Any quiet fast CD-ROM drive?

[xtreme2k]

whatever you get

NEVER GET THE PANASONIC DRIVES

they are the worst and they DO sound like a jet or JETS taking off when you put in a cd

 

[Rigoletto]

I had an LG drive and don't recommend it on any count whatsoever. Only 24x and a noisy biitch.

 

[ktchong]

So it is either Toshiba, Kenwood, or Teac. Which of the three is the MOST quiet? I probably don't want to get a Kenwood 72x as I consider it its price is still too high (compared to other CD-ROMs.)

Many of you recommend Toshiba 40x but not faster than 40x. Does Toshiba CD-ROM drive that is faster than 40x make alot of noise?

 

[MWink]

<< NEVER GET THE PANASONIC DRIVES >>


I have used a lot of Panasonic drives and they are noy very loud.

BTW, Toshiba drives are VERY low quality and have trouble reading a lot of discs.

 

[LXi]

MWink:

Im seriously doubting your experience, first you said Acer sucks, now Toshiba, both are regarded as some of the best readers in the market.

 

[dc]

toshiba drives are recommened by the clonecd guys for reading copyprotected stuff.
my old 24x is pretty good at readling damaged cds. you can't go wrong with toshiba or teac.

clonecd hardware page

 

[MWink]

<< Im seriously doubting your experience, first you said Acer sucks, now Toshiba, both are regarded as some of the best readers in the market. >>



Ok, I guess I will have to give the reasons behind my ratings.

My school has about 50 systems with Acer 24X and 32X drives. They are a few years old and a large number of them are not reading CDs properly anymore. I have also noticed (on my sisters 50X) they have problems reading some CD-RW discs.

I have had a LOT of experience with Toshiba. I used to sell systems with Toshiba 12X and 24X CD-ROMs all the time. A number of them just straight out failed, the rest were very sluggish reading. A 12X should have no problem playing a video file that plays fine from a 2X. Also, Toshiba's older drives are infamous for having trouble with CD-Rs. I have seen proof of this. I gave the the benefit of the doubt. A friend recently bought a laptop with a Toshiba CD-ROM and I got to test it. The results were disappointing. It had a lot of trouble with CD-RW discs. This drive is only a few months old so it should be able to read CD-RWs. Overall IMO Toshiba is the worst of the bunch... But that is just in my experience.

Some of you may have noticed that I am also not an advocate of Plextor. The sole reason behind that is the fact that my Plextor 4X has a lot of trouble reading CD-Rs (and yes it is capable of reading them).

I DO advocte Panasonic because I have used a lot of them and have not had anywhere near as many problems. I have not had one Panasonic fail (with the exception of the CD-RW that was manufactured by Compro). They work well. They have read any CD that I have thrown at them. They read at high speeds without lots of noise. They are just overall good drives.

I have also found Sony drives to be quite reliable. In fact my first CD-ROM was a Sony 2X and it is still in operation to this day. Also, my first CD-R was a Sony (8/2) and it too is still in operation to this day. In fact it is the ONLY CD-R/RW that has NOT failed on me!

The other brands I have had good experiences with are Hitachi, Kenwood, and to a point Samsung. I hope this clears things up.

 

[ElFenix]

i dunno of anyone else that has this drive, but the memorex 48x that i picked up at best buy in the spring is extrememly quiet. i don't ever notice it. i just put my ear up to it while loading starcraft and i heard the case fan and the cdrom's head moving but those were quiet.

 

[Gunbuster]

The problem with Memorex, Creative.... is that they dont make the drive.

From one production run to the next it may not be the same drive in the box.

They just slap their name on other makers CDROM's

This makes it hard to generalize &quot;my memorex 48x is quiet&quot;

 

[SyriuS]

Another vote for the Teac 540e. I love mine, no problems whatsoever. My Teac 32x Died on me after 2 years 🙂 of heavy use i might add

 

[LXi]

MWink:

Thank you for clearing things up. Quite frankly, I still have doubts, your experience is a very strange one. I've found the Acers to be fairly reliable in many aspects and has excellent reading ability. The Toshibas, well, my 8x still works, not so sure about the new models but there is a reason why CloneCD recommend them. I've found Panasonic and Sony particularly hard to deal with, they're kinda expensive and arent as fast or reliable as the others. Kenwood CD-ROMs simply wont read anything, Samsung CD-ROMs have been considered as crap, but Hitachi is fine though.