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Plextor 716A or Pioneer DVR-109 or NEC 3520A?

R

Ronin13

Senior member
I'm putting together parts for a new build I'm doing for a friend and I need some recommendations on a DVD-RW drive.

I've narrowed the candidates down to the latest 16x versions from Plextor, Pioneer or NEC. (The following prices are converted from my local currency, and as such will be somewhat higher than normal US prices.)

I can get the drives at these prices:

Plextor 716A: $130
Pioneer DVR-109: $86
NEC 3520A: $62

While I've seen many here recommend the NEC drive (and I can understand why, considering it's price), I'm not really put off by the higher price of the Plextor drive, as I don't find it exorbitant when I compare it's price to the $300 I paid for my own Plextor CD-RW 24/10/40A a few years ago.

On the other hand, if there really isn't anything gained from going with the Plextor, I might as well get one of the cheaper options.

A couple of notes about this PC I'm building: It's not going to be upgraded or replaced within at least 2 years, so build-quality and reliability is an issue. On the other hand, this drive (the rigs only drive, BTW) will propably not be seeing an extreme amount of action, as I don't expect my friend to do a lot of burning of either CDs or DVDs.

Quietness is also desirable, so much so, that if the drives perform the same and have the same 'feel' of quality, but one makes noticeable less noise in day to day use, this would be enough to justify any higher price (I know that at least the Plextor can be made quieter through the use of the Plextools software).

Based on the above information, what would be your recommendations?

(If I go with the Plextor - as I had originally planned - I will propably get the retail version for $5 extra as it comes with Nero and Plextools software. Otherwise I guess I'll have to buy an OEM version of Nero Express for about $15.)

A final note about Nero. All 3 drives will be equally compatible with it, correct?

Thanks for your help!
 
The Plextor is good, but to really take advantage of the extra features it offers, you'll have to shell out and extra $50.00 for Plextools XL. Just go to CDFreaks Plextor forums and read about it there. Also, when purchasing a burner of any type going with one with a black tray is better. Black trays reduce jitter when burning CD's and also absorb stray light from the laser instead of reflecting it back on the CD when burning. I'd go with the black NEC ND3520A. Good price, overall pretty good drive + you'll get great support for this drive from Liggy and Dee at the CD Freaks NEC forums. They've been creating custom / modded firmware for NEC drives that really add alot of features.
 
The Plextor is the *best* drive out there if you dont mind the price tag, you cant go wrong buying one. Having said that, both the Pioneer and NEC offer similar performance for lower prices. Overall, you're going to see a marginal 1~5% gain in most areas by getting the Plextor in terms of speed, depending on what you're doing.

Since you dont mind paying for it, get the Plextor. Yes, Nero will be compatible with any of these drives provided it is not sold as an OEM version with a drive from another manufacturer.
 
Thanks for your input so far.

I am a bit (pleasantly) suprised that no one has told me that the Plextor would be a stupid buy, considering it's much higher price, compared to the other two drives.

IsLNdbOi, I went to the CDFreaks forum and looked around a bit, but didn't find anything on why I'd want (to buy) the Plextools XL over the free Professional version. And this link didn't help me much. What are the things that you believe that I'd need Plextools XL to take advantage off?

airfoil, when you say that the Plextor is the 'best' drive, does that only translate to the speed increase you mention, or do you (or any other) also believe that the Plextor just delivers a better product overall?

What I'm looking for here are things like build-quality - for instance does the trays of the cheaper models also feel noticeable cheaper in operation? - and noise levels, especially when performing identical tasks - for instance can I expect the Plextor to have lower/more pleasant noise levels when reading a disk at maximum speed, compared to the other drives doing the same?
 
When I was on the same road as you are now, it was a choice between the Pioneer and the NEC. The decision finally came down in favor of the Pioneer because of it's very silent mechanism. With a mod firmware I cannot complain. The Plextor was just out of my league due to its high price.
 
I too have the Plextor PX716A. It works grea, highly recommended if u want to shell out the $$$ for the best. Got mine for $70AR at Best Buy.

 
Thanks for your replies.

If this was a build for myself, I'd go with the Plextor, but since I'm using a friends money here, I'm beginning to lean towards the Pioneer drive as I'm pretty sure it'll be good enough for his particular needs.

But I'd still really like to hear some comments on these 2 questions:

1: Does the cheaper drives also 'feel' cheaper than the Plextor, for instance when opening/closing the tray?

2: Without using any software to slow the drive down, are there any noticeable differences in soundlevels between the drives?

 
you should read up at the www.cdfreaks.com forums.

I personally bought the 716, and while i had no problems initially it's been rather erratic lately, especially burning cds.

The 716 is better than the 3520 and the 109, both NEC and Pioneer's new models are not as good as the ones they replaced (at least that was the initial consensus)

However, the drive you should be looking at is th benq 1620. Extremely impressive quality, same price range as the 3520.
 
I did read up a little bit on the BenQ drive, but the on-line store that has all the other parts I'm getting doesn't have that drive in a black version, so for now I'm propably going with the Pioneer.

But until I order I'm still interested in comments and suggestions...
 
I have the 3520a with the hacked firmware... I got it for $50 shipped and it is the best drive for the money... its just a DVD burner dude... its not a car!
 
Sound levels? That is something you will never hear on a Pioneer! The tray mechanism is the same, Deadly Silent!
 
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