

 

I'm curious about this drive as as well. Any info is helpful.