What do you recommend for a CDRW

[fragusmaximus]

Hey all, wanted to ask this forum what they thought was the best CDRW drive
and burning software out there today.

It will be used on a Windows XP SP1 and RedHat 8.0 machine to burn regular
stuff including binaries, images, pictures, music, and such. Speed isn't all that
important as I would rather have reliability and compatibility over speed any day.

I was looking at the Plextor 48x24x48x drive, the Yamaha CRW-F1 drive, a Lite-On
drive, or anything else you might recommend. Has anyone gotten a lemon drive?
Has someone gotten one of these drives running under XP? If so, how well does
it work? How's the software bundle that came with the drive? If you didn't like the
software included, what software would you recommend to replace it?


Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[TheCorm]

This has been discussed many times but I don't mind doing it again

Plextor are excellent, high quality drives but they have a high price tag. Lite-ON can almost match them in terms of quality and reliability (the difference is very negligable) plus they have a much better price tag.

The Lite-ON 48x12x48 drive is excellent value at the moment and comes with Nero 5.5 which I find a most refreshingly easy and functional bit of software

I have owned 2 Lite-ON Drives (24x and 48x) and both have been flawless, the 24x is still going.

Corm

 

[murphy55d]

I'm partial to Plextor... I like my 24x Plextor enough not to spend money for a faster, 48x Liteon. (even though they have a very nice price tag)

Like Corm said... Plextor's are more expensive but at least IMO they are very high quality.

For burning software, despite what a LOT of people say, Roxio EZ CD Creator 5works just fine for me. Many people say it is the antichrist of burning software, but I don't buy into it..it works well for me. (it came with my Plextor)

If you get a copy of Nero with whatever drive you get, use it. If you get a copy of EZ CD, use it. I don;t think any of them are 'bad'.

 

[Macro2]

Most all band names are good now. CDRW is a very mature technology.
I would avoid BTC, TOPx perhaps BENQ or Optorite.

Any Japanese name brand, or Lite-on, LG, even Aopen/Ricoq, Sanyo are OK.
I prefer Lite on, LG, TDK or Plextor (higher price).

 

[EXman]

Lite-On are super! and cheap

 

[Sid59]

LiteOns are nice. but i loove my plextor. it rock solid and quite as hell.

 

[Hardtarget]

i would deffinitely go lite-on
i've had my lite-on 24x10x40x for almost a year now and it has been remarkable and flawless.
two of my friends also just went lite-on, one did the 48x thing, and the other the 52x, and both can not say enough good things about the drives. they are such a good deal. I will also say my matshita dvd 6x died on me thsi year so i bought a lite-on 16x dvd and it has been fantastic as well.

 

[snik]

Plextor and Yamaha are the best drives you can get. Yamaha always has something new up their sleeve. You can get their new drive which can label your cds! I think that Lite-Ons are amazing products considering their cheap prices. I own all three burners you mentioned Plextor, Yamaha, and Lite-On and I LOVE all of them. Neither one has any problems. Price wise, I don't think that Lite-Ons can be beat. Plextors has always been THE brand of burners. Yamaha is VERY good and reliable.

If you don't care about the price I would recommend Yamaha. Ok here's a link to that disc labeling techonlogy they they use on their new drives: Pic.

"DiscT@2 is an exclusive Yamaha feature that allows text and images to be drawn on the unused portion of a CD-R disc. You can now etch a memo, your signature, photo thumbnails or your company's logo right onto the bottom of the disc."

Only downside to this is that you can only label the unused portion of this disc. But it's still great when you're doing audio/video comilatins, backups, etc. I think this is a very neat feature. I'm upgrading for a newer Yamaha drive soon.

 

[Oric]

Stay away from Philips !

I repeat, STAY AWAY FROM PHILIPS !

48x16x48x CDRW drive writes only 16x ! This is a wide spread phonemenon. Choose Yamaha, Teac, LiteOn etc.

 

[eplebnista]

Lite-On

 

[fragusmaximus]

You guys are the best. Thanks for all the feedback.

As this was a gift, I have decided to go with the Plextor. I have my Lite-On DVD and I have no issues with that or the brand. They are cheaper which made this decision hard to make. However, Plextor comes with Roxio software which was the selling point for me. I've used Roxio in the past and have seen it work well on someone else's windows xp machine. Thanks again to all those responding.

Of course, if anyone else has an opinion, I would love to hear it.

 

[Syran]

I have an IOMEGA 12x burner at home (Plextor Rebadge from that crazy deal a while back), and have 24x plextors at work. Love them both. Some friends have Lite-On's and that new yamaha with the label burn (it's sweet); and they love them as well.

I'd agree on staying away from the Phillips drive, had problems with both of the ones friends had, but some of the software was neat.

As for burning software, Nero all the way, hands down. I've used both pretty extensively here at work and home, and Nero in the recent releases just blows away Roxio.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: EXman
Lite-On are super! and cheap

 

[LED]

I was looking at the Plextor 48x24x48x drive, the Yamaha CRW-F1 drive, a Lite-On

You put it in the right order and Price IMO