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I thought the days of loud optical drives was over...

Fullmetal Chocobo

Fullmetal Chocobo

Moderator<br>Distributed Computing
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My Lite-On DVD burner died on me (wouldn't burn a CD or DVD without erroring out), so I picked up a LG 20X DVD burner (GSA-H55L) from Best Buy. The damn thing is louder than my entire computer, which is frightening. I'm only burning DVDs at 8X, and I can feel the vibration from the optical drive. :|

Time to order a few more Lite-On drives from newegg.

Are there other optical drives that are loud like this (so that I can stay away from them), or is this LG drive an exception?
 
Hmm, that's odd. I just bought an LG "super multi drive" burner last week; not sure of the model number but it was manufactured in Nov 07, so it's recent. Does DL/DVD-RAM disks. It's pretty quiet.

Last year I bought a Sony/Optiarc drive and it's the loudest damn computer component I've ever heard. Even louder than the "Delta Screamer" fans we used to put on the heatsinks for Athlon TBirds. You literally have to raise your voice to be heard over it. 😕 It works well though...burns, reads, whatever. Heh..it wound up in my HTPC of all places. I don't plan on burning anything anytime soon and it needed a CD Rom drive so....there you have it.

I stopped buying LiteOn drives about 3 years ago b/c the TWO different model DVD burners I bought from them (Newegg, actually) were both DOA. Poor quality control. Shame b/c LiteOn used to be the best IMO; I'd buy nothing but.

In fact, the reader in my main PC is a LiteOn DVD-ROM that's probably pushing 8 years old now. It reads discs that other CD/DVD roms won't.
 
I think noise is a complaint for just about any DVD drive. I think that's why there's no drive on Newegg (at least not to my knowledge) that has 5 stars. They all seem to be loud. At the very least, enough people seem to get loud drives to drive the rating down. I think they're one of the only computer components on Newegg that can't seem to get 5 stars.

(Now, I'm not saying Newegg reviews mean everything, but in this case I think they're an indication of a widespread problem.)

Edit: I think I just said "I think" about 93 times in that post.
 
While I've mostly used LiteOn's due to their shorter length (great in Shuttles), I've always found them louder than other drives. Plextor's are quieter, in my opinion, but not worth the higher premium.
 
I have three DVD burners - all external. 1 HP, 1 Plextor, and 1 Samsung. All are quiet - I don't know they're running unless I see the LED flashing.

I will never install an internal burner. A ROM drive yes - and those are slot feed. Very quiet.

High speed burners have vibration - some from unbalanced media. Externals are better damped, and if you place them on a mouse pad - the vibration is absorbed whereas in the main case, it is amplified by metal to metal contact.
 
its really hard to make a drive quiet when the disc is spinning at up to 11,000 rpm.
Just the air generated from the surface of the disc at that speed is going to be noisy.

I noticed on some of the quieter drives that the area around the disc tray is smaller and some place a barrier above the spinning disc, while others just have the metal top of the drive.
 
I've got two LG 20X drives, also purchased from BestBuy. ($35 ea, incidentally.)

I've never noticed any sort of noise problem. I burn DVDs often, although only at 4X. I've also burned CDs at 16X, and read CDs at max speed, and still not much noise.
 
From what I've read over the years, you were lucky to get one of the quieter Lite-On drives. Every time a friend asks advise on a specific Lite-On drive, I go to the egg and see tons of comments about noise, most negative.

I have an LTD163 ROM in my secondary machine that is by far the loudest optical drive I've ever heard. Makes my 3500A seem almost silent in comparison. I do my best never to be in a position where I need to use it.
 
Originally posted by: Slugbait
From what I've read over the years, you were lucky to get one of the quieter Lite-On drives. Every time a friend asks advise on a specific Lite-On drive, I go to the egg and see tons of comments about noise, most negative.

I have an LTD163 ROM in my secondary machine that is by far the loudest optical drive I've ever heard. Makes my 3500A seem almost silent in comparison. I do my best never to be in a position where I need to use it.
Click to expand...

I agree! My Lite-On is so loud its embarrassing! I take care not to leave a disc in the drive now, it sounds like a jumbo jet when my computer starts up! Geese, and I thought some video card fans were loud...
 
don't buy a liteon just yet. mine is loud as hell too. well not as loud as my PC itself but it vibrates like hell during read/write sessions. it makes my case panels vibrate.
 
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
don't buy a liteon just yet. mine is loud as hell too. well not as loud as my PC itself but it vibrates like hell during read/write sessions. it makes my case panels vibrate.
Click to expand...

Damn. And the descriptions don't come with decibel ratings. 😀 This is going to be fun.
 
my newest liteon is also very loud. but its 20x, but even burning at 12x its loud. my older nec was quieter.
now with drive prices so low what are they cutting corners on? i'd buy fast rpm as an argument cept its loud at any speed.
 
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