Review: MCE 8X SuperDrive Upgrade with Double Layer Support
Media hounds have long awaited the introduction of affordable dual-layer DVD (DVD DL) writers. Thanks to MCE, Mac mini owners are now in the game. MCE’s 8X SuperDrive Upgrade with Double Layer Support ($199) is a drop-in replacement for your mini's optical drive. It comes with everything you need to install in your Mac mini—including drivers for 10.3 users.
Installation
The MCE drive includes complete installation instructions, essentially the same service manual Apple provides its service technicians. The drive perfectly mounts in place of Apple’s stock drive; our installation went without a hitch. See the Modmini Mac mini Take-Apart How-To for a sense of what’s involved in a do-it-yourself installation.
Performance
The slot-load mechanism is smooth and reliable. We found the drive to be slightly quieter than the Apple’s stock combo and DVD drives.
Low-profile slot-load drives such as the mini uses aren’t the speed demons that you might find in a full-size tower, but they yield acceptable performance for most users:
| Format | Write Speed |
|---|---|
| DVD+R DL | 2.4x |
| DVD+R | 8x |
| DVD-R | 8x |
| DVD+RW | 4x |
| DVD-RW | 4x |
| CD-R | 24x |
| CD-RW | 24x |
These speeds yield a full single-layer disc in about 20 minutes, and a full dual-layer disk (with verify) in about 2 hours. Dual-layer isn’t a barn-burner, but then 8.5GB on a disc is nothing to sneeze at.
DVD results are very good. We had no problem backing up a video DVD using MacTheRipper and Toast, and experienced no playback problems in our commercial DVD players. Alas, iDVD won’t write to the drive, as it’s not a stock Apple part. Fortunately, iDVD 5 can write to a disk image that can then be burned using Disk Utility or Toast. (Forward complaints on this issue to Apple.)
System Profiler reports the drive as: Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-K05; Firmware Revision: 1.03; Burn Support: Yes (Unsupported); Cache: 2000KB; DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL.
Conclusion
If the mini plays a role in your digital media lifestyle, the MCE upgrade drive is a must-have. MCE offers a 1 year warranty and a 30 day money-back guarantee. For those who fear the putty-knife, MCE offers a professional upgrade service, wherein $99 wings your mini via overnight shipping. (Our readers won’t want any part of that, right?)
The MCE 8X SuperDrive Upgrade with Double Layer Support drive is available directly from the manufacturer at www.mcetech.com.