Recommendations for a new SATA DVD drive please

[Phil_P]

Hi,

Can anyone recommend me a good SATA DVD burner please from scan:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-7-489-0

So many to choose from and I don't know where to start.

Thanks

[SiM]

The cheapest one is usually a good place to start

Unless this is missing something you need, go for it!

[Phil_P]

Thanks, but as there's no more than a couple of pounds between the lot of them, I'm not really interested in price - I'd rather know I've bought the best drive, not the cheapest.

[cigbunt]

to be honest i dont think there such difference (unless you want lightscribe?) i use liteon, samgsung.

as long as i can install my os & software & burn a dvd or cd im happy

[peterb]

Asus, Samsung, Pioneer - you won't go far wrong with any of them.

[Agent]

or NEC

In all honesty the technology is that mature now, you start having to split hairs to find the differences

[Noxvayl]

There is no difference for DVD drives... they are all made the same with the same technology just use different logo's to determine between them that's all.

I have had a LiteOn drive for over a year now and its worked perfectly its entire life.

[FifthFreedom]

Just choose the one which looks prettiest ^^

And FYI lightscribe seems utterly pointless to me...

Still I guess it might be useful for something.

The only question you really have to ask is do you need Blu-Ray or HD-DVD support.

Then you'll be spending £70 at least.

[Agent]

lightscribe is actually quite cool if you have the disks for it

[Phil_P]

Thanks guys.

I currently have an old(ish) PATA NEC 3520A DVD-RW that's been great, but it's not very reliable on my current motherboard (Gigabyte P35-DS4) running off a crappy JMicron controller (not so well supported on Linux) so I figured it was time to splash out on a native SATA drive.

I'm not bothered about lightscribe - I have a black marker pen that does the job fine for me!

[rs4847]

Not the LiteOn LH-20A1L unless you like the sound of jet engines spooling up.

Oddly this drive is cheaper than it's non lightscribe counterpart LH-20A1S (retail).

[LuckyNV]

I prefer Pioneer, not let me down yet in years buying/using their drives

[Phil_P]

Thanks everyone - I went with the Pioneer in the end