Is Plextor still king? Trying to pick a drive.

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Crash3087

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I'm working on building a new computer and had originally planned to get a Plextor drive by default because back a few years ago I always heard they were the best. I was looking at the "Slot Load 16X DVD±R DVD Burner PX-716AL/SW" ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827131352 )

But then I looked at some of the NewEgg reviews on a few of the Plextor drives and it wasn't all praise. For one model a review was claiming it as a rebadge from another manufacturer even. So I held off on that and bought some other stuff instead so I'd have time to research before I order the rest of the parts.

So I'm trying to choose the best drive without ever really having kept up on optical drive tech. I'm more into the functionality of it than anything but I don't mind paying extra for slot load if the drive is good.

I want to be able to backup and burn my console games and computer games - I need a drive that supports the features in CloneCD and software like that to do a 1:1 copy.

So does anyone have an opinion on this? Are Plextors worth the premium and are they dependable and full featured as they were in the past? Or maybe someone could point me to a model of a different brand that will live up to what I require.
 
Check the stickies in the Optical subforum. I have a BenQ 1640 myself, and it's a nice drive. The 1650/55 is apparently good, as well.

 
get a lite-on on newegg. It will prob. save you 75% price of a plextor.

I've used plextor before and never had a single coaster. We did live network burns (burning data stored on another computer) and it was like magic.
 
For absolute best quality, plextors have it.

The truth is, there are other drives out there that are 95-98% what the plextors are but at the $40 price point (BenQ 1650, NEC 35xx, etc).

If you have to have the best, Plexi is still the way to go on their premium drives, but if that 5% is not worth the extra $100, there are other options.

However, the slot load is a sexxxxyyy feature. :)

The re-badged stuff is the plextor's line of cheaper drives aimed at the Best Buy market where consumers who don't exactly know better will just not buy a $130 drive when there's a $60 drive with the same speeds on it, next on the shelf. Those are the BenQ re-badges. They are stellar drives, but lack some features the plextor premium series have. The premium drives arent re-badges (IIRC, but my plexi shopping stopped when I discovered BenQ).

At the rate optical drives change, I cannot justify another plexwriter. I have one and "If it has to be done perfectly" thats the burner I use. For run of the mill burns, I'll wear out a $40 drive and have the cash to replace it 3 or 4 times over with the a less expensive drive that does "almost as good"

Please don't get me wrong. If money is absolutely zero object, or this drive contains a feature that is deemed "Mission Critical" then get this drive. If another drive does what you want to do, I'm sure you will be as pleased with a $40 drive and have the cash to upgrade it 3 more times with the money you saved.
 
link

yeah the slot load is nice on the -A1 I think it's called

I was gonna buy one but they are like $140 last i checked

plus if you get a plextor you'll get the cool reflective shiny bar thing on the slide out tray.
 
Thanks for the replies so far. I just got concerned that maybe Plextor wasn't quality anymore because of the rebadges and other negative reviews (which were likely user error anyway.)

I don't mind spending the money but I don't like to be stupid with money. Just needed some reassurance.
 
I'm a little partial to BenQ 1655/1650 models for the slightly better burn quality, but that lite-on is no slouch either.

a lot of the reviews on newegg are garbage. I'm sorry, plextor says "Don't buy our drive if your SATA controller isnt supported" and people buy the drive, have horrible luck and complain. Well, caveat emptor. :) (Another case and point, someone gave that plexi you linked to a 4 star because "the tray is flimsy". What tray, its a slot loader???)

Their re-badges arent slouches, but hell, its a BenQ. I'll save $20 and get the same drive ;)
 
Don't have any experience with plextor, so can't give advice either way.
I have an older NEC3450, have burnt over 200 DVD's on it without 1 coaster. Drive is near dead silent. Love it. :)
just my .02
 
AreEss said:
Bah.
Somebody said Slot Load?

Disclaimer; I don't suggest NewEgg. Just easiest to find right there.
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That's a laptop drive. Do conversion kits to mount those in a standard 5.25" bay exist? Otherwise it's pretty useless for desktop applications...

 
unhappy_mage said:
That's a laptop drive. Do conversion kits to mount those in a standard 5.25" bay? Otherwise it's pretty useless for desktop applications...
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Yes, they do make conversion kits to mount them into 5.25" bays. Two slim CD-ROMs to a single 5.25" bay; laptop SATA or EIDE to normal SATA or ATAPI adapters sold seperately. Sadly, can't seem to find them at the moment. I know they're out there though; I've found 'em before.
 
Plextor always in my book. never a problem, and lots of features. and Plex Tools own...
 
I burn a TON of dvd and cd discs for local new movie and music video directors, so on an average week, I'll burn like around 5,000 dvd and cds (total). Every drive I've had has basically been replaced every week due to the high volume.

I decided to purchase Plextor drives and they still keep going and going and going and going and going, It shocks me (i'm waiting for the drive to due like every other one).

I don't know what it is that Plextor uses, or how they make it but so far 100,000 discs have been burn on my Plextor 716A drive.
 
I just recently purchased a Plextor 755SA drive to replace and old failing NEC drive.

I had a question about something that wasn't clear in the manual, so I emailed the support people, this was on a saturday afternoon.

They emailed me back within 2 hours, on a weekend no less, with a full answer to my question.

THAT's what the extra cost is worth in my mind. I've yet to deal with any other company who got back to me that quick and on a weekend.

As a side note, the 755SA kicks serious ass in the burning department. :D
 
Taradino said:
I burn a TON of dvd and cd discs for local new movie and music video directors, so on an average week, I'll burn like around 5,000 dvd and cds (total). Every drive I've had has basically been replaced every week due to the high volume.
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That's a thousand a day, assuming you work five days a week - or about one every 30 seconds. Are these all unique, or do you have a tower churning out large numbers of duplicates?

 
Most of the discs are usually newly rendered footage from a video director I deal with.
Really, I will burn more for cd jockeys which is mass duplication. I pay have a friend who I have to be running the dedicated computer for the burning.

I guess it depends on the day for what I burn (usually just personal stuff, ie: weddings, stags, audio cd's and data backup discs).
 
I basically only use plextor drives because I have been IDE free for over a year now. My main PC, server, and HTPC don't have a single IDE drive in them. The only way to go in my book. I might look at others once they put out some SATA DVD burners.
 
Gatticus said:
What makes SATA burners better? My guess is they are not any better.
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Hit the nail on the head. There's no real advantage to SATA over ATAPI burners. ATAPI burners aren't fast enough to actually choke the bus, and there's pretty much no way an SATA burner is going to choke the SATA bus.
The main reason for SATA DVD-ROM/DVD+-RW/etc in laptops is component and size counts; the SATA connector is smaller than 44-pin ATAPI, there's less pins, and they don't have to put a 44-pin header on the motherboard.
 
Gatticus said:
What makes SATA burners better? My guess is they are not any better.
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Nothing really, but everything is moving away from it. Intel's 965?? chipset doesn't even support IDE anymore. They have to put an add on chip on the board.

The main reasons I use it is I don't have to have a bulky IDE cable in my case and because it is newer. I like to adopt new standards right away even if there isn't any speed improvement. I moved to PCI-Express right away even though it didn't give me any advantages over AGP, hell we never really maxed out the AGP standard.

Please note that although I said it was the only way to go in my book, I never said they were any better over IDE. For me putting any IDE device in my PC is like putting a floppy drive in one of them, strictly forbidden!! :D

I'd get that, its the latest technology, its fast, 3 inches shorter, and samsung drives have the best reviews on newegg.
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The latest technology?? So it it Blu-ray or HD DVD. ;)

While I can't recommend that drive (I only recommend things I have personally used); I have had excellent luck the the Samsung brand in general. That drive looks like it lives up to that standard.
 
brom42 said:
The latest technology??
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Yeah, it was recently released, like two weeks ago. It should be the latest technology as far as dvd drives go.
 
Gatticus said:
What makes SATA burners better? My guess is they are not any better.
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Depends on what you define "better" as, since thats a very generic term subject to a LOT of variation.

To me its better because it uses smaller cables, thus giving me better airflow through the case. Its also better because the drive itself is not as deep as most IDE ones I've had over the years, giving me more room and potentially even more airflow in the case.

SATA itself is better because there are no jumpers to mess with, just plug it in and go.

The drive itself may or may not burn better than other IDE drives, but thats due to the hardware involved in the burning, not the interface to the motherboard.

Overall, I still love this PX-755SA, its bloody fast and gives very high quality burns as long as you use good media.

So to me, yes, it is better than most IDE drives I've seen.
 
My Plextor PX-716SA is just a little over a year old and no longer burns music CDs and Dual Layer media.

Called Plextor up and they said that since my drive is over a year old (warranty 1yr) Im pretty much shit out of luck in getting fixed. They don't do RMA's. The guy on the phone told me that my best option was to buy a new one. SATA drives may be a nice feature but I have had hell off and on with the PX716SA due to lack of proper driver support. Blame nVidia nForce 4 on that one. The drive has been great but the fact that it died this early and Plextor's lack of support in getting me a replacement because Im a month or two over warranty. To hell with em'. The drives are already expensive enough and I feel that they should at least fix the drive, oh wait, they don't do that.

So as it stands now Im going back to trusty ol' IDE. Right now Im between the NEC and the Samsung drive.
 
Samsung drives are still not mature. I recommend sticking to IDE and the latest Pioneer, LG or Benq burners.
 
Heh, I dunno why the Samsung is even appealing. A friend of mine can't even get his to work anymore. Never really looked into the BenQ's. I also had an NEC drive for many years back when I bought a Dell 8100. I certainly put that drive through its paces and it still works to this day.

*edit* This one caught my eye.

BenQ DW1655
 
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=184536


Samsung drives are still not mature.
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Old samsung drive(not the one I linked before): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151118

only this NEC drive has more votes for it, while still maintaining 5 stars

Old nec drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058

I think that speaks alot about general customer satisfaction for a product over a period of time; the BenQ, LG, and Pioneer brand drives don't have nearly as many people voting for them or even in a most of the cases a 5 star satisfaction rating.

Solely based on only that information, anyone would naturally assume the samsung and nec drives are generally of higher quality unless shown otherwise(**hint hint** you didn't back up your opinion with any reliable information).
 
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