2 or 8 meg buffer DVD burner any real difference...?

[Bartman39]

Was going to buy either the Lite-on 16X dual layer SOHW1633s or the NEC ND3520A then ran across this darn Plextor PX-716A which has an 8meg buffer as compared to the other 2 I was looking at that have 2 meg buffers...?

Which of all 3 would be the better choice...? I know Plextor cost more but has always made very good products but is it really worth it...?

thanks in advance...

 

[BlueWeasel]

Personally, I think the buffer size is a marketing gimmic. I've had my Lite-on 2mb 8x DVD burner for a year now, and have never had a problem with the buffer, and this includes burning while browsing, gaming, etc.

 

[daniel1113]

As long as your hard drive is able to keep up with the burner, which any 7200 RPM drive can easily do, the extra buffer will not make any difference.

 

[Hurricane Andrew]

Before the advent of "Burnproof", "Justlink", or whatever your the manufacturer calls their incarnation of the technology, it would have made a difference. With today's more powerful CPU's, fast hard drives, and the aforementioned various buffer-underrun technologies, it doesn't make any difference.

 

[Bassyhead]

the buffer is definitely not going to make any difference especially at 16x speeds (about 21 MB/sec or so)

 

[akira34]

I'd get the Plextor based on other factors in addition to the buffer. People were wondering about the difference on drives between 2MB and 8MB caches... Now everyone wants the 8MB cache (or more) and won't use the 2MB cache drives in anything where speed matters.

I'd get the Plextor for several reasons. Not the least of which is the ability to [easily] burn media faster. You can take 8x rated +r media (getting cheaper every day it seems) and burn it at 16x with the Plextor drive. That's with Roxio software with NO alterations at all. By default it will select the higher speed. I can do this in my PX-708 burner (burning 4x +r media at 8x) and Plextor HAS said you'll be able to do the same function on the 16x drive.

Another reason I'll be getting the Plextor... reliability. I've used Plextor burners for YEARS... Other drives just haven't seem to have been able to hold up as well. Granted, I've not used any of the very latest drives being produced, but I have every confidence that the Plextor drives I have now will last longer than I'll be using them. When I upgrade, they'll be going into systems owned by either family, friends, or going up for sale...