CD burner suggestions (for WinME)

[torifile]

It's about that time of year again when I get stuck shopping for my gf's parents for techie christmas gifts and I need some suggestions about a cd burner for their computer. It's running ME, but it's a couple years old. So, I've got some questions:

- firewire or internal (I'd have to get a fw card - is this doable with ME?)
-suggestions? cost is more important than speed, I think. TIA.

[smithjoel]

Don't dick around with firewire on ME. Get a good old IDE internal. A Plextor 40x12x40 would be a little over a $100. But you cand find a little slower Mitsumi or TEAC or like $60 or so.

[Patchouli]

All joking aside, I'd get them WinXP Home first ($89 upgrade). WinMe is a horror and not worth the inevitable aggravation. I'd do a clean install, refresh their drivers (XP will load most and sometimes all of them), run Windows Update, then get them a nice affordable external CDRW drive. XP is rock solid and very device friendly. Unless, they have a very old machine that couldn't handle XP. Regardless of what Microsoft claims, I think you need at least a 400MHz processor and 256MB of RAM.

[EmAn]

Why get external if you can get an internal?

[Patchouli]

Yeah, either or. I figured external would be easier. Either way, I'd still get rid of WinMe.

[torifile]

[quote]Originally posted by EmAn:
<strong>Why get external if you can get an internal?</strong><hr></blockquote>

I was thinking external so that they could just move it to a new computer if they get one. In general, I prefer externals, but I know internals are cheaper.

Are you serious about the XP thing? I know ME is bad but is it that bad? I'm afraid to have to wipe everything (they've got some crazy chinese input thing that may or may not work well with XP). :/ Thanks for the suggestions....keep 'em coming.

[murbot]

God, dump that OS. I had it on my machine for 2 days and took that thing OUT. Not worth the plastic it's stamped on. Seriously.

Really get in their good books. XP and a burner.