Noisy Plextor PX-810UF external DVD burner

I needed a new DVD reader/burner, so I choose this Plextor unit. Previous Plextor CD or DVD drives I had (or installed for other people) never failed, and were consistently able to reliably read discs which other readers had trouble with.

So I hope this drive will prove as reliable as the other Plextors I have used.

This I will only find out with time, but there is one little annoyance which I can warn you about now: the drive has a quite noisy ventilation. It sits on my desk next to a very silent X31 Thinpad, and I have to turn it off when not using it. Well, I guess that turning it off is good for the environment...

This model has both USB 2.0 and Firewire connectors, and unlike a previous unit, you don't need to manually select which you are using. It automatically detects whether it is connected through USB or Firewire.

It is also supposed to be dual layer capable, but I haven't tried this yet.

The power supply is unfortunately external, but they all are as far I know.

Update: At my great disappointment, it turns out this is not really a Plextor drive. Apparently, they stopped manufacturing drives and this one is in fact a LG GSA-H44N, according to a detailed review on CDRLabs. I found this out while searching the net to solve problems I had with the drive. However, I don't know whether the problems are related to the drive itself or to my system or software.

The fan sometimes doesn't rotate smoothly, and produces a terrible noise. That would probably be covered under warranty, but of course warranties tend to be useless for things like these since it's just too much trouble to claim it. (At least here in europe, where I guess the drive needs to be shipped abroad, after getting an RMA, making a package, filling customs forms etc. and usually paying VAT and/or customs when the replacement returns).