Small build for optical drives

L

Lebowsky

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 21, 2013
Messages
119
I'm gonna build a small pc with a bunch of optical drives. Going to burn some masters, need to scan then, etc. Main work will be done on my current Z87 machine, so no need to power, just something that can run win7/8/10 and maybe the next one(s) in the future without hassle.

I found a cheap case with 6x 5.25 external slots so I'm good. (Cougar Evolution)

Mobo/CPU-wise is where it is getting harder though. I need something cheap which can accomodate 2-3 PCI cards for IDE, as well as 2-3 PCIe cards (for IDE interfaes etc.). At least 2 of each, 3 would be great I guess. Will run on onboards graphics, and need DVI.

Locally, this seems to be the current choice (ordered by price ascending and limited to what I'm willing to pay):


ASUS H110-PLUS, Intel H110 (90MB0PQ0)
Intel Socket 1151 • Dual Channel DDR4 (2133MHz) • DVI-D/VGA (D-Sub) • 2x PCIe x1, 3x PCI • 4x SATA 6Gb/s • 1x 10/100/1000Mbps LAN • 2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0 • ATX

MSI H81-P33, Intel H81 (7820-010R)
Intel socket 1150 • Dual Channel DDR3 (1600MHz) • DVI-I • 2x PCIe x1, 3x PCI • 2x SATA 3Gb/s, 2x SATA 6Gb/s • 1x 10/100/1000Mbps LAN • 4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0 • ATX

ASUS B150-PLUS, Intel B150 (90MB0PD0)
Intel Socket 1151 • Dual Channel DDR4 (2133MHz) • DVI-D/VGA (D-Sub) • 2x PCIe 3.0 x16 (Quad CrossFireX), 2x PCIe x1, 3x PCI • 6x SATA 6Gb/s, 1x M.2 (M key) • 1x 10/100/1000Mbps LAN • 4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 3.1 (type C) • ATX

ASROCK B85 Pro4, Intel B85
Intel socket 1150 • Dual Channel DDR3 (1600MHz) • VGA (D-Sub)/DVI-D/HDMI • 2x PCIe 3.0 x16/PCIe 2.0 x16 (Quad CrossFireX), 2x PCIe x1, 2x PCI • 2x SATA 3Gb/s, 4x SATA 6Gb/s • 1x 10/100/1000Mbps LAN • 4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0 • ATX

MSI B85-G41 PC Mate, Intel B85 (7850-003R)
Intel socket 1150 • Dual Channel DDR3 (1600MHz) • HDMI/DVI-D/VGA (D-Sub) • 2x PCIe 3.0 x16/PCIe 2.0 x16 (CrossFire), 2x PCIe x1, 2x PCI • 2x SATA 3Gb/s, 4x SATA 6Gb/s • 1x 10/100/1000Mbps LAN • 4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0 • ATX

MSI B85-G43, Intel B85 (7816-003R)
Intel socket 1150 • Dual Channel DDR3 (1600MHz) • HDMI/DVI-D/VGA (D-Sub) • 2x PCIe 3.0 x16/PCIe 2.0 x16 (CrossFire), 2x PCIe x1, 3x PCI • 2x SATA 3Gb/s, 4x SATA 6Gb/s • 1x 10/100/1000Mbps LAN • 6x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0 • ATX

ASUS H81-GAMER, Intel H81 (90MB0K20)
Intel socket 1150 • Dual Channel DDR3 (1600MHz) • DVI/VGA (D-Sub) • 3x PCIe x1, 3x PCI • 2x SATA 3Gb/s, 2x SATA 6Gb/s • 1x 10/100/1000Mbps LAN • 4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0 • ATX


I've stayed out of the game since Haswell in 2013... So no clue on the differences between all those chipsets. Also preferable would be a chipset for which CPU is cheaper. (RAM as well actually, prolly will go for 2x4GB value ram or so)

EDIT: price wise it would seem the best deal is for a Haswell Pentium G3260. Suitable with those B85/H81 mobos and what I want to do? 1151 equivalent would be the G4400. Or is that totally stupid and I should look at least at an i3?

So what do you think? Any suggestions, advice, opinion?
 
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I'm just curious as to why you need IDE at all. Current DVD burners on a SATA interface have come down in price tremendously. It is also hard to find a blue-ray burner that isn't SATA.

I like the ASUS B150-PLUS, Intel B150 (90MB0PD0) option.
Have an M.2 SSD for your OS, and then have 6 SATA DVD burners (blue-ray burners?) plugged directly into the motherboard.
Are you strictly burning, or are you doing any encoding? If you're just burning, the G4400 will be just fine. If you're encoding.... look at a much more serious CPU.
 
IDE is for some older CD drives like Plextor premiums, and for the BenQ DW1640 DVD scanner. It will be structly burning/scanning, all audio and video production will be done on my current i7-4770 machine, so no worries there :)
 
You could save some money and just get a couple of external burners. You can have 20 or so of them on a USB 3.0 bus no problem.
 
I'll submit a pointer of my own.

When burning optical media, I have found that I get much more reliable burns when I burn the media at 1/2 the speed the drive is rated at.

Basically, the slower the burn speed you use, the better the burn will be. I've never had to go below 1/2 speed though so that is what I use to make sure the burned media can be read by pretty much all drives.
 
These experts all agree that deep disc quality scanning is completely worthless. So stop putting your faith in ancient mumbo jumbo disc scanner software.

Checking the quality of a burned DVD: the best software?

Just get used to testing out every disc you burn, or just giving up on verification beyond the TRT scan suggested (no special hardware required).

Buy yourself a couple of USB DVD burners, and call it a day :D

And I'll agree with cyclone3d: if a high quality result is important, cut the write speed down. It gives the laser more time to imprint on each pit.

Also, you can't expect to verify a DVD disc with a single drive. So quit pretending your current test set is bulletproof or some shit. Just throw those old IDE drives in the bin where they belong :D
 
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well I already got all the cd and dvd drives anyway so... :) and I need a project so don't be a downer please :p
I also agree on the 1/2 speed comment, I did the same observation.

And an IDE interface for a plextor premium is a must anyway. That thing could rip some old scratched cds no other drive could. At the moment it's in a box running in a P4, but since a RAM slot failed it has issues with running win 7 :) so I need the new machine. Might as well make the most of it.
 
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Lebowsky said:
well I already got all the cd and dvd drives anyway so... :) and I need a project so don't be a downer please :p
I also agree on the 1/2 speed comment, I did the same observation.

And an IDE interface for a plextor premium is a must anyway. That thing could rip some old scratched cds no other drive could. At the moment it's in a box running in a P4, but since a RAM slot failed it has issues with running win 7 :) so I need the new machine. Might as well make the most of it.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you're going to do whatever anyway.

Why are you even asking for advice, if you're going to disregard it by saying "don't be a downer" to begin with ?
 
MongGrel said:
It sounds like you're going to do whatever anyway.

Why are you even asking for advice, if you're going to disregard it by saying "don't be a downer" to begin with ?
Click to expand...

huh? I'm listening to the advice. yes I'm going to get a box. I already have the drives, they're in a 15yo P4 box, in which 2 ram slots are dead and can't run anymore. I just want a new box to put them in. I'm not going to spend loads of money on new USB drives, when I already got what I need. Why the agressivity?

I should that I always had funny things happening with those USB optical enclosures... Finding the right one can prove difficult. And on my current system, the SATA controller is set to RAID for my hard drives which messes up my optical ones badly.

alright then I'll consider the Celeron option as well. What could be interesting in any case is that the box could be easily be upgraded to a more powerful workstation in the future.
 
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MongGrel said:
It sounds like you're going to do whatever anyway.

Why are you even asking for advice, if you're going to disregard it by saying "don't be a downer" to begin with ?
Click to expand...
You should re-read the second sentence he typed.

He said "And an IDE interface for a plextor premium is a must anyway. That thing could rip some old scratched cds no other drive could."

I can completely understand that sentiment. I've kept around a few CD/DVD drives because they could read something when nothing else could. And sometimes that one thing you want to read is an old music album you can't find anywhere anymore or it's got old photos and files.

From personal experience, my drive of choice for this happens to be an old 52x CDRW Plextor drive also. Those old plextors were god like in this regard and they used to be the go to optical drive over a decade ago.Something about the build quality and firmware programming, I'm not sure which. I'm not sure I remember what happened to change this, maybe they got bought out.


===============
To the OP.

Which of the drives can you ditch? I understand the need to keep at least 1 Plextor. As far as the others... not so much. Can you can explain? You could set this up keeping 1 Plextor Drive and the BenQ DVD scanner, then replace the rest with generic SATA DVDRW drives. Do you honestly need more than 1 Plextor IDE drive to run simultaneously? If not, I would keep the extras in a box as spare parts.

The main reason to ditch the rest is because SATA optical drives are actually cheaper than the PCI/PCIe IDE adapter cards you need to run them. I can pick up DVDRW SATA drives in bulk OEM (no box, cable, or documentation) at my local Microcenter for $10-15 each.
 
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CaptNumbNutz said:
Which of the drives can you ditch? I understand the need to keep at least 1 Plextor. As far as the others... not so much. Can you can explain? You could set this up keeping 1 Plextor Drive and the BenQ DVD scanner, then replace the rest with generic SATA DVDRW drives. Do you honestly need more than 1 Plextor IDE drive to run simultaneously? If not, I would keep the extras in a box as spare parts.

The main reason to ditch the rest is because SATA optical drives are actually cheaper than the PCI/PCIe IDE adapter cards you need to run them. I can pick up DVDRW SATA drives in bulk OEM (no box, cable, or documentation) at my local Microcenter for $10-15 each.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I guess I could stay just keep the Plextor and BenQ as IDE, and I already got the Silicon Image card flashed to IDE for them anyway. I like the idea of the Asus B150-PLUS suggested by iamwhoiamtoday in that regard, as I could spare a SATA port with an m.2 SSD. That gives my 8 drives, and then if ever needed, I could add either a SATA PCIe card or a second IDE... doubt it'll be the case though.

Thanks a lot everyone for the suggestions and thinking out loud.. I know in which directions to go now.
 
Lebowsky said:
Thanks. I guess I could stay just keep the Plextor and BenQ as IDE, and I already got the Silicon Image card flashed to IDE for them anyway. I like the idea of the Asus B150-PLUS suggested by iamwhoiamtoday in that regard, as I could spare a SATA port with an m.2 SSD. That gives my 8 drives, and then if ever needed, I could add either a SATA PCIe card or a second IDE... doubt it'll be the case though.

Thanks a lot everyone for the suggestions and thinking out loud.. I know in which directions to go now.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that some motherboards will use a SATA port if you put a SATA interfaced m.2 drive in there.
 
yep saw that when I read the manual... 2 ports even. I also remembered another reason for wanting another board was to set the SATA controller to IDE as I'm having issues with optical drives in AHCI mode on my current machine. And it seems all newest chipsets don't support IDE mode anymore. So an Haswell mobo it will be. And that leaves the SSD out as well... but which will also be cheaper :)
 
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