Toshiba 12X DVD or Kenwood 72X or Creative 52X

[kingz]

I am currently looking for another optical drive. I also have a DVD Player, so I wont be using the drive to play DVDs. Is there other reasons I should get a DVD drive? In other words, whats the point of getting a DVD drive if Im not going to watch DVDs? I have a radeon by the way. The toshiba and kenwood are the same price, $90 and the creative drive is $40 (it has a cool looking remote too). I've heard that the Kenwood 72X suck at reading CDR, has this been fixed yet? Most of my stuff will be in CDR format. Thanks!!!!!!

---edit---
Scott at Club Overclocker:



<< &quot;THE KENWOOD 72x IS THE WORST CD ROM I HAVE EVER OWNED. It fails to read over half of all burned CDs that I've tried and I honestly can not tell a difference in transfer speeds against a generic 50x CD ROM. Even CD access time is several seconds longer than a 50x. I've tried every suggestion listed on Kenwood's home page but nothing has helped improve it's performance. Purchasing the Kenwood 72x CD ROM was the biggest mistake I've made in computer hardware...ever.&quot; >>



whoa...is it that bad?

 

[AMB]

I'd recommend the Pioneer 105S

 

[CAMS]

If you dont need another DVD then dont get one.

This software tests the speed of CDROM/DVD etc, the site has a data base if you interested speed/error tests.

CDSpeed2000

 

[JasonG]

I have a Kenwood 72X and it's main selling point is that it's very quiet. I can't even hear it compared to my old 40X max Toshiba.

I think they may have solved those problems reading CDR's with the latest firmware but I'm not positive.

Can anyone confirm that? I don't try to read many CDR's.

Good luck.

Jason

 

[madthumbs]

Last I knew the latest firmware slows the 72x down drastically so it can read marginally better. I still have some disks that it wont even read.

 

[ajskydiver]

I've had my 72x since they came out and have had no problems with it at all with the exception of reading CD-RW discs.

Everything else it has read with no problems at all and is super fast.

Maybe I just got lucky and got a good one...who knows.

Oh, I have updated it to the latest firmware (one previous).

~AJ

 

[yos]

I bought the Kenwood 72x..... returned it the same day. I'm a burning type of guy... this isn't a reading type of cd-rom.....

 

[HeinekinMan]

Not here; both of Kenwood's read EVERY CD-R disc that I have burned (either my Plextor 8432A or my HP 9110i). One unit is about a year old now (has been flashed to f/w 226), the other is about 5 months old (f/w 217). I always make it a point to test out my burns (many, many burns audio and data) with my trusty Kenwoods. Fast, quiet, and RELIABLE.

Buy one; if it doesn't work for ya, return it. It is the best IDE CDROM drive that money can buy. Both of mine (one with has the newest f/w release BTW) perform DAE at 46x and reach data rates of 68x per CDSpeed. These units spin up relatively fast and stay fast. No premature spin downs. And I have yet to experience any kind of anomaly regarding reads: audio CD's, scratched audio CD's, CD-R's, stamped CDROM's, yada, yada.

For you 8x/12x burning fools, this drive is about the only IDE drive that can support RELIABLE on-the-fly burns all the time; the Afreey's, the Teac's, and the Asus's worked for me, not all the time.

There's always Plextor and SCSI...

Heiny

 

[joeryu]

whatever you do DONT get the creative 52x, thats the most POS cd reader in the world, creative doesnt even manufacture it, some asian company does and they just put their name on it. LOUD as hell, has troubles with burned stuff, and dies after around 3 months. 4 friends all had this, all 4 drives died within 6 months. STAY AWAY!!

 

[hungrypete]

i had a creative 52x die after 2 months, and ive spoken with retailers who say they dont carry it because of all the rma's. I have the 72x and it reads MOST cdr just fine, however i do occasionally run across a disk that it can only read at about 10x. It is absolutely SILENT, and on factory pressed cds it SCREAMS. If you have a backup cdrom for those &quot;mystery&quot; disks that are slow, get the kenwood, it's a fantastic drive with a few bugs, but you'll be VERY impressed by the noise levels.

 

[Doomguy]

I bought my toshibs 12x/40x because I needed to replace my samsung 40x cdrom wih a quiet drive and I needed a good clonecd reader for my TDK 12x10x32.

 

[kingz]

Are you guys talking about the Creative iNFRA 52x CD-ROM or the CD Blaster 52x? Are they basically the same drive except for the &quot;iNFRA&quot; or are they totally different drives? Should i substitute the Creative the an Aopen 52x? its the exact same price...Thanks

 

[Viperoni]

I've had an Asus 50x for over the last 1.5 years with not so much as a hiccup.
Reads EVERYTHING I've ever put into it (including Ricoh and Maxell CDRW's)
Paid $60 for it back then...which was the going price of these things.
Good investment IMO

 

[tommyc]

I also have the Kenwood 72X. I have had no problems reading any cdr or cdrw made on my Plextor 12/10/32A. No problems ripping from cds direct to
my plex either.
jojo316 is right about the Creative 52x being a cheap pos. My buddy got one in a new pc he just bought and accidently bumped the tray and cracked
it and caused it to jump off its geared track. We opened it to see if it was repairable, :Q andsaw how flimsy and poorly constructed it was.
He also hated how noisy it was. After hearing, ah, or rather not hearing
my kenwood is he went out and bought himself one.
I have read though that there are readers that are better suited for
&quot;serious&quot; burners, but I couldn't tell you much about it. Others here have the knowin of such stuffs or you could check out crinfo.com and such.