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DVD Burner Recommendation - 3 Drive Comparison

M

mphartzheim

Member
I've done some research and found these three drives to be recommended by various people.

BenQ 1655 - This drive seems to be recommended by a lot of people on the forums. Well, the BenQ 1640 is the particular drive that was recommended, but this is it's next model. The lightscribe is a very nice feature, but is completely unimportant to me.

Pioneer DVR-110DBK - This drive was recommended in Anand's last price guide. That doesn't tell me if the drive was recommended because it's a good drive for it's price, or if it's because it's a good drive. And yes, there is a difference. Does anyone have experience with this drive?

Plextor PX740A - Plextor seems to be the best of the bunch no matter where you look, and it's price shows. Current rebates have this drive at $60, which is about $10 more than the other two (and the annoyance of waiting for a rebate). Does this drive justify the added cost?

Thanks for your input.
 
The 740 can be cross-flashed to a Benq DW1640. I have three 1640's (one was a Plextor that I cross-flashed) and love 'em to death. Some say they're a bit noisy, but it hasn't bothered me.

If cross-flashing bothers you, then go with the 1655.
 
I would vote for Plextor. It is nice and reliable; but a bit more expensive than others because you can find oem models of Pioneer at much lower price. I used to get Pioneer ones, but the drive is loud and inconistent at times. But, I bought myself a NEC3550 and have been very happy with it so far.
 
BenQ has been consistently been hailed as one of the best drives out there, in the past 18 months... can't go wrong with it.
 
I was in the same boat. I wanted a 1640. The benq 1655 was too new and the dq60 was getting lousy reviews. Its actually a pioneer if I remember correctly. I was also not interested in litescribe so I was considering a nec 3550 or the LG that got a good review. The 1655 was $53 and about 10-12$ more than the others. I did find one early review of the 1655 and it looked good so I bit.
So far the 1655 is outstanding on the many single layer + and - dvd media. The verbatin mcc +r 16x are perfect in it. I am very impressed with the unit for $53 shipped at newegg. I also bought a nec 3550 for work for $40. So far it looks very good as well but I've only burned a few disks. Also the nec may be upgradable to the the 4551 dvd-ram/ diskt@too model.
At this point I give the benq 1655 an A++ and the nec and A-. My opinion is why pay the plex price when you get the same quality in a benq. (sometimes it is a benq) I wasn't as impressed with some reviews on the pioneer. I don't remember why it wasn't in my top list but it also has a very good rating. The sony 810 is a benq 1640 but was the same price as the benq 1655 so I trusted benq on the new model. It worked out well Keep an eye on newegg and jump when it goes on special.
Good luck
 
BenQ DW1650 - $45.06 USD

The DW1650 is the same drive as the 1655, but w/o Lightscribe.
It quite easily gets my recommendation.

I currently have two DVD burners, as you can see in my sig, & the BenQ is easily the better of the two.
Even with modified firmware, the NEC 3550 seems to be a lot slower at ripping than my BenQ DW1640 & previous 1620 were, & slightly slower for burning too.
 
I have the same (1650). I liked it so much, I ended up getting another one for my wife's PC (replaced an old LG).
Before the purchase, my 3 choices were Benq 1650, Pioneer 110, and LG GSA-H10A (is it available in the U.S. yet?). I got the Benq because they had a promo bundle w/ 10 DVD-Rs.

Edit: Benq has DQ60 out. It's similar to 1650 but w/ DVD-RAM support.
 
I've purchased the BenQ 1655. Seems like there was no clear choice from everyone here, everyone has their favorite based on their own experience... so I went with the cheapest one in the group of 3. No point spending more money for something that's just as recommended as the next thing.

Thanks for the responses.
 
The Benq DQ60 series reviews are much worse than the 1600 series. The Plextor 740 comes with a better retail bundle than the other Benq1640-alikes. I go with Plextor as there is a higher likelihood of continuing support than any of the others except perhaps Sony.

.bh.
 
mark me down as another less-than-thrilled benq owner ... i have a 1625 and like many others have reported it didn't last six months. never had an optical drive go bad before ... wtf?! also seems to have burn issues - some disks it writes can't be read by other devices, and only intermitently by itself. i'd say stay away ...
 
Looks as if the Plextor is bundled with Nero6, whereas the Benq doesn't have any software included...my choice would be the Plextor, a much better deal, than the Benq, unless you have Nero6 or better than Benq would be on par.
 
I just purchased the Benq DW1655 (OEM, from Newegg) and so far I like it a lot. Great speed and I don't really notice much noise like other people have reported. Also, it came with Nero Express 6.6.0.14.
 
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