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<< internal transport mechanisms are much more likely to fail than tray mechanisms. >>
I don't know about anyone else in here, but I have a Pioneer 6X DVD-ROM I bought over two years ago and it is running great with no issues with the loading mechanism. For me the fewer moving parts means a lower failure rate and the tray loaders need an awful lot of moving parts to work. Just my thoughts. I will also vote for the Pioneer, but my experience with Aopen has been very good as well. Sounds like they are basically the same drive, so get whatever's cheaper. As for benefits, the best thing to me is that there are not two trays on my PC to get in each other's way when both are ejected (like at the end of an on-the-fly burn). I really like it that way. >>
I also have a 2 year old Pioneer Slot drive that works perfectly and not giving me any problem. Slot drive is not only for good looking, it is very convinient too. I could switch cd/dvd faster than tray.
It is possible though that many people having problem with slot because they push the CD/DVD to hard when inserting them on the drive. My car cd player is also slot and it's 5 year old player and works like a champ