Best (and QUIET!!!) CDROM/DVD

[SteelCityFan]

Currently, I have a 52X CDROM from Creative. I think it is about to die after only about 2 years, and it has other annoyances. First, the door won't stay open. If I want to insert or remove a disk, I either have to be quick, or physically hold the tray open or it wil close about a second after coming to a stop. In addition to that, the thing is very loud even when spinning at it's standby speed or whatever you want to call it.

I like to have both a CDROM and a CD-RW for the times I am doing a direct Copy. and I figure I might get a DVD drive since the price really is not that much more.

A local place here has a Samsung 52X CDROM for $26 and a Samsung DVD 16x/48x Retail for $55.

Which brand should I be looking at? I want something fast and quiet... more importantly quiet.

Thanks

 

[vetteguy]

Aren't the Pioneer slot-load DVD players supposed to be really good? I haven't had one for awhile, as I never watch movies on my PC (have a widescreen tv). My Lite-on CDR is really quiet, don't know about their non-recorders.

 

[AMCRambler]

Well as far as which is the best, I'm not so sure. But I can tell you that those Creative Blaster 52X cdroms are probably one you want to stay away from(as I'm sure you've already found out). Where I work we bought a batch of 4 of them, and right out of the box they all weren't working right. They were all having trouble with the trays opening all the way or staying open. We tried to return them but unfortunately our receipt was lost so we were going to junk them. I took one home with me to take it apart to see if I could fix it and I was able to get it working without too much trouble. They are fairly simply constructed once you have them open and it turns out the plastic gears were not synched properly and with the power off I popped the gear off, slid the tray all the way out and then popped the gear back in. There's a little switch inside that tells it when to open and close the drawer and I have a feeling yours is getting tripped when the tray is all the way out, instead of only when you push the button. Might be worth taking it apart if you're only gonna junk it and get a new one. Good luck.

 

[subhuman]

Pioneer Slot DVDs are good (I have one myself), but due to the slot design, are a little louder than the tray version (you have a direct path for the sound to come out of the slot). I have a locking door on the front of my case, so this isn't a big deal, but without one, it would be loud ....

 

[SteelCityFan]

Originally posted by: vetteguy
Aren't the Pioneer slot-load DVD players supposed to be really good? I haven't had one for awhile, as I never watch movies on my PC (have a widescreen tv). My Lite-on CDR is really quiet, don't know about their non-recorders.

I have a DVD player as well, but another couldn't hurt as long as the price difference is minimal. Either way is fine by me. A quiet and reliable CDROM is more important than it being able to read DVD's... however, I may want to do some divx encoding in the future, so maybe I should get a DVD drive.

 

[djCN]

I've heard that the Toshiba drives are rather good. Newegg.com has reviews for most of its products (by buyers), so those are available to read. I plan on ordering a Toshiba dvd drive within a couple weeks unless I'm convinced to do otherwise.

 

[Banana]

The Asus 52x CD-ROM drives are supposed to be real quiet. Newegg has buyer reviews of it. Anyone else have ideas for QUIET ROM drives?? How about Samsung?

1YP

 

[Banana]

^

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: vetteguy
Aren't the Pioneer slot-load DVD players supposed to be really good? I haven't had one for awhile, as I never watch movies on my PC (have a widescreen tv). My Lite-on CDR is really quiet, don't know about their non-recorders.

I have the 16x. It's great.

 

[lalani2]

So which dvd-roms are quiet?

 

[LordUnum]

I have both the Pioneer DVD slot-loader, and Samsung 52X CD-ROM of mention, and I can sure as heck say the Pioneer is sweet! My only complaint so far is that seeks on my generic CD-RWs can take a little bit. This is only a mild irritation, but an irritation nonetheless as a good bit of my MP3 collection is still on such CD-RWs. That'll be changing soon though...

The Samsung takes whatever media I throw at it--in almost any condition--and deals with it well, but anyone remember that thread about that 10.2 second Firebird a few days back? Well, the car on take off almost sounds as loud as this drive when it gets up to full speed (only a slight bit of sarcasm added here). And the noise is a bit higher-pitched or "whinier" than the relatively low-pitched hum of the Pioneer DVD-ROM. It would be interesting to see a decibel-race between the infamous high-speed Creative drives you speak of, and this Samsung.

 

[kh16]

I have pioneer Slot load 16x DVD. and i dunno, maybe im crazy but it's very quiet.

 

[MWink]

The question is, are you willing to sacrifice speed for silence? If so you can make a lot of drive almost completely silent. Just get a program called DriveSpeed (from Ahead the makers of Nero). It works with about 50% of the CD/DVD drives out there. It allows you to slow them down thus making them quieter.

Pioneer has a similar program for their DVD-ROM's which I think is a LOT better because it makes the change in firmware so you change it once and never have to worry about it again. DriveSpeed you have to run every time windows starts. Here is a list of brands I've found to be compatible with DriveSpeed:

Compatible:
Panasonic
Hitachi
Toshiba
Lite-On

Not Compatible:
Samsung
LG / GoldStar


BTW, I highly recommend the Pioneer Slot Load DVD.

 

[SteelCityFan]

Wow, this thread got some late input. Someone must have been digging deep...


Well, to solve my problem, I just ordered the $42 (shipped) Retail Lite-On 40x12x48 drive from Dell. ($52-$5-5%).

This will replace both my CDROM and my old 4X CDR, and hopefully be much quieter.

 

[TimeKeeper]

The quietest drive I ever use is Optorite 40x12x40 IDE/ATAPI CD-RW Model CW4002

I know it is CDRW, but it is cheap and fast. VERY VERY QUIET!



p.s. I "did" have a Samsung 52X CDROM, but it was NOT as quiet as Optorite CDRW. Because it was only $45 shipped, I got two in my rig! ( If I have to spend $29 for a CDROM shipped, might as well spend extra $15 )

 

[Banana]

The Optorite is an interesting choice. I read the reviews of it at NewEgg, including yours. Odd problem with the drive not burning at 40x. Did you ever get that resolved? Also, is Optorite a relabelled burner? I've not heard of this maker.

1YP

 

[Macro2]

I only use toshiba DVD drives...for good reason.

 

[TimeKeeper]

Originally posted by: 1YellowPeril
The Optorite is an interesting choice. I read the reviews of it at NewEgg, including yours. Odd problem with the drive not burning at 40x. Did you ever get that resolved? Also, is Optorite a relabelled burner? I've not heard of this maker.

1YP

Honestly, I wouldn't know how good or how reliable this drive is. (this company just start up last year)
The 40X burn was NOT solve because NERO was way too picky on the drive. (I got a no-name brand 40X-cert CDR media from Microcenter, and it burn out fine w/ CloneCD)

I bought the second one just because it is really quiet and absolutely no vibration under full speed. I only have been using this drive for couple weeks, everything seems fine. They have this "damping thingy", which does help reduce noise and viberation.