CD Rom Drives...are brand names better than generic?

[pdragn78]

I recently purchased a Plextor CDRW 12/10/32 (IDE) and am now looking for a regular CD Rom drive for making back-up copies of my CDs and playstation games. Can anyone recommend me a good CD Rom drive? Is there a difference between name brand and generic? thanks for the info

 

[madthumbs]

Some brand names suck, and some generics are rebadged brand names. The best thing you can do is check out the drives ratingsor sites like the one below.

This is all I currently have for resources on this topic;

CDR Info

 

[TheNemesis]

Usually brand names are about twice the price then the lowest price generic. I use to go with generic, but after replacing a few of them I thought that it wasn't worth it. Right now I have a Sony 48x and it's running strong. It was about $40 including shipping, and I don't regret the purchase one bit. If your on an EXTREME budget go generic, otherwise get a good brand name (Acer, Toshiba, Sony, etc...)

 

[chriscraft]

Seeing as you have a high quality CDRW, get a good Plextor CD-ROM to go with it.. you won't be unhappy...

Asus, Shuttle also among the best...

 

[billandopus]

I would stick with the top names. IMO, it's not worth it to save relatively few dollars for something that can cause you much aggravation it the future. If you already have a top notch burner then you need to treat yourself right to a decent cdrom drive that had good digital audio extraction (DAE) with accuracy and speed. Paying a bit more for a Toshiba, Plextor, Sony, whatever ... is worth it.

 

[jaeger66]

I have a Sony 48x and it's made by some company called "Top Glory"(a red flag if I ever saw one). After 3 months of light use it developed a series of irritating problems(skipping audio, spontaneously ejecting discs, and a refusal to read CDRWs) so I replaced it with a Teac 540. A little more expensive, but well worth it.

 

[LittleNicky]

I'd say just go with reviews and the specs on the cd drive. Names shouldnt matter, just performance.

 

[BuckNaked]

I have had such good luck with both Toshiba's (IDE) and Plextor's (SCSI), I don't even really consider any other brand when buying a new one. I might consider a Pioneer, but thats about it. For me its not worth the few extra dollars a Toshiba costs over a no name brand, to worry about how well its going to perform, or how long it will last.

Buck

 

[pdragn78]

Thank you for all your help. I will keep my eyes open for a hot deal on a cd rom drive. I'll take a look at the hot deals forum or check out some places online for the most inexpensive "quality" cd rom drive. Thanks again.

 

[HeinekinMan2]

Here is a good site to check: http://come.to/cdspeed

Like the previous posts have mentioned, brand name does make a difference. I've tried quite a few (Asus, Acer, Afreey, Kenwood, Toshiba, Sony, and Teac). And the BTC's, the Smart & Friendly's, the HighVal's, etc.

You have a very good quality CDRW drive; not sure if you plan to burn audio CD's or on-the-fly burns but...if you do then it's important that you select a CDROM drive that supports DAE (digital audio extraction) at a high enough to allow on-the-fly or CDROM reader to CDRW drive burns for audio. You'll find that if you download the CDSpeed.exe utility, a LOT of drives that advertise 50x, 56x, etc. do NOT perform as advertised for either audio or data.

I have two systems and in each system I have a Kenwood UCR-421 72x CDROM reader. I read and researched practically every CDROM make, model, and manufacturer out there before I decided to try Kenwood. Kenwood's have gotten a very bad rap about pour quality drives in the past. But I believe that they have rectified these problems due to public pressure in the form of CLASSACTION LAWSUITs.

Both of my Kenwoods are fast, quiet, and extremely reliable. They both perform as advertised giving me DAE rates of 46x and max data throughput rates of 68x (according to CDSpeed and Adapcrap's test utility via ECDC 4.02 Deluxe). I have no problems with getting them to read burned CD-R disks (I can't vouch for CDRW disks since I rarely use them), audio CD's, and data CDROM's. I've even been able to copy scratched audio CD's and data CDROM's on-the-fly always at 8x.

For you, it's really important to have a CDROM reader that can keep up with your 12x burner. The Kenwood's use a different technology to achieve high throughput; they don't have to spin to high RPM 's to achieve high data rates. That's the beauty of them (nice and QUIET); I ran into problems with my Afreey 50x ($35.00, good price but NOISY and unreliable) unit spinning down at the tail end of a burn for some reason (couldn't adjust this like the Teac's; Teac's can be adjusted using a s/w utility; Teac makes a good IDE CDROM drive) causing buffer underruns resulting in coasters after burning 95% of the data, a real pisser!!!

I paid $90.00 for each of my Kenwood's but I've noticed that the prices are starting to creep downward, $80-85 a piece. Yeah that's double what you can get an Asus 50x unit or Afreey 56x unit for but there is no comparison; the Kenwoods ROCK! But if you're willing to shell out for SCSI then yeah Plextor makes the best SCSI reader out there and that would be the ultimate mate for your PlexWriter...

You can always do like I do if you're unsure of a computer product's compatibility; find a local retailer with a liberal return policy, buy the product, test it out on your system, then if it doesn't work as advertised, return the mutha!


Heiny

 

[Moving Target]

Teac, Asus and Toshiba are great drives. I would get a Plextor to go with my Plextor CDR, but I want to stay with IDE.