[Rob Babcock]

I'd like to get some opinions from you guys.  The last few times I've built a new computer I've kept the old HDs & optical drives and just replaced the processor, mobo & memory.  Well, I'm getting close to building a new one and it occurs to me all the hardware is getting long in the tooth; the HDs especially are 3-5 years old and that's playing with fire.  I've been using my trusty Memorex CD writer for years but I've noticed that I'm getting more and more coasters when I use that drive, leading me to think it's probably getting worn out.

So I'm looking to get all new drives when I do my next build, but I'm not sure what to buy.  I'd like to go with a straight CD-only drive for compatibility reasons but I realize that might not be possible (it used to be that DVD drives had some minor but real problems with ISOs and stuff when used with CDs, not sure if that's still the case).  But it's been so long since I've shopped for opticals that I'm not sure what's considered the best. 

Any opinions?  Ripping & burning of CDs is the my only concern, I'll have a Light-Scribe DVD drive in the other bay and an external burner, too.

[Folsom]

Plextor. Every time I have used one it is always leagues better than anything else. People tried to claim awhile back that Nec put out as good of a product, I used one, and it was no where nearly as good.

Everything else is just kind of chinsey, loud, low features, low life time expectancy, rips poorly, etc... That is my experience.

[S Clark]

This is of interest to me also.  My burner is old and flawed and needs to be replaced.....

So, can anyone else confirm DOS's recommendation or suggest another?

[BradJudy]

Historically Plextor has an excellent reputation, but I haven't used their newer drives to know how well it stands these days. 

In the early days of CD-ROM and CD-R, NEC was the coolest.  In the late 90's, Plextor emerged as being the best, but their drives (like most early burners) were SCSI only.  Since then, pretty much all companies have moved from SCSI to ATA, SATA and USB (with firewire coming and going). 

I still have a Plextor PX-W1210A ATA burner in my system that I pulled out of the closet when my main burner (an NEC 3500 that was THE one to buy ~4 years ago) had trouble reading a couple of CDs.  The Plextor (which appears to be 6-7 years old) still works fine and read the CDs that the NEC struggled on. 

One of the advantages of Plextor is that they give you a utility to see and poke at lower level info about the drive.  Not something 99.9% of people need/want, but nice for those who do.  They don't target to your average consumer. 

[BradJudy]

BTW: You do pay a premium for a Plextor, but these days that means $60 instead of $30. 

[miklorsmith]

The Yamaha CRW-F1 external drive came with a special feature (Audio Master Mode) that burned longer pits and lands, i.e. reduced jitter, this was Gary Koh's first "best" possible burner:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Yamaha-CRW-F1-External-CD-Recorder-SLIGHTLY-USED_W0QQitemZ130279918613QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Drives_Storage_Internal?hash=item130279918613&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

Gary's current "best" is the Plextor Premium2 drives that were only made for a short time.  These took Plextor's other, innovative features which are many, and added Yamaha's Audio Master feature.  I don't find one available on e-bay right now but they pop up from time to time.  The Plextor Premium drives are a can't miss, they do feature Plextor's "Gigarec" feature which is a variable pit/land lengthening process, I haven't compared versus Audio Master:

http://shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_dmptZPCCQ5fDrivesQ5fStorageQ5fInternal?_nkw=plextor+premium&_sacat=0&_fromfsb=&_trksid=m270.l1313&_odkw=plextor+2&_osacat=0

If you go external you can play with battery power.  I wouldn't use a very good burner for ripping, with the error correction softwares around now just about any ripper should do a decent job.  Plus, ripping is much harder on the drive and takes more of a toll.  I have one of the Yamahas and a Premium2 and run them on batteries, only for burning.  I have an earlier CD-only, internal Plextor drive that I use for rips and everything else.

Here's a site I've used for hardware reviews, I used to go here a lot but not so much anymore.  They go pretty deep into performance elements and have an extensive database of older models:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Home.aspx?CategoryId=1

[andy_c]

This is of interest to me also.  My burner is old and flawed and needs to be replaced.....

Plextor used to make their own drives up until about a year or two ago, but they no longer do so.  They re-badge drives from other manufacturers now.  This is a shame, as the "real" Plextors were some of the best drives on the market.  I have a Plextor PX-740A, which is apparently a rebadged BenQ.  It's a very good drive, but rips slowly in EAC.

In fact, if you've used EAC a lot, you'll find that ripping speed is strongly dependent on the drive used.  To make things more confusing, the things that make for fast ripping in EAC secure mode are not the normal ripping benchmarks shown in the drive reviews.  It's been found that a necessary, but not sufficient condition for fast ripping in EAC secure mode is that EAC reports "Drive caches audio data: NO".  If a drive does cache audio data when ripping, EAC must do extra reads to flush the cache, and this slows it down.

Up until recently, I've been using two different drives in EAC.  I had an LG4167B, which I used for most rips.  It does not cache audio data, and it rips very fast in EAC secure mode, typically 24x average over a disc.  However, its handling of discs of marginal quality is less than stellar.  For discs with problems, I use the Plextor PX-740A I mentioned above.  Until recently, I've never found a drive that "did it all" in EAC - fast ripping and good error recovery.  So I've stuck to using two drives.

I've ripped hundreds of discs with the LG, and it has started acting a bit flaky, so I've been looking for a new one.  I found the site http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/.  Their reviews, unlike many sites, list the information that EAC provides about cacheing.  I looked through the site, and found that the drive that does not cache and also has the best error correction is the Samsung SH-S203N.  Unfortunately, this drive is not in current production.  Looking at newegg.com, I saw a Samsung SH-S223F, which appears to be the current version.  So I took a chance and bought one.

This drive is not quite as fast in EAC secure mode ripping as the LG4167B.  It averages about 18x, as opposed to the 24x of the LG.  But its handling of discs of marginal quality is the best I've seen, even better than my Plextor.  So this is the first time I've had a drive that "does it all" in EAC, and I no longer have the need for two drives.  I'm a happy camper.  The drive shows up as "TSSTcorp - CDDVDW SH-S223F" in the AccurateRip database here http://accuraterip.com/driveoffsets.htm.  Keep in mind that this is an SATA drive, so if you have a very old computer that does not have SATA ports, you'll need to find an IDE drive.

So, based on this info, I'd highly recommend the Samsung SH-S223F.  It's the best all-around ripper in EAC that I've ever used.  They also have a lightscribe version, but according to the newegg reviews, that one is noisier than the non-lightscribe one.