Best DVD+-RW drive for ~$70?

L

Lakitu

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
465
I'm not that good at researching all the different types of drives and whatnot, but I am in need of a new DVD burner(I have a MicroAdvantage 4x one right now, that I sold in the forums). I would like 16x +-R speeds, and pretty fast RW and DL speeds as well. I'm sure you guys know what's good and whats not, so any suggestions?
 
NEC 3520a @ newegg for under $65, black, silver, or beige... won gold medal @ Anandtech for best DL burner...

i have one.
 
Both of these are reviewed great and you won't be disapointed. Personally I have the NEC and I love it. Does 8X sony disks @ 16X!!
 
Personally I would have gotten the Pioneer but the decision you made is still a good one.
 
I'd say the NEC 3520A and Benq DW1620 are the two best under $70.

The LG looks like a good drive too though.
 
sac_tagg said:
Pioneer DVR-109.
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i agree try and find another DVD drive for the same price that can do 6x±DL (not just +R but -R DL as well). pioneer's burn quality so far by my own tests is unmactched. but whatever drive you get just dont get toshiba or BENQ, they are the WORST followed closely by SONY
 
Spectre said:
Personally I would have gotten the Pioneer but the decision you made is still a good one.
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not really, it cant do -R DL and for the same price the NEC CAN, burn quality is about the same between NEC and LG
 
klowngoblin said:
i agree try and find another DVD drive for the same price that can do 6x±DL (not just +R but -R DL as well). pioneer's burn quality so far by my own tests is unmactched. but whatever drive you get just dont get toshiba or BENQ, they are the WORST followed closely by SONY
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Why do you say Benq is the worst?
 
How have the Lite-On´s been for DVD burnes? They´ve had a great track record for me with CD burners but I´ve got no experience with their DVD´s. Would you guys recommend them?

-wil
 
Someone told me that the Memorex DVD+R Dual Layer is a rebadged lite-on
 
TechHead said:
Why do you say Benq is the worst?
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Well i dont know what he's talking about but Benq is one of the best.

Those new Lightscribe DVD burners from HP look to be manufactured by Benq as well.
 
pigwalk said:
How have the Lite-On´s been for DVD burnes? They´ve had a great track record for me with CD burners but I´ve got no experience with their DVD´s. Would you guys recommend them?

-wil
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Nope. For speeds upto 8X, L-O drives are good, but there are SO MANY better choices at speeds >8X, it isn't funny. Get a Pio 109, LG4163, Plex 716 or Benq 1620... all are good drives.

And yes, most of Memorex's latest internal drives are Lite-On OEMs.

Burningrave, the HP Lightscribe drives can be Benq AND Lite-On as well
 
i am thinking about getting NEC but i cant decide which one to get.... so many good DVD writers out there....

- LiteOn SOHW-1653S
- LiteOn SOHW-1673S
- NEC 3520A
- Samsung TS-H552B
- Pioneer DVR-109
- Plextor 716A

any, decent blank DVD+R or DVD-R for sale??? :D
 
TechHead said:
Why do you say Benq is the worst?
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i have a friend that works at a large computer store, most of the systems he's built with benq burners dont burn dvds properly or its a low quality burn (skips during playback or has artifacts) or the burner doesn't even recognize lower quality media like the POS toshiba DVDRW on dads laptop. toshiba is by far the worst. my co-worker has a benq drive that he got for $50CDN at futureshop (16x DVDRW) and half the dvds he burns are unreadable, even audio cds that comes out of that drive dont work in his car. he has the EXACT same media i have Ritek CDRs and DVDRs. my pioneer can burn any media no matter how crappy it is and it will still work flawlessly. the diffrence is working and not working.

and yes get the PIO DVR-109, its a pioneer with rip UNLOCKED, OR if you cant find the pio get the pioneer and reflash the drive to a region free rip unlocked firmware (what i did)

the NEC is pretty good out of the box, i only recommed the pioneer and NEC, plextor is just a rip off, dont buy into their BS name (reminds me of sony)
 
did some reasearch at cd freaks these are bad points about the newest benq drive

Only 2.4x Double layer writing (a free upgrade to 4x DVD+R DL writing is promised in November!!)
Questionable CD-RW writing quality
Writing quality problems with some DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs.
Reads DVDR/RW media at only 8x compared to 12x/16x for many other new drives.
Does not support Mt. Rainier.
Only a “one sheep” writer, which gives it a disadvantage for backing up some newer PC games.
The BenQ tools (firmware updater, bitsetting tool and disc doctor) crashes on some computer configurations.

got this from another site cdrinfo

Doesn't support 1X/2X writing with DVD-R/RW media
Does not support overburning with DVD±R/RW media
Cannot backup copy protected games with most versions of SafeDisc protection
Doesn't support reading of DVD-RAM media
Doesn't support reading of C2 pointers

go to http://www.cdrinfo.com it has the BEST reviews! very very detailed,
 
klowngoblin said:
did some reasearch at cd freaks these are bad points about the newest benq drive

Only 2.4x Double layer writing (a free upgrade to 4x DVD+R DL writing is promised in November!!)
Questionable CD-RW writing quality
Writing quality problems with some DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs.
Reads DVDR/RW media at only 8x compared to 12x/16x for many other new drives.
Does not support Mt. Rainier.
Only a “one sheep” writer, which gives it a disadvantage for backing up some newer PC games.
The BenQ tools (firmware updater, bitsetting tool and disc doctor) crashes on some computer configurations.

got this from another site cdrinfo

Doesn't support 1X/2X writing with DVD-R/RW media
Does not support overburning with DVD±R/RW media
Cannot backup copy protected games with most versions of SafeDisc protection
Doesn't support reading of DVD-RAM media
Doesn't support reading of C2 pointers

go to http://www.cdrinfo.com it has the BEST reviews! very very detailed,
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That's the 1625 you are talking about.. I was referring to the 1620. ANyway, not to site-pimp or anything (disclaimer: I'm a mod @ CDRLabs as well), but CDRLabs and CDFreaks offer excellent reviews as well.. unlike the porn and warez site CDRInfo used to run...
 
klowngoblin said:
not really, it cant do -R DL and for the same price the NEC CAN, burn quality is about the same between NEC and LG
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I won't be using Dual Layer anyways, I just wanted the fastest speeds all around for single layer, and this has got 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW
 
I got that MIcro Advantage drive on ebay for a semi-cheap price of $60, it was 4x. Not sweet.
 
TechHead said:
That's the 1625 you are talking about.. I was referring to the 1620. ANyway, not to site-pimp or anything (disclaimer: I'm a mod @ CDRLabs as well), but CDRLabs and CDFreaks offer excellent reviews as well.. unlike the porn and warez site CDRInfo used to run...
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lol oh i didnt see anyporn, but i do have alot of site blockers. hmm and the first review was from cdfreaks, they all have super indepth reviews! checking the reviews and finding out your own specific needs is the only way to really buy a ODD drive.
 
klowngoblin said:
lol oh i didnt see anyporn, but i do have alot of site blockers. hmm and the first review was from cdfreaks, they all have super indepth reviews! checking the reviews and finding out your own specific needs is the only way to really buy a ODD drive.
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Check the CDFreaks forum for the two most recommended drives when someone posts asking the daily question of which drive is the best. The Benq 1620 and the NEC 3520A are the two most often mentioned for top performance/quality.

The bad thing about looking at reviews is that you only have one person doing the review and they dont always know everything. On the forums you have hundreds of users that have the drive and tested it themselves.

I was going to get the Plextor 708A which was on sale at Best Buy till i saw all the problems people had had with it on the forum so i decided to just save my money and get the NEC or Benq.
 
Recieved the GSA-4163B from Newegg today, and it installed fine, and could even read my backup disk that my other DVD drive couldn't(Man that was frustrating, not being able to get the stuff off the disk because I'd keep getting errors on my old drive), it rips music way faster, overall it's sweet so far.
 
if you have a costco nearby and a membership they usually have the plextor drives at a good price, make sure to check them out as well
 
klowngoblin said:
if you have a costco nearby and a membership they usually have the plextor drives at a good price, make sure to check them out as well
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Another vote for Plextor...

I have the PX-708A (my first DVD burner; burned over 200 DVD's and still going strong) and the newer PX-712 (amazing!)
 
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