CD Writer recommendations....

[Mitzi]

It's a sad day..my trusty 8x Phillips CD Writer has finally given up the ghost after over 2 years of faithful service.

Recommendations for a decent new drive? Back in the day anything by LiteOn was best..is that still the case?

Cheers!

 

[Budman]

Back in the day anything by LiteOn was best..is that still the case?

Yes it is,go buy a new Lite-On.

 

[Mitzi]

Originally posted by: Budman

Back in the day anything by LiteOn was best..is that still the case?

Yes it is,go buy a new Lite-On.

Nothing differs between models except writing speed am I right?

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Mitzi

Originally posted by: Budman

Back in the day anything by LiteOn was best..is that still the case?

Yes it is,go buy a new Lite-On.

Nothing differs between models except writing speed am I right?

52X is so cheap why bother getting anything slower?

 

[Mitzi]

Liteon 52x32x52x Internal IDE Drive Retail Box - £30.50 (~$40.00)...whoo, its been a while, this 8x left very little change out of £100 ($140)!!! 52x it is then.

Cheers.

 

[wfbberzerker]

another vote for the lite-on

 

[saltedeggman]

yup...lite-on (or any rebadged liteon) are good choice

 

[mechBgon]

I also had some good experiences with the Mitsumi 52x ones. If you might want DVD-ROM capabilities in the same drive, Newegg also has a Sony combo 48.24.48.16 drive that I think is a rebadged Lite-On.

Cosmetically, I don't really like Lite-On's bezels very much, with their strange "taper-bulge" design.

 

[Ionizer86]

Tomorrow, BestBuy will have 50CD-R disks and the Liteon 52x for $20 AR.

 

[Bonesdad]

Have a caution...Lite-on is good, but they are one of the noisier drives. LG, Samsung and others make really good drives, but with a much lower noise factor...if noisyness (noisiness?) is a factor to you.

 

[Corporate Thug]

if you have the money, i nominate plextor

 

[Sid59]

plextors are cheap these days too.

i was gonna replace my Plextor with a Liteon DVD/ CDRW combo but couldn't do it. the combo drive and many other liteon drives ive heard are "jet taking off" when reading, writing and ripping cds. Plextors are awesome and are quiet.

When i built this rig, i wanted to keep noise to a minimum.

 

[Paulson]

Lite-on is a very good brand in my eyes...

for those of you who have to have everything completely quiet (I don't get why either, listen to some music or something for crying out loud) the drive probably isn't the best... but what the hell... it's nice, quality built, cheap, and you know you saved a crapload of money by not buying a plextor (damn fanboys)

 

[ronnn]

Originally posted by: Paulson
Lite-on is a very good brand in my eyes...

for those of you who have to have everything completely quiet (I don't get why either, listen to some music or something for crying out loud) the drive probably isn't the best... but what the hell... it's nice, quality built, cheap, and you know you saved a crapload of money by not buying a plextor (damn fanboys)

Lite-on has fanboys? Besides be easy on us who have spent good money trying to have a quiet environment.

 

[Mitzi]

I live in the UK so no special Newegg or Bestbuy deals for me I'm going to order the 52x LiteOn later today. I don't really want a DVD drive, tbh never really seen the point in them!

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Mitzi
I live in the UK so no special Newegg or Bestbuy deals for me I'm going to order the 52x LiteOn later today. I don't really want a DVD drive, tbh never really seen the point in them!

You can watch DVD movies on them (duh! ). I just finally bought one for my home system, since I have no television. Now I can go buy LOTR and watch it!






Hey, what's everyone laughin' at?

 

[Mitzi]

I already have a nice standalone DVD drive, 32" flatscreen and 5.1 speaker system...I don't want to watch DVD films on my poxy 19" screen with stereo speakers and onboard AC97 sound

Another question: I just thought it may be a good time to ditch the CDRW all together and go for a DVD writer....just something to burn archives to and also burn the odd film every now and then... I seen
this drive (Panasonic 2x DVD-R/-RW/DVD-RAM & CD/RW IDE Burner - OEM) for a bargain price £82.00. It's only 2x and it can't write DVD+R - does that matter??? Whats the main difference between +R and -R???

<-- Is a n00b when it comes to modern optical drives (give me floppies and a good 2x cdrw anyday!)

Edit: The LiteOn 4x DVD+RW Burner LDW-401S is ATAPI/E-IDE half-height internal DVD+R/DVD+RW/DVD-ROM/CD-R/CD-RW/CD-ROM - that may be a better option 4x writing for not much more!

As you can see I'm on a budget here!

 

[AndyK]

There's not a lot of difference between + and - in reality, the major factors (for me) are that - discs are cheaper and also more compatable with set-top dvd players, something like 96% compatability for - and 86% for +

Andy

P.S. As has been said before LiteOn are every bit as good as plextor for CDRW, I actually think the noise issue is overstated, my 48x is no louder than the 2 80mm fans I have in my case side, and of course they are dirt cheap.

 

[Mitzi]

Cheers for the info. I'll have a think about today what I want to do and order something later...damn I hate choice!!

 

[MDE]

I have had three Lite-On optical drives, and they aren't that loud. They only make noise when you're using them, so noise isn't really much of an issue, unless they sound like tornadoes...

 

[Kylixen]

Dude my plextor is insanely crappy. It bogs and it sounds like a diesel motor.

 

[Harvey]

One more vote for Lite-On 52x burners. Very reliable burns, and they're often available around $20 after rebate. In fact, this week, Best Buy has the Lite-On 52x32x52 for $19.99 after rebates.

Many brands are actually rebadge Lite-On's, including Memorex, Sony, some Verbatim's. You can tell by the distinctive look of the front panel. It has a single Eject button on the right, about the size and shape of a cold capsule (long, straight top and bottom. If it has two push buttons, or the button is another shape, it probably is not a Lite-On. Verbatim's with serial numbers having only digits are Lite-On's, and not even rebadged. The others are probably AOpen.

If you get a Memorex, or Sony, most people like the performance better if you replace the original firmware with the original Lite-On firmware. For more info on how to do this, read the forums on CDFreaks.com. Replacing the firmware is a bit tricky, so pay close attention to the instructions. Once you do it, you can update it with the Windows based firmware replacement progs from Lite-On's update site.

 

[Mitzi]

Just to let you know in the end I ordered a for a Liteon 52x burner and I'll look at getting a decent DVD writer in the near future funds permitting. Cheers for all the advice. The Liteon was £30 which is a good price, I wish you could get them for $20 over here too but the idea of rebates hasn't caught on over here which I guess is a good thing.

 

[OverVolt]

Originally posted by: Kylixen
Dude my plextor is insanely crappy. It bogs and it sounds like a diesel motor.

That was quite an intellegent post I use a Lite-On 52x32x52 on all of my rigs, and there great, they get the job done, a little noisy but thats ok. The only thing that bothers me is the motors for the CD-Tray are kinda crappy/slow when you open em, not to mention noisy too, they sound as if there gunna give way at any monent, however all of mine are going on like 6months strong, and almost a year strong for my Lite-On 48x12x48

 

[jim1976]

Plz i don't want to hear nonsense.
An exception isn't the rule for plextor.It was the best company and still is.
I still have my 12x10x32 and IT HASN'T GIVEN ME A BAD DISK SO FAR, believe it or not!!!
I have checked out many new ones from friends but i wouldn't change it for anything.
PLEXTOR RULES

As far as concerns dvd-rw, i would recommend just to wait.Too slow and expensive for the time.