Are all CdRoms drives crap?

[Vostok]

Im sick of having to buy a new Cdrom every year or so. Kenwood, Acer, Wearnes, ect, are all crap. I had a 52x Kenwood most recently (sigh i know) but all said it did have one selling point -- extremely quiet operation. Some of the newer drives sound as if the CD is spinning so fast should the tray pop out it would go flying discus style and logde is someones leg. So, yes, i need another quiet drive. DVD is a non-issue, but safedisk is. Ive poked around on the boards and heard the names Toshiba and Teac bantered around; but ive used Teacs and they seem pretty average. I would like this one to last longer than a year.

 

[Kntx]

I've had the same 10x acer cdrom since my p166 was something to brag about. No problems...

 

[Duvie]

Well we are talking about different things...there are quite drives and there are fast transfer drives...and some that may be both...

obviously the real quite drives don't spin necessarily at same rpms therefore may not transfer data and read data as quickly...

Do the research at a review site...

What is the problem with the kenwood? cdr reading issues?

my kenwood 42x benches 50x plus in reading and is quiet like you said so I use it for loading and transfers mostly...It also rips dae well for cd to cd burning.
However for fast rips to harddrive the cdrws seem to be the real leaders..my aopen does it at a whopping 31x...

What are you looking for in a drive besides quiet? What are its general uses?

 

[aznmoshboy]

I agree with Duvie. Quieter cdrom drives usually run slower and at slower rpms. I have a 10X cdrom and a 56X cdrom - the 10x is really quiet while my 56x sounds more like a washing machine. Both ways, I think cdroms don't matter too much anyways because they aren't in use except for loading a game and installing games.

 

[Pauli]

What do you mean when you say "...but ive used Teacs and they seem pretty average"? You are not including any useful criteria here. When I evaluate CD-ROM drives I evaluate based on 5 things(in order of importance to me):
1. Quiet operation at all speeds
2. General compatibility with all types of media
3. CloneCD compatibility
4. DAE performance
5. Data throughput performance

From my recent experience:
Toshiba 6602B meets all criteria very well except for (4). DAE of 8x-13x is not great but not too bad.
Teac CD-540E meets all criteria very well except for (3). Very slow "fast error skips".
Afreey 52x is good at (2),(4), and (5) but is somewhat loud and has average CloneCD compatibility.
Memorex 48x is very loud and has poor (5x-8x) DAE performance. I did not bother to test the other criteria.

I hope this answers your question and gives you a better idea of how to evaluate CD-ROM drives.

 

[elchen]

Two brands pop up in my mind
TEAC and Toshiba
the Toshiba 40X scsi cd rom is a really great drive
TEAC is respected throughout the cdrom industry.

 

[XMan]

I like my UltraPlex. It's a little loud, but no biggy.

 

[MrHelpful]

My late Mitsumi 24X and Mitsumi 48X both have served me well.

I hear Afreey drives are reliable too, but a tad loud.

 

[Shagga]

Only ever had Pioneer's and Plextors and never had a problem with them. In fact I think the Pioneer DR10x IDE (summut like that) seemed to be the quicker drive insofar as access time was concerned when compared with my UltraPlex 40max SCSI