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I need a good DVD-RW drive

After a couple days of research, I ordered one yesterday. Initially, I was trying to decide between the NEC ND-3500A, Pioneer DVR-108, Lite-on SOHW-1622S, Sony DW-D22A, Samsung TS-H22B, and LG GSA-4160B. However, after my research I ended up going with the BenQ DW1620 because it has bit-type setting to ensure maximum compatibility with standalone DVD players, unlike many of the other drives, and it seems to have the best overall performance. It's dual layer write speed is 2.4x whereas some of the others have 4x, but at about $8-$10/disc I'm not even going near dual layer... by the time it becomes affordable you'll need a faster burner anyway. Here are some reviews that helped me come to this conclusion

Hardware Zone - 5 stars

Anandtech - "Generally, at this point of the analysis, we would claim the BenQ as our drive to beat in the next several reviews..."

Club CD Freaks Thread - DVD+/-RW user comparos

It's also the cheapest of the bunch =). I hope this drive is all it's cracked up to be...
 
Im in the same position as the OP, im choosing between the nec, liteon, and pioneer 108. Im gonna use it more as a dvd-rom than as a dvd burner, so apparently that removes the nec from contention as it supposedly has some reading issues. acc to a review i read at cdrinfo or cdfreaks or somewhere.
Though the benq is getting a lot of praise, i am very suspicious of long term reliability, since the benq 32/10/40 cdrw drive i owned died on me in 7 months, of light usage. so im kinda wary of going the benq way, and am so far leaning toward the oem version of the pioneer 108d. [btw, doesnt the retail version 150$ look *HOT* ?!?!]
Any other opinions?
 
Originally posted by: memories2002
Im in the same position as the OP, im choosing between the nec, liteon, and pioneer 108. Im gonna use it more as a dvd-rom than as a dvd burner, so apparently that removes the nec from contention as it supposedly has some reading issues. acc to a review i read at cdrinfo or cdfreaks or somewhere.
Though the benq is getting a lot of praise, i am very suspicious of long term reliability, since the benq 32/10/40 cdrw drive i owned died on me in 7 months, of light usage. so im kinda wary of going the benq way, and am so far leaning toward the oem version of the pioneer 108d. [btw, doesnt the retail version 150$ look *HOT* ?!?!]
Any other opinions?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was kind of thrown off at the problems the Anandtech reviewer was having w/the older firmware (to be fair, this was pre-release I believe), but they seem so to have gotten it down with the recent revision(s). I never expect optical drives to last a terribly long time anyway (my last system has 3 - 2 are completely dead and 1 is on life-support), and since DVD+/-R technology is still growing rapidly with declining prices, I know I'll be upgrading within a year, 2 max, anyhow.

Why is the retail 108D hot at $150 when the OEM is like $75? Are you talking about the external?
 
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