Need a new CD/DVD drive

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Flogger23m

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Need to get a new DVD/CD combo drive. Must play and burn both CD/DVDs in one drive.

What is the best quality/brand I can get?

I have a horrid Samsung, and it just died for the 3rd time in 1 1/2 years, just in time for my planned move to Win 7.:mad:

I have heard Sony was good, but I want something that will last longer than 20 or so burns or at least 6 months.

Does any brand make such a drive, or are they pretty much disposable/one time use these days?
 
Anything now will do pretty good. Personally I prefer Lite-on. You can get an OEM one on newegg for less than $30.
 
uh, its not rocket science. they are fairly cheap components nowadays. get a sata drive and you should be set. don't get sony, some say they are region locked. as for them "dying" it may be that your lenses are getting dirty. do you smoke or leave the drive open a lot?
 
I've hardly used the 2nd and 3rd drive.

Don't smoke, don't leave it open, and I never leave a disc in when it is not in use (almost never).

In fact, outside of trying to make some back up DVDs last month, I have not used the drive in around 2 months. It has burned probably 12 discs, if that. It is practically new.

Drive #2 started randomly ejecting discs on the 5th day of owning it.

This is a SATA drive, the Samsung SH-223F.

So Lite On is one of the better brands. How does Sony compare?
 
I have a sata sony, its been pretty good so far although I haven't tried anything from a different region. I had nec ide burner that thing was awesome. Lite on isn't that great, they are cheap but quality isn't too great.
 
I am in well over 2 years with my 20 dollar lite-on. This being said honestly I haven't had a problem with any burner in years being just plain junk. I Do however steer clear of sony. I just don't like them at all. But I ahve done builds with Lite-on, Samsung & occasionally LG & I have never had a complaint about any of them. Infact I have a buddy with a Samsung that I built a system for earlier this year that has probably close to 1k disks through it already & its holding strong (he has a massive CD collection that he converted to mp3 & then reburns to CD format with whatever songs he is in the mood to listen to that day).
 
Well, I must just have awful luck with Samsung.

I've used my Philips (think it was) in my old PC (IDE) for around 3 years, and it has been used at least 20 times as much as all three of my Samsungs, and there has not been any issues with it.

Anyone have any experience with current Philips drives?
 
Lite-On drives are fantastic and a solid recommendation over at CDFreaks.com (now MyCE.com or whatever the hell they pooched it with). Sony Opti-Arc drives are highly recommended as well but only particular models so, if you head over to that forum - arguably the best source of optical drive and media information/test/reviews on the whole Intarwebs - you can get a lot more info.

http://club.myce.com/f61/ (this is the link directly to the CD/DVD optical drives subforum)

There is also a specific optical drive section here at this forum:

http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=86

It doesn't get a great deal of activity but, it's there nonetheless.
 
I agree with everyone above. Lite-on has always produced solid drives. I use them in all my builds.
 
Reality:

All DVD drives are subcontracted out to the lowest bidder these days, and margins are razor-thin, so quality is out the window. The drives have labels slapped on them, and are sold as-if they were actually made by those big manufacturers.

There is no "perfect" optical drive anymore. Back around the year 2000, you couldn't go wrong if you bought Plextor. Around 2003, you were guaranteed good luck with a Lite-On. But today, I see good and bad reviews for every single drive brand in existence.

So, just buy whatever. You may get a lemon, or you may get a drive that lasts for years - either way, they're cheap to replace.
 
Will check out that forum, and I guess I am leaning towards lite on. For whatever reason, I went with Samsung when I bought my PC, Lite On was my 2nd choice...


defaultluser said:
Reality:

All DVD drives are subcontracted out to the lowest bidder these days, and margins are razor-thin, so quality is out the window. The drives have labels slapped on them, and are sold as-if they were actually made by those big manufacturers.

There is no "perfect" optical drive anymore. Back around the year 2000, you couldn't go wrong if you bought Plextor. Around 2003, you were guaranteed good luck with a Lite-On. But today, I see good and bad reviews for every single drive brand in existence.

So, just buy whatever. You may get a lemon, or you may get a drive that lasts for years - either way, they're cheap to replace.
Click to expand...


I guess so, but I've already spent $21 on replacements. :p

IMO, it is such a critical part of a computer that it should be really reliable.
 
I have dual lite-on DVD+-RW drive in my rig. They have been working perfectly for the last two years. I would purchase them again.
 
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