Plextor DVD-RW which one to buy ????

[Josh]

Hello,
I am wondering which is the best DVD-RW drive please look at this page http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/DVD_RW_Drives.html and tell me what you think is best i only have IDE connections so no Serial ATA just normal DVD-RW connection. I thought the Plextor PX-716AL would be the best but i am not sure.

[Samurai]

Unless you want to spend the cash, I'd go for the NEC ND4550.

They make quality burners, and haven't had single coaster with 4 different types of CD and DVD Media. Plus, a great price too (£26.80). I paid around £35 for my NEC 3540 when it first came out. Good bargain there.

Don't misunderstand... Plextor is a fantastic maker of burners, but NEC make them just as good. And for the price, Plextor are asking just a bit too much.

[Darth Sushi]

I have a plextor PX-716A (no "L"). The best feature I love about it is: it can burn 4x TY DVD-R media at 16x! The only thing it is missing is support for Lightscribe. But you can't go wrong with most big name brands.

[Josh]

So NEC or Plextor i looked at NEC and they are cheaper but are they any good
So between NEC ND4550 or Plextor PX-716AL the plextor is like £100 and the NEC £31 and the NEC faster at burning but the Buffersize is 2MB on NEC and Plextor has 8MB what should i pick

[Samurai]

I'd go for the NEC. Trust me. Out of all the burners I've tried, NEC has outperformed all of them. For the price... well you can tell that it would be of benefit. The only way I'd choose Plextor over NEC is if I had money to throw around, which I don't.

Think of it, as comparing Mercedes to a BMW. Everyone would love to have a Mercedes but a BMW does just a good a job at looking and acting the part ;)

[Josh]

Well hhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmm i still aint sure but i think i will go with the NEC and if it doesnt work out maybe could sell it and buy the plextor

[Samurai]

Suprised no one's gave their opions to be honest. There's a few of us on here using NEC's. Trust me you won't be making a mistake.

[Virtualbody1234]

Don't be fooled by the prices. High price doesn't mean it's worth it.

Get the NEC.


i think i will go with the NEC and if it doesnt work out maybe could sell it and buy the plextorWhy would you think it wouldn't work?
There's absolutly nothing that would make it not work.

[clocker]

Don't be fooled by the prices. High price doesn't mean it's worth it.

Then again, high price doesn't mean it's not worth it either.
I have the SATA version of the 716 and think it's the bee's knees.
I wanted an all SATA PC so the Plextor was my only option, but even so it's the quietest, nicest drive I've ever used.

Off topic...
I always wonder when people get all obsessive about burn time; how many discs do you guys burn?
If I do two a month it's unusual, so an extra 20-30 seconds one way or the other seems trivial.
I always use slow speeds to burn mission critical discs anyway (OS images, data backup, etc.) so the potential burn speed of a drive is almost irrelevant.
I think thumb drives are the way to go now.
As size increases and price drops, they are a much faster and better way to store/transfer files than clunky, fragile discs.

I'm falling in love with solid state stuff altogether.

For a few weeks now Sprocket has sported a 50MB RAM drive.
I installed my Opera browser into it (the download folder was moved to a physical drive obviously) and it absolutely flies!
At the same time, Comcast bumped their system speeds too so it's hard to say what had more effect, but I'm lovin life on the webs these days...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/cnet2.jpg

[Josh]

The NEC it is thanks alot i have got the Plextor PX-130A for a DVD-ROM

[muchspl3]

nec

id say over 500 dvd burns and at least 250 cd burns and only 1 coaster due to a power outage

[Josh]

Thanks alot for all ur hlep im gonna order it now its just the burner i got now sucks its the LG3030B i think and its bullshit all sorts of problems with it.

[Samurai]

I haven't used LG burners before, although my father used a cd burner back in the day. My last burner was a Sony, which happened to be a rebadged Lite-On (they're generally pretty good), but I ended up wanting a faster burner with dual layer features and ended up getting the NEC 3540 when it came out.

There's not much difference between your one and mine except yours has DVD-RAM capabilities which I don't use anyway. The price is pretty good though, and you'll obviously enjoy the newer firmware loaded onto it.

I've yet to test out DL DVD's though as they're still too expensive. The companies are still trying to milk us out of more cash even when Blu ray / HD DVD are just around the corner.