Recommendations on CD-RW and DVD drives (1 Viewer)

[Todd Harlan]

I was looking to replace these two drives in my computer.

These are the drives I had in mind:

CD-RW

Yamaha Lightspeed

Plextor (I wish it came w/ the Nero software)

TDK

DVD

Cyndyne

Pacific Digital

Any thoughts or recommendations (I am having more trouble in the DVD area)?

Also, what is the difference between IDE, EIDE, and ATAPI? If it matters I have a DEll XPS T500 (about 2 years old). Thanks in advance.

 

[AllenD]

Todd,
I've had great success with a Pioneer DVD-116 drive. I don't have a direct manf. link, but here's one from MWAVE. No hiccups, dropouts, or stutter to speak of with PowerDVD 3.0. There's no HDD/IDE activity either during playback.

Also, what is the difference between IDE, EIDE, and ATAPI?

I'd be interested in this info as well. I bought the 116 knowing it was an EIDE/ATAPI interface which was compatible with my MOBO.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I'm pretty happy with my Liteon 24x10x40x CDRW drive (they have a faster 32x drive out nowaday and it's still near $100 (nice bargain).

 

[Brett DiMichele]

I run a LiteOn 16x48 DVD-ROM and a NEC 24x10x48 CD-RW and

they both work well.

 

[CRyan]

Another vote for the Lite-On 24x. Great burner at a great price. Have not created a coaster yet in the approximate 80 burns thus far.

C. Ryan

 

[Larry Seno Jr.]

I have a TDK 16X CDRW and it's amazing, no coasters so far in well over 100 burns.

what is the difference between IDE, EIDE, and ATAPI?

All the same thing. These are old terminologies dating back to the day when EIDE had a bandwidth advantage over IDE, but now they are one in the same.
Check here for a quick explanation
http://www.ata-atapi.com/#T2

 

[Todd Harlan]

Thanks for the input.

I found the Lite-on DVD 16x (newegg.com) for $53. Does it matter if I go with the OEM or RETAIL version? The retail was only $5 more, so I figured I would go with that.

Larry,

Thanks for that link. I am leaning towards the TDK. I like the Plextor but i am not to crazy about the software. The Yamaha and the TDK comes with Nero. Reading the other thread about the software, it seems this is the preferred.

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Todd,

The OEM version would be like what came with my MicronPC

you get just the drive in a generic box, minimal documentation.

The Retail version would come in a fancy box with a fancy

manual and probably some free software on a CD.

 

[Patrick Sun]

With a Liteon, you should get the Nero CDRW burning software with either the OEM or retail version (it's pretty much worth it for the software alone IMHO). The retail version will net you a free CD-R, and a free CD-RW, and the 4-pin audio cable.

 

[Todd Harlan]

I saw on newegg.com that the Windows XP Home - OEM goes for about $90 compared to the normal $200. I can handle missing documentation or packaged in a brown cardboard box. Would I miss out on anything else?

This is one reason I am upgrading some of my hardware (I added 256k of RAM and ordered a new CPU), so I could upgrade to XP.

...thanks again for the input

 

[Chris]

I have the plextor.. and the lite-on. Both are great drives. But if you could have just one, the value really is in the lite-on drive.

 

[Roy C.]

IDE, EIDE more specific to hard drives and their interface, 40-pin data cable. ATAPI is an interface that provides additional commands to handle CD-ROM and tape drives. ATAPI allows the PC to use the IDE interface to control these type devices. Did someone get that??? I know, it's late. LOL

Later,

Roy C.