Build a CD duplicator ? Possable ?

[DavidinCT]

Hey all,

I've built 100's of PCs over the years but, never came across this one.

Looking to build a machine to duplicate CDs. I've been looking around at prebuit ones and they go upwards of $1000-5000 to be able to burn 6-12 discs at a time.

I was wondering how a system would be able to handle specs like this...

One MB and P4 CPU, 512 or 1gb of ram. (No sound, No fancy video, maybe a NIC but, that's it)

(IDE on board to handle HD's etc)

Then maybe 4 PCI IDE controlers each running 2-4 CD Burners.

Then Win 2k or XP and Disc Juggler to make and ISO then burn it to 8-16 discs at a time.

Just wondering if XP or 2K would be able to handle 8-12 IDE controllers ?

Figuring here, with this, I could build a machine that could burn 16 CDs at a time, around $500-600, vs. $1500.. Using good but cheaper 12X drives...

As a we are starting a small buisness it would be helpful to cut the costs down, and might start with 4 burners and expand later.

Just wondering is this possable with out running into major hardware conflicts or problems ?

What are your thoughts here ?

Thanks !

 

[dbwillis]

I was thinking of the same thing a while back.

a board with all onboard items, video, sound, lan (Biostar?)

a P4..1.8 to 2.4
512 or 1gb of PC2100, Cas2-2-2

I was thinking of 2000 or NT4, prob 2000
But using CloneCD for the CD recording app and Daemon Tools to mount several ISO images and then run CloneCD to use one mounted ISO to burn...then start another CloneCD instance with another of the mounted ISO..

Ive never used the Disc Juggler...

 

[rjain]

each IDE controller would use 2 IRQs. I doubt that would be possible with most chipsets and bioses. Slaving a CD burner would make for some pretty hillarious results. Just the overhead of all those interrupts would make me cry at the horror of what the OS would have to go through.

 

[glugglug]

An IDE controller does not need 2 IRQs. In fact on most systems with Win2K/WinXP, the IDE controller SHARES an IRQ with the NIC, the video card, & other hardware.

You might want to look into CLV rather than CAV burning though. At 40x more than 10-15 drives will saturate the PCI bus and with interrupts getting queued up with that many drives you'll make a lot of coasters. Limiting to 12X like you suggested you'll be fine even with 20-30 drives.

 

[DavidinCT]

Originally posted by: glugglug
An IDE controller does not need 2 IRQs. In fact on most systems with Win2K/WinXP, the IDE controller SHARES an IRQ with the NIC, the video card, & other hardware.

You might want to look into CLV rather than CAV burning though. At 40x more than 10-15 drives will saturate the PCI bus and with interrupts getting queued up with that many drives you'll make a lot of coasters. Limiting to 12X like you suggested you'll be fine even with 20-30 drives.

Yea, was thinking of like my past with my 1st buner, 4X, when I burned discs at 4X, there would be problems time to time, if dropped it down to 2X, I would never have a problem. A lot less problems with modern burners but, My concept is to get 99% problem free discs, and it if takes a few more min to burn a disc, so be it.

So, Sounding like this is possable, I would use Win 2k for the OS, as it would not have all the extras that XP has, and would not need them. I would not even install IE, if I didn't need to.

As for Disc Juggler, I have used it before, as the demo, and the full version supports upto 4 drives, the pro version supports unlimited drives. As I have used it before it's pretty easy to use and it looks like the use of many drives would work well. See it here
http://www.padus.com/

Now the big question, What hardware do you guys think I should go for ? Keep in mind the lower price the better but, need it to be dependable. I was thinking of a small lot of say...Sony buners, that do a max of 12X. What kind of affordable controler cards for this would anyone suggest ?

I would be willing to post pictures and details when it's done (not for another month or 2) and what problems I had, if anyone is interested...

Thanks again !!!

 

[ProviaFan]

Be careful, because some PCI IDE controllers do not support ATAPI devices (e.g. Zip drives, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and CD-RW). Some (perhaps all) Promise controllers have this limitation.

Also, certain older controllers (e.g. my SIIG ATA66 IDE controller) do not support DMA, and cause the system to freeze up while burning a CD (note that the CD ends up burning ok, but you can't do anything else while it's burning).

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Wouldn't it be easier to just buy a duplicator controller yourself? a 1:9 can be found for $2-300.

EDIT: these guys sell all the stuff needed. Even the specialized cases.

http://shop.ily.com/c_42.htm

 

[DavidinCT]

Originally posted by: Antisocial-Virge
Wouldn't it be easier to just buy a duplicator controller yourself? a 1:9 can be found for $2-300.

EDIT: these guys sell all the stuff needed. Even the specialized cases.

http://shop.ily.com/c_42.htm

I guess the point is not to spent $1200+ on a machine. Those parts are $300+ for 4 drives. SO, there;s about 400-500 I have spend on drives and system and gota cake on another $300-500 for that.

Just looking to build one to save money...

 

[FishTankX]

I think your missing the *painfully* obvious sollution.

In this kind of situation, there is only 1 way to go for liquid smooth high speed burning.


That's SCSI.

I see a place that sells 8X HP burners for 47$ a piece. You chain up 10 of those to the master SCSI controller, and you're good to go. I would put about 5 on each channel.

This way it doesn't kill the system trying to burn and you only have a problem with 1 IRQ.

The other alternative is to chain together masses of USB-2 or Firewire burners (Firewire is the winner here, but it's not as easy to chain masses of devices together as it is with USB-2).

Just the pain of working with 5 IDE controllers would be hell. I'd much suggest either working with SCSI or USB2/Firewire.

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Originally posted by: DavidinCT

Originally posted by: Antisocial-Virge
Wouldn't it be easier to just buy a duplicator controller yourself? a 1:9 can be found for $2-300.

EDIT: these guys sell all the stuff needed. Even the specialized cases.

http://shop.ily.com/c_42.htm

I guess the point is not to spent $1200+ on a machine. Those parts are $300+ for 4 drives. SO, there;s about 400-500 I have spend on drives and system and gota cake on another $300-500 for that.

Just looking to build one to save money...

I don't follow you. You could still use your cheap 12x drives and just use a cheap controller. I'm pretty sure you couldn't build a computer burning setup like you want cheaper than a $200 controller + cost of drives setup.