Important thing to look for in a burner

[nycdude]

Hi all,
I am looking for a burner and need to know what important things to look for?? Is advertised speed everything???

Please LMK

Thanx

 

[Emulex]

keep in mind an average computer with a 7200rpm drive will not be able to push 16x sustained rate. 12x i more reasonable. Burnproof is nice, but when you run 16x with burnproof, you're overall speed if burnproof kicks in will be less than 12x due to the delays.

So i'd get a plextor 12x burnproof for the best bang/money. The clones out there are cheap. My amd duron 950 w/7200 rpm ide couldn't sustain 16x ..

 

[gittyup]

Burn-proof technology for one. You may want to search or post in the general hardware forum.

 

[yakko]

<< Important thing to look for in a burner >>

The ability to burn cds is a nice feature.

 

[DavidTigerFan]

OK, you got a pen handy, cause this is te most important thing. You ready? I am about to tell you....

Look on the tray, if it says P-L-E-X-T-O-R

Then you have met the most important standard.

-D

 

[nycdude]

Plextors are the best but very expensive.

I need a cheaper alternative.

For overburning, is it the burner or is it the software ???

 

[tontod]

Look into buying the yamaha 16x, they are pretty good and reliable. They may not be plextor, but close.

 

[kuk]

from Emulex ...


<< keep in mind an average computer with a 7200rpm drive will not be able to push 16x sustained rate. >>


16x = 2400kb/s ... how can you tell me that 7200rpm drives can't transfer data at a sustained rate of 2400kb/s ?! Even though sustained rates are much smaller than peak rates, by all means, it is more than 2400kb/s!!!



<< My amd duron 950 w/7200 rpm ide couldn't sustain 16x. >>


Are you sure that you had DMA enabled? And are you sure that your drive isn't P-CAV (Partial Constant-Angular-Velocity)? The Yamahas are P-CAV, meaning that they start at 12x, then goes up to 16x. The Plextor 16x10x40 can achieve sustained 16x. Take a look here.

Edited ... ok, i think now everything is correct.

 

[GasX]

Compatibility with CloneCD

 

[Shmorq]

If you get a plextor which is a little pricier than most, you will have no regrets. There have been very few complaints about Plextor's even though they are the most popular in the forums.

 

[gittyup]

Stay away from anything that has duct tape on it....

 

[jman7272]

I'm with kuk on this one... a 7200 ata66 should be able to push 16x in hibernation mode!!! heheheheh

Also, while there will be arguements for either side of this fence, keep in mind that ata 100 is knocking on the door as the new standard... and next week it will be ata 200... then 300 and so on...

Get a good 16x now and have it for a year or two...

 

[nycdude]

Would something a little older that does 4x4x32 be not worth getting???

I just want to do simple stuff with it. Maybe backup a game or two, my HD, and do some music cd's.

I don't really care about the burn time as long as it works. (setting my standards low. )

LMK

 

[bcterps]

<< I'm with kuk on this one... a 7200 ata66 should be able to push 16x in hibernation mode!!! heheheheh

Also, while there will be arguements for either side of this fence, keep in mind that ata 100 is knocking on the door as the new standard... and next week it will be ata 200... then 300 and so on...

Get a good 16x now and have it for a year or two... >>



Actually, ATA100 is completely useless because todays hard drives can barely even surpass the throughput of ATA33. Check out some of the articles at Storage Review Until HD manufacturers create drives with larger platters (Western Digital has started to do this) or until they increase the rpms to something over 10k, ATA100 aint gonna be worth jack.

--Ben

 

[Paulson]

Just get a plextor or at least one with burnproof.

I have a 2x2x6 speed hp and have burned over 1500 cd's with it.

I have a peice of crap 4x4x24 speed burner in my new computer (came with it)

They both work just fine, just the newer one sucks sorta.

 

[amb#cog]

SCSI, and or Burnproof. If you're into doing copyright protected CD's. I highly recommend getting a CloneCD compatible one. Here's a list of which ones are.

I would also go to review sites, and read what they have to say. These guys will help take a lot of the guesswork out of it all. Sometimes they're aren't all that, and still cost a lot of cash.

Go for a nice performance to price ratio. I have an 8x Sony SCSI one, and a 12x Iomega (rebadged Plextor) w/ Burnproof. They're both very nice IMO, and I've only made coasters when it was my error, not the drives. I do use em too, a lot.

While I agree Plextor is tops. There are other ones out there that will do what you need also.

My most important requirement is total CloneCD compatibility though myself. I'll take that over speed anyday.

Nothing like being able to burn just about everything.

 

[dave127]

i would look for at least a 12x with either burnproof or a large buffer...and also clone cd compatible

 

[Shmorq]

<< Would something a little older that does 4x4x32 be not worth getting??? >>


If you're a patient person, the speed that you get will not matter. I still only have a 2x burner (4+ years), and I have no problem waiting for it to copy.

 

[Paulson]

If you have a spare computer and network, get a slower burner, put it in the old comp, and run the burning software.

It's like burnproof. You can run whatever you want while burning a cd!