Mac Daniel's Advice

Burning CDs

Evan Kleiman - 2000.12.13

Q. All of my friends that have PCs are always talking about CDs they've burnt with their computers, but I don't have a CD burner in my iMac. What can I do about this?

A. Unfortunately, for a long time, Apple has not offered a CD-R (Compact Disc-Recordable) or CD-RW (Compact Disc-ReWritable) drive as an option. And because of this, they lost many potential sales and profits, because many people wanted this option on their iMac or other Macintosh computer. However, last Tuesday Steve Jobs announced that he will be including CD-R as an option on some new Macs. But what do you do until then? Well, you do have some options.

This first option is the only one for iMac users, such as myself: an external USB or FireWire CD-R drive. Since USB is limited to 680 Kbps, the only real option for speed-conscience iMac owners is a FireWire CD-R or CD-RW drive. You can pick one up at places like MacMall and Outpost.com for around $300. It's a steep price right now, but since this technology is still somewhat new, it can be somewhat costly.

Another option is installing an internal CD-R or CD-RW drive in your Mac. VST makes a nice one for about $350. However, there are many down sides to this. You can't install one of these on any iMac or the Cube, and installing it on a Mac with a free drive bay can be somewhat confusing.

In the end, for awhile at least, you'll have only a few options if you want to record music with your computer. It seems that the cheapest and easiest option may be just to wait and get it installed by Apple on your next computer.

Further Reading

  • How Can I Burn a CD?, Chris Lawson, Mac Daniel, 4/4/2000
  • Burning CDs, Scott L. Barber, Online Tech Journal. Hints on burning CDs with older Power Macs and SCSI burners.

Evan Kleiman has been writing for Low End Mac since January 1999. He also runs his own site, Evansite. Evan uses an iMac, along with some vintage hardware. You can read more about his computing experience in The Many Macs of Evan Kleiman.

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