I'm a Plextor user too (my 4220 SCSI burner is 5+ yrs old and going strong) and my 712a is as good as I'll likely need for some time. Not likely to need DL for a long time (until prices/availability improve). If you want/need DL, get the 716a/sa. The Plextor SA versions are also some of the few SATA optical burners on the market. They only work with a limited number of SATA controllers, see the compatibility list on
http://www.plextor.com. This will improve as the SATAII spec hardware enters the market. But if you want it now, and your mobo's controller is incompatible, a cheap SiliconImage based SATA controller will fix you up.
. As was mentioned above, there is a $30. rebate on several Plextor models running thru the end of March - easy to find the info on their site (kind of slow on sending the rebate checks, but I finally got mine at about 10 weeks - so what's new?).
. There are other makes/models that do some things better than the Plexis, but few cover as many of the bases as well. Having both blk and bge faces in the box is cool too - not to mention the fab software package.
. NEC is strictly an OEM product and generally comes 'drive only' - but the packagers can help there as mentioned above (if you can find out what's in the box - often difficult). Pioneer drives are NEC based and Sonys are LiteOn based. Toshiba and LG (Lucky Goldstar) are sharing development on their DVD burners. You will find Optorite under a lot of other brands including MSI. Asus' DVD burners are rebadged Pioneer/NEC. Benq drives are Philips technology and AOpen are licensed from Ricoh. Very confusing.
. AFAIK, Dell.com has the best price on the 716a retail pack, but they were OOS last I looked (easy to list the best price when you are OOS ). One guy told of having one of Dell's $50 certs and ending up with a net of $30. after rebate. Heckuva a cheap price to grab a Plexi. My 712a was nearly $200. when it first came out last spring. Good luck.
.bh.
:moon: