Author Topic: CD Burner Question  (Read 1113 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline ZmaN

  • 28
My Benq is about to blow (it burns as slower than my sisters 12x, even though its a 52x)...

I want a new CD Burner, but I'm not sure which to buy.  Now I know theyre all the same, but I need one that is good for Game Copy Protections...  I've been trying to find stuff on the internet and I'm seeing that lite-on is the best brand, but I also saw that plextor is good too...

Basically, what is a good CD Burner that can copy almost ANY Copy Protection for under 50 bucks (If I need to go higher, maybe I will, but I prefer it in the 30 dollar range..  Come on, its a burner, not actual hardware!!!)  :lol: :lol:
Well what do I do now?  Well Jack, you seem to have an act for blowing things up....

www.underoath777.com  <---  The BEST BAND EVER!

My Rig:
NZXT Apollo Case, with the insides painted black, and refinished side panels
Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750 watt PSU
Intel Xeon E3110 (e8400) OC'd to 3.6ghz
Xigmatek S1283 HDT Cooler
Biostar TPower I45 Motherboard
2 x 2GB's Crucial Ballistx DDR2-800 RAM
XFX Geforce 8800GTX GPU
Onboard sound
3 x 36GB Raptors in RAID 0
1 x Western Digital 640GB stand-alone

Matthew 1:1-2  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.

 

Offline CP5670

  • Dr. Evil
  • Global Moderator
  • 212
NEC 3550A or BenQ DW1640 (if you can still find one)

 

Offline ZmaN

  • 28
why does everyone on the internet recommend liteon's or plextors???
Well what do I do now?  Well Jack, you seem to have an act for blowing things up....

www.underoath777.com  <---  The BEST BAND EVER!

My Rig:
NZXT Apollo Case, with the insides painted black, and refinished side panels
Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750 watt PSU
Intel Xeon E3110 (e8400) OC'd to 3.6ghz
Xigmatek S1283 HDT Cooler
Biostar TPower I45 Motherboard
2 x 2GB's Crucial Ballistx DDR2-800 RAM
XFX Geforce 8800GTX GPU
Onboard sound
3 x 36GB Raptors in RAID 0
1 x Western Digital 640GB stand-alone

Matthew 1:1-2  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.

 

Offline CP5670

  • Dr. Evil
  • Global Moderator
  • 212
I don't know what you mean by "everyone." Most people I've seen have NEC or BenQ drives. They're generally around the top of the pack in terms of speed and are also cheap and reliable. I have a slightly older BenQ model myself, although their latest model is apparently not that good.

Plextor drives perform about the same as the others but cost twice as much. Don't bother with those. I don't know much about Liteons though.

 

Offline Sandwich

  • Got Screen?
  • 213
    • Skype
    • Steam
    • Twitter
    • Brainzipper
NEC here. Never had any problems with it. Works like a charm. :yes:
SERIOUSLY...! | {The Sandvich Bar} - Rhino-FS2 Tutorial | CapShip Turret Upgrade | The Complete FS2 Ship List | System Background Package

"...The quintessential quality of our age is that of dreams coming true. Just think of it. For centuries we have dreamt of flying; recently we made that come true: we have always hankered for speed; now we have speeds greater than we can stand: we wanted to speak to far parts of the Earth; we can: we wanted to explore the sea bottom; we have: and so  on, and so on: and, too, we wanted the power to smash our enemies utterly; we have it. If we had truly wanted peace, we should have had that as well. But true peace has never been one of the genuine dreams - we have got little further than preaching against war in order to appease our consciences. The truly wishful dreams, the many-minded dreams are now irresistible - they become facts." - 'The Outward Urge' by John Wyndham

"The very essence of tolerance rests on the fact that we have to be intolerant of intolerance. Stretching right back to Kant, through the Frankfurt School and up to today, liberalism means that we can do anything we like as long as we don't hurt others. This means that if we are tolerant of others' intolerance - especially when that intolerance is a call for genocide - then all we are doing is allowing that intolerance to flourish, and allowing the violence that will spring from that intolerance to continue unabated." - Bren Carlill

 

Offline Geezer

  • Methuselah
  • 28
Lite-on gives good value for the money.  They also OEM to companies like Sony.
If a man walks in the desert and speaks where no woman can hear, is he still wrong?

 

Offline redsniper

  • 211
  • Aim for the Top!
I have an NEC 3550A and have succesfully burned much liberated media to DVD with it. :p
"Think about nice things not unhappy things.
The future makes happy, if you make it yourself.
No war; think about happy things."   -WouterSmitssm

Hard Light Productions:
"...this conversation is pointlessly confrontational."

 

Offline Nix

  • 28
  • In the morning!
For frak's sake, don't buy a CD burner, buy a cheap DVD burner.  You'll have the capability to DO DVD burning if you ever need it, and it'll do CD's as well.  As for copy protection capability, you WILL NEED to look at the lists that are put out by your image-making software mfgr.  For example, Alcohol-Soft has a list of burners that will and will not work properly with thier software.  Best bet is to pick one that appeals to you, with a decent dvd burning software, then see if it's on the list.  If it's not, then dont buy it.

DW1640 IIRC, uses the Philips Nexperia chipset, which outperforms most other drives, in terms of speed AND reliability, but this was according to an article I read around new years on Anandtech. 
If you're going to buy a plextor and want to brag about having the latest and greatest, Plextor has a SATA interface drive, but I have no idea if it's reliable at all.  The differences between a Plextor and a BenQ, is about 50 bucks.  Plus, I think Plextors include the absolutely horrible Roxio ECD software set, whereas with BenQ you're likely to get something better (but usually dumbed-down) Nero suite.  I prefer Nero's software over most, but if you can find anything using the PX engine, (Sonic, Veritas) that's a good software set too, at least in my experience.  Roxio = the suck.

 

Offline ZmaN

  • 28
I own a copy of Nero 6.6.0.18 and I already own a Pacific Digital External USB DVD Burner 4x dual format...  It works great for DVD's..

 guess i need to look at software for copying copy-protected games and not the hardware, correct?

Yea I was never fond of plextor drives to begin with...  Unless you get the platinum pro, which comes with blindwrite 5 full version, and made to copy ssecurom games...

I think I'll get that NEC 3550A, it looks really Nice...  That is, unless I decide to get the BenQ DW1640... hmm...  choices, choices, choices!!!
DW1640 IIRC, uses the Philips Nexperia chipset, which outperforms most other drives, in terms of speed AND reliability, but this was according to an article I read around new years on Anandtech.
If you're going to buy a plextor and want to brag about having the latest and greatest, Plextor has a SATA interface drive, but I have no idea if it's reliable at all. The differences between a Plextor and a BenQ, is about 50 bucks. Plus, I think Plextors include the absolutely horrible Roxio ECD software set, whereas with BenQ you're likely to get something better (but usually dumbed-down) Nero suite. I prefer Nero's software over most, but if you can find anything using the PX engine, (Sonic, Veritas) that's a good software set too, at least in my experience. Roxio = the suck.


EDIT:  Sonic?  Veritas?  I dont usually look at Burner Chipsets...  Whats best?
Well what do I do now?  Well Jack, you seem to have an act for blowing things up....

www.underoath777.com  <---  The BEST BAND EVER!

My Rig:
NZXT Apollo Case, with the insides painted black, and refinished side panels
Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750 watt PSU
Intel Xeon E3110 (e8400) OC'd to 3.6ghz
Xigmatek S1283 HDT Cooler
Biostar TPower I45 Motherboard
2 x 2GB's Crucial Ballistx DDR2-800 RAM
XFX Geforce 8800GTX GPU
Onboard sound
3 x 36GB Raptors in RAID 0
1 x Western Digital 640GB stand-alone

Matthew 1:1-2  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.

  

Offline Nix

  • 28
  • In the morning!
You may already own a DVD burner, but if you're going to buy an internal drive, be smart and buy a DVD burner.  The BenQ drive mentioned above will not break the bank, and does just about any type of writing you'll need to do, Dual layer DVD, Single Layer DVD, CD, the mini stuff, whatever, in just about any format. (Disc-at-once RAW, Track At Once)
For example, at work, I purchased a Sony CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive, and it cost $35.00.  A DVD-R/+R, CD-Burner combo drive by Sony that did so much more cost $39.99. (This was a while back)  The point?  SPEND THE EXTRA FIVE BUCKS!  It's worth it when you'll have the drive that'll do 16X DVD-R, or whatever it supports.  It's just absolutely silly to NOT buy a DVD-Burner with them at such low low prices. 

If you're into "making backup images" and such, dont go blindwrite. Go with something which will give you more control over what you can do such as Alcohol 120%.  And it DOES matter which hardware you choose.  As I stated above, pick your drive, and pick your imaging software of choice, then look for a compatibility list that is put out by that software developer.  Make sure the drive is on the list. They usually will have a list of drives that will write in certain modes.  For example, some really cheap, off-brand drives may not be able to write DAO/RAW, which is required in order to "dupe" a disc properly. 

As for chipsets in the devices, it's not REALLY that important, but according to the review I read, the BenQ drive mentioned above had very low error rates, and recorded to most media brands quite reliably.  I've had an old Ricoh drive that was so picky it would not write on anything but Verbatim media.  I still use Verbatim to this day, actually, but yeah, that BenQ drive is probably the best bang for your buck at the moment.  I believe it also includes Nero, which maybe at this time will have been upgraded to Nero 7, but do not count on it unless you can look at what's in the package.  (Newegg)

Also, the software bundle is also a determing factor for whenever I want to purchase a drive.  I avoid any kind of drive that includes Roxio's Super Coaster Creator, unless you own a version of Nero or something that DID NOT come bundled with a drive.  If you think you can fire up Nero that came in a bundle with your old drive and use it with your new drive, you'll be in for a dissapointing suprise.  It will refuse to launch unless you have the old drive in the system.  Since yours is external, you probably wont run into that problem.  This I DO know for a fact when replacing dead DVD Burner drives at work.  Sonic is a brand of burning software that's based on the good-old fashioned french Prassi engine, or now known as PX engine, as Prassi was bought out by Veritas a long time ago.  Sonic though does a decent job, gives you more control (IMO, not as much as Nero does) over what you can do and how you want your discs burned.  I like nero for it's non-skinned interface as well, it's an actual window, things are easy to find, and it's simple to configure.  Easy CD Creator has this i-Mac look to it, all fancily skinned up and such, and has been crap since Adaptec sold it off to Roxio (or split, or whatever). 

I guess I'm extremely picky when it comes to picking out optical storage units... lol.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2006, 10:16:35 pm by Nix »