Wow, yall are flaming maniacs (in a burning cd's sense) I think as long as you have a good cd burner you can not burn to many cd's. I think operating it constantly instead of on and off on and off would make it last longer. Kinda like the leaving your pc on at night vs. turning it off. With burner prices so low and dvd burners becoming affordable i think that if your burner does crap out on you it would probably be time to upgrade anyways. just my 2 cents