CD/RW Reccomendations?

[Dunks]

Hi, i'm kinda new to CD/RW's, since i've never owned/used one before, so i was wondering if you guys know any good CD/RW's that you could reccomend to me? Are there any special features that i should look for when buying one? Any 'good' brands that have particularly reliable/long lasting devices.
thnx...

 

[AndyHui]

Plextor PlexWriter 12/10/32A.

Has Burn Proof to prevent buffer underruns/coasters, fast, stable drive that performs very well.

 

[Biggs]

Plextor 12x10x32.

 

[Gunbuster]

Plextor and rebadges (TDK, Iomega, creative), Sanyo, and Ricoh are the ones I have found to be solid drives.

Take a look in the hot deals. you missed the cheap Iomega

 

[MuffD]

If you have a scsi card, then I would recommend the Plextor 12x10x32 scsi for sure. If not, any of the above mentioned are good too.

 

[Whitedog]

Just make sure it's a SCSI.

Avoid anything IDE unless it's a hard drive.

 

[TonyT]

I'd go with the Plextor 12x10x32 if I were buying another CD-RW. I myself own a Creative Labs CD-RW 8x4x32 which has proven reliable (I haven't burnt a single coaster yet).

 

[Oblique]

A month ago I bought the Plextor 12/10/32. A week ago, my boss bought the rebadged TDK (there is a $50 dollar rebate on TDK's site). It'll burn your average audio CD in around 5 1/2 min, and I can't get it to coaster (even opened UT and Photoshop at the same time). I have an IDE drive, and I can't say anything bad about this drive, except that CD to CD "on the fly" copying doesn't work very well if both your CD Drives are on the same IDE channel.

 

[thorin]

whitedog
"Avoid anything IDE unless it's a hard drive. "

Why? That's a pretty big statement to make without something backing it up.

As long as your source and destination drives aren't on the same IDE channel and DMA is enabled then you will experience very very few IO problems. On top of that if you have a BurnProof CDRW like the plextor 12x does then you won't have any problems at all. Why pay extra for SCSI? Especially when it only takes 6 to 7 mins to burn a CD on a 12x.

I only have a 4x CDR but with my source drive and my CDR on seperate IDE channels and DMA enabled, I never have any problems. Even running other apps (office, email, netscape, etc..) at the same time. If I had a BurnProof CDR/W according to friends and reading I could play Q3 while burning and not have problems.

Thorin

 

[Neoplasia]

<< Avoid anything IDE unless it's a hard drive. >>


I have IDE everything, including the Plextor 12/10/32A. I highly reccommend it, as have many other people. Like Thorin said configure it correctly and no troubles at all. I've yet to have a problem making a CD (that wasn't my own stupid fault).

 

[Radboy]

Linkage

 

[John]

Plextor 12x10x32A zealot here

 

[Hanpan]

Just one more vote for plextor. I have an 8x20 scsi but nowadays a 12/10/32a should do the trick nicely. Burnproff is erally cool. Kinda makes scsi useless.

 

[steelthorn]

I have the TDK 12 10 32 and I love it. It's the same exact drive as the plextor but cooler looking and has better software. Maximum PC gave the plextor a 9 and then TDK a 10.

 

[Namuna]

Plextor/Iomega/TDK 12/10/32

Great drive.

You can still get in on some good action with the TDK labeled one. Do a search in the Hotdeals forum on 'velocd' Buy.com has the unit with 50CDR bundle back, after coupons and rebates you can get the WHOLE THING for under $150!

The TDK package is great because;
It comes with,
- Nero 5 (Burning Software)
- 2 Blank CDRs to start
- 1 Blank CD-RW

After updating the Firmware to 1.07, you get 32x DAE (This is for converting your Music CDs to MP3 files)

Great Drive.

 

[Smbu]

Go with a Plextor. I have a Plextor 12/10/32 scsi drive and it's great. I've never used the IDE version of the drive, but I've heard it's also a good drive, from all of the ppl who have one.

 

[Whitedog]

<<Why? That's a pretty big statement to make without something backing it up.>>

Everyone ALWAYS Whinning about &quot;backing up your statements&quot; here... Always the same crap! &quot;BACK THAT UP MAN!&quot;

Here...

BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW ME>>>

 

[Whitedog]

A suitable scsi controller for a CDROM is about 35 bux max. The extra cost for a CDROM or Burner is like, 50-100 bux. Having the added capabilites alone is worth that little money.

I have a CDRW, CDROM, ZIP, and 2 hard drives. Could I fit all that into IDE? no. Of course, not everyone would have that much, but... why put a limit on yourself.

All my non-hard drive devices run off a single cheap adaptec 50pin internal card Great! Leaves me room to run both hard drives on seperate channels, or have 4 if I want. I can even add more SCSI crap if I want to... Oh, I forgot to mention I have a scanner plugged into the back of my scsi card... 4 uses.

Yea, DMA is &quot;good&quot;, SCSI is better (as far as non-hard drive devices). SCSI Hard drives are just beyong economical for home PC's, we all know that. Yea, some of you are going to try to say &quot;but DMA is as good as scsi no a days&quot;... Whatever.

Not trying to be a smart@ss, but I just tire of the &quot;back that up&quot; whinny crap.

 

[Whitedog]

And to ADD to my Rant... The question on the Topic was &quot;CD/RW recommendations&quot; (spelled correctly)

I was making &quot;my recommendation&quot;... and I recommend avoiding IDE.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Need DVD as well? Go with the Ricoh MP9120A combo that chucks at 12x/10x/32x + *x DVD.

-SUO

 

[billandopus]

I'll offer an advanced opinion ... if you are REALLY into &quot;backing up&quot; copy protected games then you may want to look into Phillips-based hardware burners. I'm afraid I don't really know what particular burners carry the Phillips hardware but it ain't Plextor, unfortunately. I have a Plex 8432 and I love it. The only drawback is that non-Phillips-based hardware have problematic issues with SafeDisc2 copy protected media like new games such as Hitman and the like when using the best copying program, CloneCd from Elaborate Bytes by Olli, the guy who created CloneCd. Phillips-based burners have NO problem with SafeDisc2 copy protection and it looks like more and more games will come out with the SafeDisc2 designation.

Anyways, I'd recommend Plextor for the most part but this is something to think about.

 

[Techno]

I've heard great things about Ricohs CDRWs. I just bought a Ricoh 12x10x32x CDRW oem.

 

[Gunbuster]

Words of warning: the phillips 4x4x24 are one of the lowest quality drives around

I cant speak for any other models but the 4x phillips is the worst of the worst.
The current retail compaqs would be downright good computers if they could just stop using this brand drive.

The tray jams, discs get stuck inside it, if it burns a coaster it can lock the system at the bios and refuse to eject the cd, it dies and has no power, the eject clicker breaks, the flippy door spring breaks...............

You can tell I repair compaqs a lot

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

i have a ricoh MP9120A 12x 10x 32x + 8x DVD, and am very happy with it..


i think any good brand with burnproof technology (or equlivalent, like ricoh's justlink) is a must.

 

[billyjak]

TDK all the way.