[Brains]

Well, a bugger you can't find the Welland box, it was the most affordable 5.25" FireWire box with an Oxford chip in it.

Having a nosy around the local interwebs seems to show a bit of a shortage of suitable cases, but the most promising one looks like a Macpower product (the people who make the excellent Icecube II drive-boxes that look like baby G5's) called "HotButtered".

Silicon Memory

The RRP seems to be about $120-$130 though.

Zytech in WA have a few 5.25" drive-boxes available, including this one for $95 which takes an IDE drive and has both FireWire and USB ... but I can't find out what chipset it uses, so you might want to email them and ask.

I did spot another one at 'AussieOnsite' for $59 and it has an Oxford 911 in it - link here. Looks like this could be a winner, if you're on a budget

[Devil rolla]

Thanks brains, ur a champ, thanks for the legwork !

[Devil rolla]

Dammit, that welland that is gone was so pretty.. Worth waiting for them to get more stock ?

[reversereverb]

I'm baaaaaack!

It died today, damn thing. There's no power at all that I can, the power light on the case isn't on at all (and there's a disc stuck in there...)

What's the diagnosis? If the power light isn't on, would it mean the case or the drive is kaput?

I'm a little annoyed, it really isn't all that old...

[Brains]

Probably the power supply -- almost everyone uses the same mediocre external PSU, no matter how good the case and its chipset actually is.

A straightened paperclip in the hole just under the tray-door will disengage the drawer-lock and push it out a couple of centimetres, enough for you to manually tug the drawer open and extract the disc.

I'd contact the place you bought it from, should still be under warranty (both the case and the drive, and I'd bet the drive is still fine)

[reversereverb]

Cheers for the advice (again!) Brains, I've emailed i-Tech who I bought the enclosure & drive from. We'll see how this turns out...

[reversereverb]

Hmm, I'm having thoughts...

I'll certainly hang on to the external I've got now and use it at some point in the future, but what advice can you guys give on replacing the internal drive?

Any particular recommendations? Are there any that can easily be made to be region-free for watching DVD's? I've been Googling hard with limited success and I've heard mentioned the Pioneer DVR-K06 but I'd rather get your guys opinion before I go the whole hog.

[reversereverb]

Anyone?...

From some stuff I've picked up online, I'm leaning towards the Optiarc AD-7630A but I'm all ears if you have anything to add.

[ClockWork]

I'm pretty sure the Macpower Hotbuttered 5.25" External DVD-+R/RW is still the very best, and should come with 1 to 2 years warranty, plus a Pioneer inside it.

[Brains]

... except they don't seem to be available in Australia any more.

[ClockWork]

I believe the Hot Buttered 5.25" External DVD-+R/RW is still available, yet only in the USB 2.0 host interface.

The Hot Buttered 5.25" USB 2.0 / FireWire 400 + got the chop in Australia, simply because there wasn't enough of a market demand for it.

If one had a sure-fired market of at least 2,000 people wanting the FW model, MacPower would most certainly send them out to Australian Retailers.