Maximum PC

I need a new CD burner but i would like a quiet one. Speed is more important to me and by speed i mean access time not burn time. I hate having to wait and listen to my burner speed up and slow down and speed up and slow down to only finally read the disc 30 seconds later at the fastest.

Ever try the Plextor Premium?

http://www.plextor.com/english/products/Premium.html

They don't get much more reliable than this. Mine runs fairly quiet compared to other ones I've had.

I would have to agree with looking at Plextor.

My Plextor 712A is pretty quiet, quick and reasonably priced. I've burned about 320 DVD's in the last four moths or so and it hasn't failed me yet.

I realized after I posted this that you did say CD burner. Of course, the 712A is DVD as well. I use it for CD's too but haven't been doing as many.

I would go with Plextor as well. I bought one of their DVD dual format burners a couple months ago ( would not be able to give the exact burner because im at a friends house right now ).

I have burned every possible media I can in this drive and it is very quiet for myself. Usually when I am burning something I have to check if the CD/DVD pops out when its done because its pretty quiet.

I would have to give my DVD burner a 9/10. A 9 because it doesnt do double format but hopefully ill be getting one that can soon.

Ok thanks guys. (its GamerZ)

stay away from Plextor go with NEC better bang for the buck and quiet, or even the Sony 710A or the 720A.

That was still luck with the 2 bad burners. Hell, the 2nd one was sent free of charge w/ overnight shipping. Who else has service like that?

Plextor IS the top of the line DVD burner if you are willing to spend the money. I use the PX-716A, and it hasn't failed me yet. Mostly quiet as well. With the firmware updates, I'm capable of burning DL DVD at 6X.

That WAS some horrible luck. I didn't take part in that discussion (did I?), but that's more than likely bad sourcing. I've used 5 plextor drives now in the past 2 years with no problems. Loved the CD-R's, then fell in Love with the DVD burners.

IMO, CD burners are history. You can get 8-16x DVD burners that will also burn CD's at a peppy 40-50X for under $60. There's no real reason to get a CD-only drive with the current selection of DVD burners available.

I now have two 712A's and a 716AS. Not one burp at all. The latest Firmware is great with the 716's, but little was noticed on the 712's. It's just too bad that you can't use the Sata model on anything besides a late model Intel chipset, and even then you may have issues from board-to-board. Maybe it was just teething problems, but it's worked on an Abit 875P board, and an Asus 925x & 925xe.

I haven't tried the quiet mode, but the standard mode is still quiet to me. I can't even hear the tray pop out, and if that spining is loud...then there must be some picky people out there to want to spin it slower just so you don't hear anything at all. When the 712A burns, I NEED to have the music play on completion so that I know that it's done...and I'm right here by it.

The Plextors ARE expensive, and if you don't want all the features it brings, then it's not worth paying for. Lite-On makes burners for half the price. And others include Nero...which I like more than EZCDC that comes with the Plexies. I finally broke down and bought the full version so I could ditch the TDK's and still use Nero. Worth every nickle. And the Plexy's are a tad slow on ripping CD's when compared to the old TDK's I had. But we're talking seconds here. And they also did better on old scratched up CD's. If I absolutely can't rip it on a Plexy, the Velo CD may or may not get 'er done.

after that experince with Plextor is just left a bad taste in my mouth, so I when out and got the Sony 710A and have enjoyed it. BUt I still have my Plextor and they are going to schedule a pick for the 2 bad ones I have and send me a new one until I get one that works, but I now either I have to sell it or build a new comp. But I will give them this much... they are not hesitant to send you a new drive. The first time I RMA the dirve I wa only on the phone for about 5 min (after holding for about 35min) ad the guy was like "there is no need for us to try to fix the drive...we'll we send you a new one so u can be worry free that this wont happen again." Now thats good support.

The Plextor's technology and features are great when it comes to avoiding another CD or DVD coaster. I do agree other than PlexTools the software package sucks. Then again, I already bought Nero 6 anyway so it was fine for me.

The SATA ones have potential, but it's just not a hot commodity now. There is no gain other than connecting it via SATA cables and having more issues trying to get it to work. Maybe down the line we will see better compatibility, and maybe see the SATA drives reach their true potential over the IDE.

I know Plextor is coming out with a new DVD drive this month which is a Slot Loading DVD burner. It's pricey compared to other drives at around $150 according to the Plextor website. It is technically the fastest burner w/o the new firmware update for the PX-716.

Well then what are you guys reccomending? I would like one that doesnt sit there and spin and spin the cd to try to read it, while spinning up to top speed.

Plextor is the king=P Yet, I'm happy as all get out with my NEC 3520A and having a LiteOn CD-R DVD Combo for Disk to disk transfers. Another good brand that's overlooked is Samsumg CD-R DVD-ROM combo Drives.

The best way to get Nero is buy the $9.95 OEM and get the free upgrade to 6.3 (Mine shows 6.3.0. as the last update. I has everything but the Video software and at lest one other app. I'm SHOCKED many folks seem to be missing out on this.

I'm hard on these drives and haven't had any die, I don't use generics that I have seen die.
My computer has'
3520A and 52X CD-RW/16X Combo DVD 16X ROM
Comter number 2
Samsung 52XCD-RW 16 DVD-ROM and LiteOn 12X DVD R-RW
LiteOn 12X DVD-R-RW
Computer Number 3;
8X LiteOn DVD R-RW and LiteOn 48X CD-RW

Computer 3 is a P3 550 Asus P3B-F 440 BXBTW

Donnie

The best way to get Nero is buy the $9.95 OEM and get the free upgrade to 6.3

Hey Donnie, how do I get the oem version...went to ahead and newegg and no oem nero for sale....do you mean to get it when you buy a burner???

I just got my NEC 3520 oem from egghead and have no burning software....I was going to download a trail just to get started and see if the burner works, but if I can get for 9 bucks I'll go buy it

When i bought my oem samsung burner from newegg, i got nero and powerdvd free. something to look for when buying a 16x is that the dvd-r is also 16x. There's a few where the +r is 16x and the -r is 12x.

There's also a couple freeware cd/dvd burning software packages that work pretty well. cd-burnerxp is one.

hey thanks beomagi!!!

just downloaded and I am going to try it out thanks again

Ok obviously Plextor won so what model burner would you recommend?

Aslong as you're getting a burner from a reliable company, you're pretty much set. Samsung, liteon, nec, they're all great. Just make sure the speeds are good (isn't -r most compatible?) and they shuold cost between $55 to $65. Plextor has one hel of a name, but, i dont thin you'll see much of a difference.

oh yeah - most important, no skimping on dvd disc quality when archiving no matter how good a burner you use, cheap discs suck.