What DVD burner with lightscribe?

[duragezic]

Rather than plop down $$ on a new hard drive, I think I should just pick up a DVD combo drive and burn the files I rarely use but will still want to access (plus they're safer on DVD media than a hard disk that could fail).

After seeing a friend's lightscribe, I was pretty impressed! Damn cool touch to any burned media I'd say. Although I hear the media is pretty expensive, I'd probably just pick up 50 CDRs thermal printable for $25, then only 25pk thermal DVDs, then another 25-50pk of regular DVDs, since I'd only be caring about printing on certain discs.


Now, Newegg's selection of LIghtscribe burners is pretty crappy. I've always wanted to get a NEC (now up to 3550a) since they are cheap and good, but with no lightscribe I'm prolly not going to get it anymore. I heard decent things about the BenQ DW1655 on these forums, but the Newegg reviews seem to say that its crap (due to bad reliability and dying drives). And I don't think I trist Liteon anymore than BenQ. They seem to be pretty budget stuff, and the DVD-ROM drive I have is a Liteon that acts kinda funky and makes weird sounds. So being that I'm burning backed up crap, I want a decent burner.

So if I can't find a LS drive thats still cheap but good, I'm going to get the NEC 3550a. But I'd like to find a cheap and good combo drive with LS.

 

[Bobthelost]

The BenQ 1655 is a top notch drive. Look at cdfreaks.com for decent reviews, use the search engine there for the forums, if there's a problem then it'll be there somewhere.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Wrong that media is safer than HD. Im noticing all my data falling apart all around me because the discs are going bad.

 

[n7]

Yep, the DW1655 is teh one i'd recommend.

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: thecoolnessrune
Wrong that media is safer than HD. Im noticing all my data falling apart all around me because the discs are going bad.

Do you buy cheap DVDs/CDs and store them in the wrong enviroment?

Verbs and TY can be expected to last 20 years or so. Cheap stuff won't last 2.

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Originally posted by: thecoolnessrune
Wrong that media is safer than HD. Im noticing all my data falling apart all around me because the discs are going bad.

Do you buy cheap DVDs/CDs and store them in the wrong enviroment?

Verbs and TY can be expected to last 20 years or so. Cheap stuff won't last 2.

Damn straight. MIJ all the way.

 

[duragezic]

So nothing wrong with the reliability of the BenQ drive? Does the NEC 3550a offer anything over it? Like would I miss out on something else good in return for getting lightscribe?

And by saying discs are safer than drives, well yes burned CDs do go bad... hell I'd say 50% of my burned CDs that are old are crapping out.. maybe more. But if I was making actual backups I'd be storing them better than my music (which is in the car, so lots of cold/hot) plus after a few years I could re-burn new ones. With hard drives, the fvcker can fail one day out of nowhere and you're data may be gone. The burned CDs usually take a while to go bad over a period of time, and as said buying better media extends the life quite a bit.

 

[Bobthelost]

The 3550 isn't as good as the old 1640 which the 1655 is based upon as far as i know.

 

[AMDBOY]

So your recommendation for a lightscribe drive from newegg would be? Edit: Never mind the reviews on the 1655 speak for themselves.

 

[Continuity28]

There's a reason you'll never see an NEC LightScribe drive.

HP developed LightScribe while NEC developed LabelFlash. BenQ sells LightScribe based drives while NEC would obviously stick with their format LabelFlash. (3551A)

BenQ is very reliable, and their current drives are top notch. I'd personally take the BenQ 1655 over the NEC 3550A right now.