LiteOn 32x CD-RW--what's the catch?

[Yossarian]

I just ordered this drive from Newegg for $112+shipping. The Plextor 24x drive was $26 more expensive. Faster and cheaper? Is it too good to be true or what?

 

[Diable]

Check out this review over at CDR Labs. The LiteOn 32x is about equal to the Plextor 24x in every test and is only five seconds faster then Plexter 24x at burning 701mb of data. The best deal is the LiteOn 24x burner which is listed on Price Watch for as low as $73 and its just as fast as the 32x and the Plextor 24x in CDR Labs test.

 

[Kwad Guy]

It has gotten to the point where bleeding edge CDRW drives are
for guys with small hands, if you know what I mean...

These 32x++ drives are NOT true 32x drives. They are 32x ONLY at the
outside of the burned disc. So they will only achieve that speed
for discs that have a lot of content on them, and then only when
writing part of that content. Near the center of the disc (which
is where writing starts) they are much slower.

Not only that, but unless you are writing directly from a hard drive,
you would not likely be able to achieve 32x speeds in ANY write
operation with another CDrom as the source, because there are few,
if any, CDroms that can supply >=32x extraction across an entire
disc. As with writing, speed increases as you head toward the outer
regions of the disc.

I have yet to see any reason to suggest to anyone that they upgrade
to a 32x+ drive if they already have a 24x drive they are happy
with. For that matter, I have seen little incentive to upgrade from
a decent 16x drive to anything faster. And to be honest, I would
not recommend anyone with a good, working 12x drive
(with burnproof or equivalent) upgrade unless
the money is burning a hole in their pocket--although there is a
modest and discernable improvement in going from 12x->16x/24x.

Kwad

 

[Yossarian]

I'm upgrading from a Plextor 12x with some slightly smoldering cash. It would seem that there's little reason to go with the Plextor 24x over the Lite-On 32x, minor speed improvements aside.

Thanks for the review link, Diable.

 

[Nack]

A family member really wanted a burner in her computer, so I gave her my 12X TDK (rebadged Plex), and bought a 24X I/O Magic (rebadged Lite-On) and a 50-pack of 24X CD-Rs for $63 total.

Nack

 

[Basie]

Nack, where did you get that deal?

 

[XBoxLPU]

Just got my Lite-on 24X

Slick drive and burns everything in less than 5 mins.

Best Deal IMO

 

[johndoe52]

How much faster would 32x go than 24x?

 

[human2k]

My brother just recently purchased a TDK from a local shop, AND IT LOOKS AWESOME (that blue color!). Its about as fast as my lite-on, but he payed $150 and I payed $85! But now thinkin about it, I shoulda gotten a TDK (Just for the looks, cuz that blue tray would go nice with my blue enermax chassis ).