CD Combo Drives

[apaxfrenzy]

Greetings!

It seems my DVD drive is shot so, I'm needing something new. I also have a burner that's about 2 years old. So, I'm wondering about a DVD/CD-RW combo drive (and yes, a dvd-rom/cd-rw drive, not a dvd burner). I know combo drives are popular in laptops and crummy retail desktops but, I'm wondering what the more advanced tech community thinks of them. Are they good? The only pros I can think of are more space and less power consumption. Thank you in advance for your feedback!

Blessings,
Dave

 

[bex0rs]

I use Samsung DVD-ROM/CDRW combo drives in all of my custom client builds. Never had a problem with them and they run very quiet. The models starting with SM work fine in Nero 5, but the ones starting with TS require Nero 6 (fyi, just in case).

 

[Matthias99]

I had a first-generation Memorex one for a while. It worked fine, but suddenly stopped functioning after I'd had it for a couple years. I've never heard many complaints about them, and their prevalence in laptops means they must be working at least decently.

 

[Hikari]

I've bought Samsung combo drives for 2 separate computers in the last 18 months and have not had any problems with them. They've been out long enough (by any manufacturer), that I doubt you'll have any problems. 🙂

 

[Crucial]

They work fine. I use them in my customer builds with no problems. Why no DVD burner though? They are about $20 more than the combo drives.

 

[Brian48]

I have two Lite-On LTC-4816 combo drives. I hate both of them.

Get a DVD burner as Crucial as suggested. They come down alot in price.

 

[Steve]

I have the Samsung SM-352B combo and I love it. You need to buy retail to get the 8MB cache, however at this point a DVD burner will have you covered for everything.

 

[LordPhoenix]

Get a Lite-ON CD-RW/DVD-ROM. 😀

 

[CraigRT]

I also suggest going DVD burner.
they are so low in price, and much more practical.

 

[apaxfrenzy]

Thanks for the info folks. I think I will go with Samsung.