Actually Sue it also depends on where in Canada you are. Being from Toronto, Ontario, we have lots of places to get Mac stuff and even hundreds of stores to buy Mac-compatible PC hardware. I get mine from a place called Fatory Direct Outlet (www.factorydirect.ca). They have a good size inventory on hardware that is mainly for PC BUT if you check xlr8yourmac.com you can hunt down PC hardware that's compatible with Macs and then check back with Factory direct to find out if it's in stock. That's how I got my Yamaha 2200EZ CDRW for only $89CDN. Right now there's an internal LG 24X14X40 IDE CDRW 8240B model going for only $69.99 CDN. I believe this was listed as being compatible with B&W and up on xlr8yourmac.com. Now these are cheap because they are internal IDE burners. SCSI, Firewire, and USB burners are still on the hefty side of prices. Even Factory Direct was selling an 18GB SCSI hard drive for about $160 CDN and the 36GB SCSI was over $200 CDN. Other places to check out in Toronto are CPUsed.com (they specialize in Macs only), Macwarehouse.ca, Futureshop, Best Buy, Compusmart.ca, clickonmacs.com, Computer Systems Centre, and Northland computers (macs only). Check them out and see if they do shipping. If all else fails eBay is a great way to get several items. I got a SCSI 18GB drive for about $50 US. With shipping it was still cheaper than getting it here. on 10/23/02 10:38 PM, Sue Street at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Mark, > > In Canada, Macs in general & esp. Mac-compatible items like CD-RW's, are > still quite expensive -- prices for both internal & external models are > slowly coming down but cost really depends on whether you go with > Firewire or USB. We don't have nearly the number of dealers that will > sell these things for the lower prices as is typically the case in the > USA &Europe. In fact, we have very few places that even sell Mac stuff > and those are primarily on-line. As well, being in Halifax, Nova Scotia > (on the east coast), I can tell you it is very expensive to get Mac > stuff out here because we have very few authorized dealers, most large > businesses & university institutions are PC-based, and thus, there is a > low demand for Apple/Mac hardware & software. I am fortunate that my > university computer store still deals with Macs but it is limited & we > pay for it in a big way! Most of the stuff is coming from the USA and > we pay dearly for the poor exchange rate. The East coast of Canada is > really at a disadvantage when it comes to being able to get affordable > Mac and mac-compatible items, either new and/or used. It may be > different in other parts of Canada but this has been my experience as a > 17 year Mac user in Nova Scotia. > > Getting back to the CD-RW issue, there are a number of good cheaper, > internal models available -- I happen to prefer the external models as I > do a fair bit of work with my Laptop as well as my desktop Mac so I need > it to be portable. > > Yamaha also have some excellent newer & older models available as > Internal CD-RW's & most are mac-compatible...check out their site for a > nice table of info: > <http://www.yamaha.com/comparisons/HDR00007/HDR00007.htm> E-bay tends > to have some good reputable deals as does Smalldog.com and OWC.com > (Otherworld Computing). > > Just my two cents worth on the Canadian perspective on macs & > mac-compatible hardware. > > best, > Sue > > -=-=-=-=-=-=- > Sue Street, PhD (Cand), MScOT(C), OT.Reg.NS > Interdisciplinary PhD Programme > Dalhousie University > Halifax, NS B3H 3J5 > CANADA > E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -=-=-=-=-=-=- > > > > On October 23, 2002, Mark Benson wrote: > > A nice unit, but $160-190? that's awful expensive. > >> It might be a good alternative in case you can't find >> a compatible internal CD-RW....I was also tempted to get an internal >> but >> after some checking & calling, I decided to go with the ext. version. >> Just another alternative.... > > As Luca said he is trying to avoid the external option, probably for the > same reason I did. It's very expensive, unnecessarily so if you only > want to use the drive in 1 machine. A good CD-RW will cost US$40-50. My > Combo drive was only GB=A365. The botoom line is Firewire stuff is all > very nice if you can afford it but there are cheaper and more economical > alternatives if you put in the research. One tip is for gods sake don't > ask any parts dealers - they will just mutter "need an Apple unit, > others won't even work". That's rubbish, just look at all the reports on > xlr8yourmac.com. > > > Mark Benson -- "We're all on the same sinking ship; it's just some of us were volunteered to be the captains." -- anonymous "Put that in your pipe and smoke it!" -- Dr. Evil from Goldmember. -- -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:g-list@;mail.maclaunch.com> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:g-list-off@;mail.maclaunch.com> For digest mode, email: <mailto:g-list-digest@;mail.maclaunch.com> Subscription questions: <mailto:listmom@;lemlists.com> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
