[andrewas]

Dump a HDD, free up a channel. HDDs of decent capacity have a fairly good resale value (I for one am always on the lookout for one) compared with most components. But if you have to have 3 HDDs and 2 CDs, the best option is a USB2.0 drive - plug and play and you can swap it between computers.

Problem is most PCs only have USB1.0 ports which *calculates furiosly* only let you burn at 4X, probably not reliable above 2X. Firewire is faster of course, but rarer on PCs, although this will change since integrated Firwire is becoming more common.

The problem with SCSI is it comes in loads of types, so unless you plan ahead your lucky to end up with the right kind of card. SCSI cards come from as little as £20, but Wide Ultra2 SCSI starts at about £150. Wide Ultra2 is fairly standard I think. But look up what type the CD-R needs, dont rely on this guess.