nah it wouldnt work out cheaper. cd readers for the pc can be bought for like 5 buks off the net. thats how much i paid for mine on ebuyer.com . get any brand, it dont really matter, dont think they usually mess up. much faster than using the mpc with the usb, and no need to constant unplug a usb to ur mpc. just take out the cf cd from the mpc and bang it into the cd reader, and xferring files and backing stuff up becomes super quick. hard disk is obviously useful, but a cf cd reader/writer serves a different purpose (quickly xferring cds to a pc, hard disk is for storing, using the mpc wiv the usb is slow)