Well, I have a bit of an odd problem coming up in a few weeks that I'm not sure how to solve yet. We will be taking MP3 recordings and burning them to CD, and the rare digital video to DVD. But I'd like to get them all rolling independently. So I need a system that can ideally burn 6 independent disks as cheaply as possible - ideas?

So far I've checked into a few custom builds of Linux, but they're more geared toward burning the same disk to all the drives, and all other CD burning programs I've looked into won't allow multiple instances of their code to run. Had moderate success via command line, but that's a little too complicated for the 14 year-olds that will be running this thing.

6/23/2010 1:12:25 PM

Build a machine
throw vmware ESXi on it
dupe your OS image 6 times (5, really)
set each OS independently to a drive
$profit

[Edited on June 23, 2010 at 7:34 PM. Reason : that'd be my first attempt]

6/23/2010 7:34:33 PM

or.. buy 6x PCs with a cd/dvd burner, kvm, $profit

you could assemble lowend atom machines with burner for <$200 ea probably

6/23/2010 8:17:37 PM

^^ I like that idea. How reliable is burning from a VM client? It needs to be 100%, cause they're paying me $1000 for the weekend

6/23/2010 9:08:05 PM

These days, with new mobos with hardware supported virtualization, VMs can essentially communicate directly with the hardware. In other words, it should be perfectly reliable. Just make sure you have memory and decent quad processor.

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_VT-x

[Edited on June 23, 2010 at 10:21 PM. Reason : .]

6/23/2010 10:20:46 PM

yeah, you'll be fine with esxi

6/24/2010 1:06:36 AM

Imgburn is a free program that will allow you to run multiple instances. All you need is 6 dvd burners and your good to go. http://www.imgburn.com/

6/24/2010 7:26:10 AM

^

6/24/2010 8:03:54 AM

http://turbojet.sourceforge.net/

Judges?

6/24/2010 6:03:27 PM

They throw away cd duplicators at surplus all the time.

6/25/2010 12:38:50 AM

^then get me one

I tried to get out there looking for a NAS unit just to find out they're doing it once a month now

6/25/2010 12:58:38 PM