Optical Drive

[piggin23]

I am looking to purchase a new SATA DVD burner. Any recommendations?

I have always had Pioneer products, so is a Pioneer DVR-S18LBK a good unit?

Thanks in advance.

[peterb]

I think they are all pretty much of a muchness. I like Pioneer, so I'd probably go for that, but I have used Asus drives with no problems, and Samsung.

[kmac]

That particular Pioneer is a rebadged Lite-on.

[sleepyhead]

Personally speaking, burners are so cheap now, I just pick one and see how it goes. So far it's lasted for 2 years so it's recouped its £12 sale price.

[kasuku]

Asus and Lite-on have been pretty reliable for me so far...but DVD drives are really common these days so I guess anyone from a major manufacturer should be ok. The developments are too many, so i guess its price competition now.

[piggin23]

Thank you all for your help with this.

I asked the question as this is on today's special

http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=31438

I have just ordered it so will soon find out if it is any good.

[Phage]

I've got the 216 version. No complaints so far...

[Isira]

The Sony Optiarc AD-7240S/AD-7241S has been flawless for me. The only possible negative is the default firmware does not bitset DVD+R's, but someone created a hacked firmware for bitsetting.

[shaithis]

Having been threw a few over the last 2-3 years, I am really impressed with how quiet the LGs are.

[Pob255]

Having been threw a few over the last 2-3 years, I am really impressed with how quiet the LGs are.

I have to agree with that, don't know why they are more quiet but they do seem to be.
However it's not that big an issue, which ever scan have on "today only" works for me

[UseItNow]

I've used a lot of Pioneers over the years and haven't had any problems with them personally, you could say I'm a fanboi! In fact I haven't used any other make as a result, however, they do take their time accessing data, I don't know if this is down to my systems or the drives themselves as the only other DVD Writer (incidently no name on the drive whatsoever) I had was pretty instant on accessing, that was on a Medion system but that gave up the ghost after a year or so.

Little off-topic: Which drives have you or anybody else found to be quiet and fast on accessing data?

That particular Pioneer is a rebadged Lite-on.

Am surprised by that, although I still haven't installed it in my half built SG03B!

[rs4847]

That particular Pioneer is a rebadged Lite-on.

Don't think its a Lite-On but rather Quanta (QSI).

Either way it's horrid. Will not write faster than 8x if you select 12x or 16x and won't verify faster than 4x in Nero 8. Can get it to write faster if I select max speed only.

Firmware 1.01 and 1.02 using Taiwan made Verbatim MCC 03RG20.

Almost starting to think it's a faulty unit, expect I can get it to read/verify faster in Imgburn where I can set the read speed.

[kmac]

I would go for the Sony AD-7240S or the Sony DRU-870s which is the retail version of the 7240s

gets good reviews - see here for example http://www.cdrlabs.com/Reviews/sony-...-dvdrwram.html