[Fineus]

Hey all, following my little problem with the system dads been all for getting a CDRW drive for backup and since it means burned albums and so on for me I'm not complaining.

Suffice to say it's been some time since I looked at the market... does anyone have any info on what the best drive to be looking for is? I'd like it to be capable of DVD playback but that isn't a necessary... good burn speed/quality and average CD playback is though since I'd no doubt use it for game play as well...

So... does anyone know of any groundbreaking tech that can help me in my quest? Cheers

[01010]

Originally posted by Thunder
Hey all, following my little problem with the system dads been all for getting a CDRW drive for backup and since it means burned albums and so on for me I'm not complaining.

Suffice to say it's been some time since I looked at the market... does anyone have any info on what the best drive to be looking for is? I'd like it to be capable of DVD playback but that isn't a necessary... good burn speed/quality and average CD playback is though since I'd no doubt use it for game play as well...

So... does anyone know of any groundbreaking tech that can help me in my quest? Cheers

Avoid Phillips like the plague, thats my best advice to you.

[Fineus]

Why?

(The more info I have the better I feel about choosingand making a purchase).

[Kamikaze]

I don't have solid information but the last time my family got a philips cd burner I think it screwed up and didn't work the first time we loaded it...

[Fineus]

Well to tell the truth my previous CDRW was a Philips, although the packaged software was ****e it worked well with Nero... however I broke the tray so that's right out.

What's the alternatives?

[Fury]

Plextors are the best as far as I know.

One of the top models is Plextor PlexWriter PX-W4012TA.

[Redfang]

Yeah, I've heard good about Plextors too... don't know at all about the models, though.

[Kamikaze]

Lite-On 40x12x48x CD-RW
Lite-On's research and development team possesses some of the most sophisticated technology in the worldwide optical drive industry. The results of this sophistication are CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives that consistently receive praise for their quality and performance.

The Lite-On 40x12x48 CD-RW drive is equipped with Smart-X technology, which provides on-the-fly speed adjustment during Digital Audio Extraction operations and ensures that CD-R media of lesser quality are recorded to reliably.

That's what alienware says... (alienware uses plextors too)

[Gortef]

I have a Philips 8/4/32... at least it should be, I'm not sure anymore though
But it works fine enough...

Anyway, Plextor is propably The Leader in CDRW industry, Lite-On on second. BUT I've heard that LG is also recommended by many users... and in fact, on one test the only flaw they found from a LG CDRW drive was that there were no empty CD's along with the package. Not a big minus if you ask me
I've thought about changing my  "Philips" into LG... I'm allmost certain that I will. When I get money that is

[Admiral LSD]

Originally posted by Thunder
however I broke the tray so that's right out.

Define "broke". Did you actually snap it or have you just cause it to seperate from the gears that drive it in an out? If its the former then you're f00ked and have to buy a new one but if its the latter you can open up the drive and reseat the tray again without too much trouble.

[Fineus]

It's the former - it's broken. Hence my asking

I've also heard good things about Plextor - at the moment it looks like the drive of choice...

[Gortef]

Don't let Lite-On and LG out yet... Plextors are quite expencive compared to those two and besides if you are going to use the drive in normal burning (nothing too fancy stuff) you don't really need all that extra Hi-Tech Plextor has. But that's just my opinion as a student who does not have much money

[Fineus]

What kind of extra tech does the Plextor have for... well - not normal burning? I mean I'll be doing software backups, music CDs.. that kind of thing. I don't see what else there is really!

[Admiral LSD]

Originally posted by Thunder
What kind of extra tech does the Plextor have for... well - not normal burning? I mean I'll be doing software backups, music CDs.. that kind of thing. I don't see what else there is really!

They can apparently bypass several forms of copy protection natively. Given what I've read about the performance about the latest Plextors and the fact that you can acheive pretty much the same result with programs like CloneCD I really don't know if the fact that Plextors have it built in is enough to justify the price...

[Fineus]

Hmm, could be handy to have... not sure when but you never know.

However - what are we talking about as far as prices go? I think the most expensive drive I've seen is around the £120 mark, but I've not had a chance to investigate much.

Oh, and BTW - can these Plextors play DVDs? I'd really like that ability if possible.

[Admiral LSD]

Originally posted by Thunder
Hmm, could be handy to have... not sure when but you never know.

However - what are we talking about as far as prices go? I think the most expensive drive I've seen is around the £120 mark, but I've not had a chance to investigate much.

Last price I saw was for the 40x Plextor and that was about AUD$400 or so. Not sure about what that is in British Pounds though...

Oh, and BTW - can these Plextors play DVDs? I'd really like that ability if possible.

Not that I know of...

[Nico]

I have a HP (cd writer plus 8100 ), it's old but works fine.
And about philips... I buy an intel CPU, it burns up as soon as I run my PC. Should I tell everybody not to buy intel CPU goz they burn up? no, **** happens, your parents just bought a defective cdburner, 01010

[Gortef]

Umm well... Burnproof is starting to be a common thing in every dive nowdays I guess

the new technology Plextor has are

VariRec: It allows user to change the laser power when writing CD-Audio... it should increase the sound quality and compatibility with the existing players
(to tell you the truth, this sound like a good thing but I haven't really encountered much problems with my current recorder... and it doesn't have this)

PowerRec: Plextor Optimised Writing Error Reducting Control
(yea writing errors suck, and this will propably reduce the amount of them... but if you use good quality disks and do not run anything else while recording -drives nowdays record at so high speed that it won't take long anyway- you should not have much writing errors)

That's prettymuch what I know. These things are good I agree but if you are looking for a cheap and good CDRW drive... I don't think Plextor is the choice then. Look at the prizes (taken from a Finnish Webstore called Verkkokauppa.com)

LG CD-RW 40X/12X/40X - 73.90€ (Received 5 stars in a test "Reliable partner")
Lite-On LTR-40125S 40X/12X/48A - 72.00€ (Received 4 stars in a same test... "Mass production")
Plextor Plexwriter 40X/12X/40A - 131.00€ (5 stars in a same test "Good in everything")

If prize does not matter... then Plextor is the choise, but if it does... I'd propably take the LG myself

Edit:

Plextor PlexCombo 20/10/40-12A can write cd's and read dvd's - 201€
And so does:
LG GCC-4320B DVD/CD-RW-combo 32x10x40x16x  - 137€

*whew* - End of Report-

[Razor]

Thunder, I have a Memorex 24X 10X 40X (write, rewrite, read) and it kicks ass. You won't make a mistake if you get this one.

[Stealth]

all SCSI burners are awesome