Slot or not slot That is the question

[kurix]

Hi I am interested in buying DVD-ROM
After checking at newegg, I fall in love with the slot like pioneer one
But after checking other product, it dawned on me that slot load only read cd-rom at 40X
while other dvd-rom like toshiba and lite-on can read cd-rom at 48X (but not slot load)
Can anybody help me in recommending a DVD-ROM
every input is appreciated

Thanks

 

[Jman13]

I have the Pioneer slot-load drive and I LOVE it. It's an awesome drive. Trust me, you will NEVER notice the difference between a 40x and a 48x CD-ROM. 99% of the time, games won't even need to read above 12x. The only time you'd ever notice the difference of a higher CD-ROM reading rate is during software installs, and the 48x is only 20% faster, which equates to a whopping 20 second difference when copying all data off a 700MB CD. Plus, they don't read at the max speed the entire time anyway. Get the Pioneer...it rocks.

 

[bozo1]

I have the Pioneer 106S as well and couldn't be happier.

 

[AndyHui]

You won't notice the difference between the CDROM speeds.

The only reason why you would want the tray version is that a slot drive won't accept mini 8cm (3inch) CDs.

 

[im2smrt4u]

Personally, I use tray load DVDs, but I have never heard a bad thing about the slot load versions.

 

[Superwormy]

To expand on this a little more:

Anythign above a 12X CD-ROM is a VARIABLE speed CD-ROM (with the exception of Kenwoods freaky arse 72 True-X drive...)

Which means that at the MOST it can read at 40x, thats when reading data from the very edge of the disk, on the inner it probably only reads at like 12x still, and in the middle some other speed.

Basically, anything over 24x you probably WILL NOT NOTICE the difference, and as mentioned above, 20 seconds faster is probably not worth paything extra for when it comes to installing games, which you really only do once.


The only other thing is that I've heard that slot load DVD/CD drives have a higher probablity of failuure, more moving parts and such.

 

[WhiteMyth]

You won't see any difference in speed, either one won't even reach 40x most of the time.

 

[toant103]

you should get the slot, it's awsome for lazy people like me.

 

[Akira13]

I've been considering the Pioneer slot drive (for the past year... just never got around to buying). Now I noticed that newegg has two versions, 106S and 106S/2. What's the difference? They're the same price, and it looks like they're the same drive.