Building New system, Can you Recommend a Good DVD-Rom Drive

[thatsright]

I'll be buying a New Rig soon with a ABIT IC7 (most likely) a P4c 2.4Ghz and either 512Mb or 1Gb of DDR ram; whatever the budget will allow in the end.

Anyway, Question:

I'll also be getting a ATI Radeon 9500 Pro Retail card, and I would like to get a great DVD-ROM drive. The two most important criteria are, Great DAE extraction speeds, as I have a TDK 52X CD/Rw drive and I will now use the DVD drive when making Copy-Copy discs,

And I'm not sure if any DVD movie playback software would come with the Radeon 9500 Pro Retail Package? Anyone have any ideas here, or should I look for a DVD-ROM drive that comes with software, or do any on the market nowadays usually include this or not?

Basically what I'd like to spend is around $35-$50 for a high quality Internal, Black DVD-ROM drive, Suggestions please. Thanks a lot

 

[BoomAM]

Lite-Ons are good. I have the White 16x DVD drive from them, you can buy them in black as well.

 

[thatsright]

I heard the Sony's are pretty top notch as well.

But can anyone comment on where I'd get the DVD playback software for my PC. Would it come with the DVD drive or the Video card?

Thanks again.

 

[BoomAM]

It tends to come with both.
Ive had two DVD-ROM drives upto now and both came with PowerDVD, and the last 3 video cards i got, also had PowerDVD with them.
I have a lot of copies of PowerDVD. lol.

 

[GRIFFIN1]

Another vote for Lite-on.

I've been abusing mine for a year now, and it's still working fine. I've seen it rip a DVD at 11x, but it normally does it at around 8x. I have an older toshiba that is stuck at a 2x rip speed.

 

[filmmaker]

Lite-On or Toshiba

 

[Mavrick007]

Another vote for the Liteon. It is fast, cheap, and it comes with powerDVD.. nuff said.

 

[thatsright]

Are you sure it comes with Power DVD? If I get a Lite-On DVD drive, I'd get the one from NewEgg. Its Black and a OEM ver.; but I always thought that OEM meand you get the Drive, screws and maybe a cable if your lucky.

 

[filmmaker]

When I bought mine from newegg, it came with a lot of stuff including powerDVD

 

[thatsright]

Originally posted by: filmmaker
When I bought mine from newegg, it came with a lot of stuff including powerDVD

Filmaker, BTW; I live in MA, do they charge sales tax on any orders? Not sure as most Net Retailers don't so Far.

I think its a Safe Bet I'll go with the LITE-ON XJ-HD166/XJ-HD 165H for just $33. Pretty sweet price.

And thanks everyone for the Input.

 

[filmmaker]

I don't think they do if it's an online sale. But check your final order confirmation just to make sure.

 

[thatsright]

Okay I know I'm diverging of topic here but....

I'd also like to get the Lite-On 52X CD-R/W drive Black OEM drive for burning Cd's What would I get with the Retail version of this drive compared to just the OEM version?

Anyone?

 

[teckmaster]

go with the MSI 16X DVD-ROM drive. It along with the Plextor 16X are the only two that now support ATA66 data transfers

 

[GetInMyFatBelly]

Lite-On LTD-166S is your best bet.

For Burners, take a look at the Asus. I suggest waiting for the 5232 that should be out soon.

techmaster, can't find any info on the Plextor DVD-ROM drive, do you have any links? No info at the Plextor America site.

 

[thatsright]

Well for Burners, I already have a TDK Velo CD 52X which I'm pretty happy with so far.

But another question: I just read a few reviews online of the Lite-On 16X DVD drive, and the reviewers had a few not good things to say about it. Reporting that the drive is loud, takes up alot of CPU time when watching DVD movies, and performs poorly when trying to read damaged CD or DVD discs. Well now I'm back to thinking about getting the Sony 16X DVD drive now.

Can anyone tell me something I don't already know about the Sony 16X drive, or maybe the reviewers just dont know what there talking about.

And one last thing, would getting a DVD drive that can do Ultra DMA Mode 5, with a theroetical rate of 100Mbs/sec be any better than the Sony or Lite-On?

Thanks again.

 

[hjo3]

Who worries about DVD-ROM brands? I've built 6 systems so far with the absolute cheapest drives I could find (usually just, like, $22 DVD-ROMs) and never had one fail or acquire any unusual quirks. All the drives work fine. This is the kinda stuff where brand doesn't matter, IMHO. They're all pretty much the same.

 

[thatsright]

Originally posted by: hjo3
Who worries about DVD-ROM brands? I've built 6 systems so far with the absolute cheapest drives I could find (usually just, like, $22 DVD-ROMs) and never had one fail or acquire any unusual quirks. All the drives work fine. This is the kinda stuff where brand doesn't matter, IMHO. They're all pretty much the same.

Well I want my DVD-Rom drive to last a while. So I'm willing to spend the research time and extra $$ to get a good, quite drive that will last.

And thats my $0.02 cents

 

[Chaotic42]

I have a 16x Pioneer slot-loader. Really nice, and it's like $44 at newegg.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: filmmaker
I don't think they do if it's an online sale. But check your final order confirmation just to make sure.

Also, some states like Indiana require you to pay sales tax on items bought over the internet or through mail order.

 

[thatsright]

But now can anyone really tell me if getting a DVD-ROM drive with ATA100 capability I would see any performance gains over one that just does ATA33? Or is that ATA100 your paying for just its peak burst, transfer rate?

On Newegg, a Mitsumi 16X drive has Ultra DMA Mode 5, 100 MB/sec transfer. Would I get better DAE rip speeds or Copy to Copy to the CD-Rw drive by having the DVD-ROM drive with Ultra DMA Mode 5?

The thread that won't die, but good for me. I know I'll make up my mind soon.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: thatsright
But now can anyone really tell me if getting a DVD-ROM drive with ATA100 capability I would see any performance gains over one that just does ATA33? Or is that ATA100 your paying for just its peak burst, transfer rate?

On Newegg, a Mitsumi 16X drive has Ultra DMA Mode 5, 100 MB/sec transfer. Would I get better DAE rip speeds or Copy to Copy to the CD-Rw drive by having the DVD-ROM drive with Ultra DMA Mode 5?

The thread that won't die, but good for me. I know I'll make up my mind soon.

You aren't going to get more than 21600KB/s from a 16x DVD drive, and that's at peak DVD reading speeds. The whole "ATA133" thing is just marketing. Yeah, it can support 133MB/s. Outside of a solid state drive, no single drive will touch that. Since IDE can only handle one device talking per channel, it doesn't really matter.

I think that ATA133 might have some BIOS support benefits, but you won't see 133MB/s from anything that's not in RAID. As long as it's DMA (and not PIO), then you're ok.

When you get into SCSI or RAID, *then* you'll fill up 133MB/s really quickly.

 

[thatsright]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: thatsright But now can anyone really tell me if getting a DVD-ROM drive with ATA100 capability I would see any performance gains over one that just does ATA33? Or is that ATA100 your paying for just its peak burst, transfer rate? On Newegg, a Mitsumi 16X drive has Ultra DMA Mode 5, 100 MB/sec transfer. Would I get better DAE rip speeds or Copy to Copy to the CD-Rw drive by having the DVD-ROM drive with Ultra DMA Mode 5? The thread that won't die, but good for me. I know I'll make up my mind soon.

You aren't going to get more than 21600KB/s from a 16x DVD drive, and that's at peak DVD reading speeds. The whole "ATA133" thing is just marketing. Yeah, it can support 133MB/s. Outside of a solid state drive, no single drive will touch that. Since IDE can only handle one device talking per channel, it doesn't really matter. I think that ATA133 might have some BIOS support benefits, but you won't see 133MB/s from anything that's not in RAID. As long as it's DMA (and not PIO), then you're ok. When you get into SCSI or RAID, *then* you'll fill up 133MB/s really quickly.

<DIV>Well sorry to get really anal here, but when I was talking about the drive speeds, I was only talking about ATA33 and Ultra DMA Mode 5. Maybe you were confused and thought I meant ATA-133 DVD-ROM drives. No such drives exist to my knowledge. I'm not interested in any SCSI or Raid type setup; for now</DIV>

 

[andyfasthands]

Originally posted by: hjo3
Who worries about DVD-ROM brands? I've built 6 systems so far with the absolute cheapest drives I could find (usually just, like, $22 DVD-ROMs) and never had one fail or acquire any unusual quirks. All the drives work fine. This is the kinda stuff where brand doesn't matter, IMHO. They're all pretty much the same.

Agree

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: thatsright



<DIV>Well sorry to get really anal here, but when I was talking about the drive speeds, I was only talking about ATA33 and Ultra DMA Mode 5. Maybe you were confused and thought I meant ATA-133 DVD-ROM drives. No such drives exist to my knowledge. I'm not interested in any SCSI or Raid type setup; for now</DIV>

Yeah, sorry, I saw 133 instead of 33.

 

[Zepper]

. I know the latest Sony CD-RWs are rebadged LiteOns so it is possible that their DVD- ROM drive is L-O also (I just took a close look at the two and, yup, they look to be L-O OEM).
. I like the Artec/Artronix 16X. Relatively quiet, cheap ($32. shipped from newegg). Easy to paint face plate black with model paint.
. Also the Pioneer slot-load. It's not as quiet but nicer looking and 'cooler' than any other, plus it supports ATA66. I have seen the Pioneer slot-load in black somewhere, but not too hard to paint either. You just need to keep the paint from getting on the little hairs around the slot (sorry for the imagery ) And the Samsung, which is readily available in black.
. Most come with either Power DVD or Win DVD and both are very good. The Pioneer slot-load is usually sold OEM, but those places that sell OEM usually offer the software at a low additional cost with a drive (e.g. MultiWave Direct sells Power DVD 4.0 for $3. with a drive).
. The only reason to worry about whether the drive supports ATA/UDMA is when you want to hook the drive to the same IDE channel/cable as another ATA/UDMA drive. Contrary to what tekmaster wrote, all of the current Pioneer and AOpen 16x DVD-ROM drives are ATA/UDMA capable. Some come set to PIO as default and you have to change a jumper for UDMA. Check the reviews on www.cdrinfo.com and www.cdrlabs.com - they will report the lack of UDMA support in their reviews. Check mfr. spec sheets too. Lots of times the descriptions on the sites like Newegg fail to give full specs.
For CD-RW, I like: Plextor, Asus, Teac, Samsung, Ricoh (no longer imported into the US by Ricoh, but are being imported directly by some dealers), TDK (their new ones are also LiteOn), Artec and AOpen. Retail packs usually come with burning software, blank disk(s), screws, audio cable, and sometimes a drive cable. OEM drives usually come bare, but the Samsungs often come with fairly complete kit of accessories and burning SW. You want to get either Nero Burning ROM (not Express) or Roxio in the retail pack. Most of the ubergeeks here prefer Nero.
The newest Samsung retail drives come with 8MB buffers while the OEM are only 2MB - reviews note a slight decrease in perf from the OEM, but probably not noticeable to most users.
. re. Sales Taxes. Most states that have a sales tax call it 'sales and use' tax. This means that if you buy something taxable via mail order/off the web, the buyer is supposed to pay the 'use' tax to the state voluntarily... Ha hahahahahahahahahaha. The number who ever pay the 'use' tax is vanishingly small.
. re. ATI video card. On most of their cards that support DVD accel and decode, ATI includes proprietary DVD playing sw (in the MultiMedia Center part of the Catalyst sw) in the retail kit. You should be able to find a list of included sw on the ATI site.
.bh.
:sun: