CD recorder We have a full time Mac tech person. About a year ago he researched CD-R and it seemed Yamaha was probably the top machine. The Yamaha is 4x4x16x. I have a lower end P2 266 at it works perfectly at 4x. I don't think there is any learning curve. The first CD I made worked fine. The problem with the drag and drop software (using it like a floppy drive) is that the disk can only be read in the same environment that it was created in. I would definitely not do this. If you are using Windows 95/98 and change to NT you will not be able to read your CD! External and SCSI will cost more than internal and IDE, but the Yamaha ext. SCSI is "only" $265.00 anyway. The advantage of external is that you can move it from machine to machine and also, I was told, they work better out of the computer because they stay cooler. At work we have lots of zip drives and lots of drives and disks fail. They are great for moving data, but don't store anything on them unless you make at least 3 copies. This adds to your cost and storage space. CD's can be ruined if you mistreat them. Zips go bad all by themselves.