CDRW drives

[systempat]

Any opinions on brands of CDRW? I saw a deal on a Liteon drive.
Buy or avoid ? I'm building a new system so my options are open.

Pat

[lil Jimmie]

The LiteOn CDRW drives are a popular choice here at the Mech. I have 2 of them and they are very dependable.

[gladiator]

Did you see that Samsung on sale at Best Buy 29.99 with rebates I think today is the last day, I believe someone posted that circuit city has a RICOH(SP) on sale also.
I have the Lite-on which seems to be working ok It came with Nero 5 but only will work with the lite-on burner you have to buy the upgrade if you want to use Nero5 with another burner.

also on the box of the lite-on burner. mine didn't say lite-on mine said "Buslink" at Best Buy. only when I got it home and opened it did I see that it was a lite-on burner

[HAL9000]

LiteOn's are awesome drives... not to mention that I flashed the firmware on my 40x and it's now a 48x.

[systempat]

That sounds like 2 out of 3 yes votes.
The PC-club near me has a model with the black face panel, which will match the new case. I think it's the 40x model.

Think I will have to cruise over there this afternoon or tomorrow ....:cool:

Pat

[PardeGT]

I also like the Lite-Ons but I purchased a few LG (Goldstar) drives when Newegg was out of stock on Lite-On and they seem to do just as good. I have since started buying both depending on price and availability.

[Rick Hall]

YEP!
I also have LG and I wouldn't trade it for any other brand.
The LG is compatible with every piece of software out there and it runs flawlessly. I would have to say that the LG and the Lite-on are probably about the most reliable drives out there today.

[casey]

YEP!
For the past 9 months I only buy LG Writers to fit to customers PC's. Myself, runing 5 LG burners at the moment. They are brilliant, quiet,works with any software and you can stick them on any IDE cable and in any configuration and they work everytime.
not to mention that they are very media friendly.

[glc]

However, the Samsungs are not so good. They don't last.

My TDK 24x (made by Lite-On) is a great drive. Quiet, reliable, and fast for what it is.

[reboot]

Another vote for LiteOn and LG. I use either of those in all my builds, CD's and CDRW's.

[Michael]

I've used my 16x Lite-On extensively in the past year and its been a real work horse. My LG 16x didn't fare as well (lots of write errors). I think they're both good drives, my LG was obviously defective. I just tried out a Lite-On and LG 40x and despite LG's better build I went with the Lite-On again (it was the faster of the two drives). One caveat , the LG would write 24x media at 40x, but the Lite On would not.

[Tuf]

I replaced one of my plextors earlier this week with one from LG. I was looking for a Lite On but no one had one locally. I burned several discs today and it works as good or better than the Plextor I replaced. I think its a little quieter and it's quite a bit faster.

[casey]

I can't agree more with you Tuf. These LG's simply rock. I also think the build quality is top notch, very good tray mechanism and like you say quiet. Which model did you get 32x or 40x ? I still have three 16x 8160b and two 40x 8400. funny thing (the one 40x (firm1.02) is the 2meg buffer one and the other 8meg buffer (firm1.00) the 2meg model is 5 seconds faster than the 8meg model. It burns a 701meg data disc in 2:56.

[Mac Medic]

The screen savers tv show did a round up of 48x burners this week, The top 2 were a dead heat at 2.32min to burn a cd. They were the Lite-On 48x and the TDK 48x(which i use). I, Like Tuf tried to find the Lite-On locally, but to no avail so I "Settled" for the TDK instead. But I must admit I am very impressed with it.

[glc]

oem: I do believe your TDK is a rebadged Lite-On. Do the new ones still have the translucent blue tray?

[TwoRails]

Originally posted by glc
oem: I do believe your TDK is a rebadged Lite-On. Do the new ones still have the translucent blue tray?

Yes, they do, and it adds a nice visual touch, I'd say...

My vote is TDK and / or Lite-On.

TwoRails

PS: there are at least two different makers of TDKs, and one my be LiteOn, but they are spec'd out different. Maximum PC recently did a review on both and the had different benchmarks.

[systempat]

I ended up with the Lite-on at 40x. They had the 48x but it was $10 more. The speed didn't make that much difference to me. I'm waiting for the rest of the pieces to arrive before I can assemble.

The case arrived and has a demaged front piece (bezel?) so I have to deal with customer service.

[Tuf]

I bought a 40x one. Nowhere that I have seen in the literature does it state the buffer size. Nero identifies it as having an 8 meg buffer. It seems to be well put together. So far I am very happy. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one.

[Michael]

The Lite On 40x has a 2mb buffer.

Specifications

l Speed :
Recording 40X(6000KB/sec) Z-CLV (20X, 24X@8min, 32X@18min, 40X@53min)
Re-writing 12X High-Speed (1800KB/sec) CLV
Reading 48Xmax (7200KB/sec) CAV (20X~48X)

l Interface : ATAPI-E/IDE, support up to Ultra-DMA Mode2, 33.3MB/sec

l Access Time : 80ms (typical)

l Buffer Memory Size: 2MB

[Mac Medic]

Excellent, seems i got the Lite-On after all, albeit at the expense of an extra $50, but i will say it was worth it.

[glc]

Buffer size is not as big an issue as it used to be, because Burnproof (Smartburn, whatever) will prevent buffer underruns now.

[Tuf]

My 40x is a LG and has a 8 mb buffer.

[raiderfan]

Yamaha and TDK are the big dogs, samsung suck - get a lot of returns and bad installs at Best lie.