Choosing between DVD burners

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Tostada

Originally posted by: wchou
Since money is an issue for most, we'll never know which is best or maybe their is no best?

That makes no sense, unless you're saying the new Pioneer isn't worth paying $3 more than the NEC for the extra features and better ripping speed.

What are the extra features?

 

[jae]

im recommending the 3520a because its a great drive and its cheap. can u please tell me why pioneer dvr109 is better than 3520a? when 109 first came out it was so many problems with it, i just stopped following it. cdrlabs review is the a09xl which is the retail version of the 109 and theres a difference between the two burners. if wants to go with a pioneer drive ill tell him to get a 108, only if he can find it for cheap.

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: Budman

Originally posted by: jae
man just get a NEC 3520a,dont buy an overpriced plextor. plextor arent what they use to be :-\

:thumbsup:

agree.

 

[smithdj]

All these guys are only recommending the NEC 3520A because it used to be the best drive for the money. Go to CDRLabs.com and look at the performance of the NEC, the Pioneer 109 and the Plextor 716. They're the best drives out there right now (unless you want LightScribe, then you want the BenQ -- but current LightScribe media cost more than twice what regular media does, and it takes 30 min to burn the label in best quality). If you look at the numbers, it's hard to dispute that the Pioneer is the best drive for the money and the Plextor is the best drive overall. They all get very good burn quality, but the NEC is slower in most things.

It's still a little early to be getting optical SATA drives. Make sure your motherboard can handle one.
[/quote]

When you say "make sure your motherboard can handle it" do the optical drives just plug into the SATA port like a hard drive? Or am I completely wrong?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

The latest nvidia, via and intel chipsets have sata native.

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: jae
im recommending the 3520a because its a great drive and its cheap. can u please tell me why pioneer dvr109 is better than 3520a? when 109 first came out it was so many problems with it, i just stopped following it. cdrlabs review is the a09xl which is the retail version of the 109 and theres a difference between the two burners. if wants to go with a pioneer drive ill tell him to get a 108, only if he can find it for cheap.

I don't know what you mean by "it was so many problems." There aren't any problems with the 109. I don't see why I should need to restate the same thing over and over again. Just read the CDRLabs reviews if you don't see why the 109 is better.

Pioneer 109:
http://cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=260

NEC 3520A:
http://cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=255

The Pioneer
1) Writes 6X DVD-R DL, NEC doesn't support the format
2) Writes 6X DVD+R DL, NEC writes at 4X
3) rips single-layer movies at 16X, NEC rips at 5X
4) rips dual-layer movies at 12X, NEC rips at below 5X
5) rips audio at 30.11X avg, NEC rips at 25.75X

The only advantage of the NEC is that it is a 48X CD-R and the Pioneer is a 40X. The NEC writes an 80min CD in 3:04, while the Pioneer takes 3:30.

The Pioneer also reads DVD-RAM, but nobody really cares about that. Both drives have firmwares that allow bitsetting. Both drives have very good quality. The Pioneer burns +R faster but has higher quality with -R. The NEC burns -R faster and has higher quality with +R.

That would be ridiculous to get the 108 as though there's something wrong with the 109.

There is no real difference between the 109 and the A09XL. The 109 can be flashed to have the A09XL's firmware, which makes it quieter and gives it better ripping speed.

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
The latest nvidia, via and intel chipsets have sata native.

Do they all let you boot from a SATA optical drive? That'd be annoying to have to get a floppy drive to install Windows.