CD-RW and DVD-ROM brands...

[KnowsNothing]

What are the better brands for CD-RWs and DVD-Roms Drives in terms of performance/price/reliability?

Also, I'm thinking about maybe trying to buy and older CD-RW since I don't burn CDs very often and I don't need 32x or 40x write speed. Would anyone advise against this?

 

[WHSLacrossekid]

Kenwood 72X best CD-Rom

 

[Vinny N]

Toshiba, Pioneer, Liteon, are the big names in DVD drives. Apart from those, Asus and Aopen make some nice DVD drives too.

Almost all the DVD drives are priced competitively. The Toshiba can be found at newegg for $39 I think. They're fairly fast and not too loud. The others tend to be in that price range. Pioneer has slot and tray load models. They're not too noisy either. the Liteon is probably the fastest DVD drive out there I think, but it's one of the louder ones in my opnion.

Liteon, Plextor, Teac, and Yamaha are probably the most popular brands out there for CD-R/RW drives.

I think you'd be fine going with an older CD-R/RW drive, but the price different can be minimal for some brands, so look closely, the difference between an older burner and the newest burner might only be $10-15 in some cases.

So while I'm not advising against it, I'd say that you should keep a close watch on the price differences, you can always burn at a slower speed with a faster drive. It'd probably be convenient too since you wouldn't have to think twice about whether your media is holding up at those higher burn speeds and when the time comes that the media is readily available and you want faster speeds, it'll be there for you.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Lite-on cd-rw + Lite-on dvd-rom.

 

[Mavrick007]

Originally posted by: KnowsNothing
What are the better brands for CD-RWs and DVD-Roms Drives in terms of performance/price/reliability?

Also, I'm thinking about maybe trying to buy and older CD-RW since I don't burn CDs very often and I don't need 32x or 40x write speed. Would anyone advise against this?

Liteon, Toshiba, and Pioneer for DVD-roms. Pioneer makes a slot load drive but all are good choices for DVD and pretty much around the same prices.

Liteon, Teac, Plextor, and Yamaha are some of the best cdrw drives. I would check for prices on each but the Liteon is probably one of the better performers for the best price. If you don't need the fastest drive out, then buy a 16x or 24x Liteon new and you will save money and get a decent drive "with a warranty". Don't buy a used cdrw when they are so cheap to buy a new one. Cdrw drives are among the few components that have a chance of dying quickly (including hard drives too).

 

[Whitney]

There are so many good drives out there, that one of the big considerations is what software they come with.

The Liteons come with Nero, which is one of the best packages around and works with XP.

Look out for Roxio, they've had big compatability problems.