DVD Burner Recommendation - 3 Drive Comparison

[mphartzheim]

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.

 

[Hurricane Andrew]

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.

 

[firerock]

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.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

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.

 

[nomadh]

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

 

[WobbleWobble]

You can flash the DVR-110D with DVR-110 firmware to enable DVD-RAM and QuietMode support.

 

[n7]

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.

 

[Doh!]

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.

 

[mphartzheim]

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.

 

[Hurricane Andrew]

Good luck, I'm sure you'll be pleased!

 

[Zepper]

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.

 

[joecool]

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 ...

 

[jlbenedict]

Plextor PX-740A

 

[Yoshi911]

Thinkin about getting the BenQ, also because of the lightscribe. Let me know how it goes will ya?

 

[Trashman]

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.

 

[redbone75]

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.