CDRW recommendation

[barneygumble742]

hi,

what's the most stable cdrw out in the market $ 100 and below range?

my current philips cdrw (4 years old now) just gave out and i desperately need a cdrw.

i've read good reviews for lite-on and plextor cdrws but i don't know which of them is recommended by fellow hardware enthusiasts.

thanks,
mark

[Staz]

look for a lite on drive.

[Daniel ~]

Lite on works well for me.

[Staz]

Plextor is obviously the creme of the crop, but Lite on makes high quality drives and a much better price. Many of the brand name drives out there are actually rebranded Lite on drives.

[Lazgoat]

I'd have to vote for the LiteOn too. I have the 52X24x52 and its never produced a coaster in over 4 months use.
My 40x Plextor on the other hand produces loads! Maybe its a Plextor-nForce2 thing as it was solid in my 8K3A+.

Laz.

[Daniel ~]

Have Two Plextors and was sold on them completely, still am, but Like my Lite on 52X32X52 every bit as much and just can't see paying more again for a Plex.

[danrok]

Consider getting a DVD & CD rewriter, they are now much cheaper. You might find one for $100 to $150. They can be bought in the UK for £80 now.

[SteveI]

You can get a Liteon combo drive.. read DVD + CDRW for about $50 now. I just installed one in a machine I built for a neighbor.... Excellent drive with solid reviews. The drive is small, much shorter than most, so it is an easy fit. It performs very well, (including 40x DAE), but does tend to run on the slightly noisy side.

[barneygumble742]

i'm a little hesitant to get a dvd burner because i'm not sure if these standards are permanent. and with cd burners, i'm more concerned with stability than speed. but anything should be much better than my recently trashed phillips 8x4x32.

[Lazgoat]

Save yourself alot of hassle and get yourself the LiteOn 52x CD Burner. They are dirt cheap, about £35-40 online, and are really really good drives. Honest!
Note: Ebuyer are doing the LiteOn 52x32x52 for £27.71 inc VAT! Thats fantastic value!

Laz.

[SteveI]

Originally Posted by barneygumble742

i'm a little hesitant to get a dvd burner because i'm not sure if these standards are permanent. and with cd burners, i'm more concerned with stability than speed. but anything should be much better than my recently trashed phillips 8x4x32.

The combo drive I mentioned does not burn DVDs, it is a DVDROM drive and CDRW all in one... The price for it is about $50... so you get fast reading DVD capabilities for basically next to nothing. The liteons have a reputation of speed, reliability, and an excellent feature set. They are very popular due to this and the low pricing.

Also, the DVD-/+RW standards are pretty much in place. DVD-R is on it's way out since it seems that 4 to 8x is the physical limit. DVD+R is the way of the (near) future. I paid $350 for my Sony drive less than a year ago, and the slightly improved replacement model is selling for $200.... You could get a good DVD+/-RW for under $150 and you don't have to worry about standards.

[barneygumble742]

thanks everyone for your input. i bought a lite-on 52x32x52 from newegg for $40. its not the cdrw/dvd-rom.

[Daniel ~]

How do you like it?

[danrok]

That's a bargain! How do they do it? Must be made in China!

[barneygumble742]

Originally Posted by danrok

That's a bargain! How do they do it? Must be made in China!

hi,

does it matter if its made in china or not? is there a difference in quality?

i haven't received the package yet. i'm still waiting for fedex to move their behind. they're 2 miles away from me but i have to wait 'til tuesday for them to deliver it because they don't work on sunday and monday

thanks,
barneygumble742

[danrok]

It doesn't matter if it's made in China. Many electrical goods are made in China - that's why the price is so low.

Appartently half the ships at sea are transporting goods from China to Walmart.

[barneygumble742]

i received the drive on tuesday and ever since i've been doing backups. i've been burning 52x compusa brand cds and it takes slightly above 2 minutes i think. i haven't exactly checked the clock on the nero program. with the 4x memorex cdrws i've been burning on, it takes around 17 minutes. so you can definitely tell the difference.

i like it a lot. and by the way, it is LOUD!!! from reading reviews, i didn't want to believe that its going to be loud but it is. and absolutely no vibration which is great. also i should mention that both my side panels are removed for better airflow and easy access incase something goes wrong. so i think if my case is completely closed, then the noise might not be as loud as it is.

and finally, the drive is very small compared to the others i have. it fits perfectly where its not sticking out in the front or in the back. it fits perfectly with my 5.25 bay rails.

i was also surprised that the front on the cdrw did not have a "lite-on" label. it simply has 52x32x52x in tiny print next to the eject button.

30+ cds so far and no coasters =)

[CaesaR]

Definatly go with the Lite-On, Those are the ONLY CDRW's my store sells and we have never had a return on them in the 7months we've been selling them.

[Shrekster1980]

You Chose well barney: I have a lite-on 48x24x48 Smartburn technology in my spare system.

But why dont you buy a DVD RW. For around $120 You can get a Dual DVD RW superwrite which i have.
CDR's @ 40x
CDRW @ 10x
DVD - R @4x
DVD + R @ 8x
DVD RW+/- @2.4x

shrekster

[barneygumble742]

one tiny info i think i should add:

after a couple of weeks of nonstop cdrw use, i found that the 'nero drivespeed' that comes with the retail package controls how fast you want the cd to be read.

the drive is very loud and i don't care much for speed when it comes to reading music cds. so i specified drivespeed to run it at 16x or 24x and the noise is very negligible.

i've already recommended it to several people.