Internal DVD RW for PC

Posted by: JamieWednesday on 18 December 2005

I installed a Samsung DVD +/- rewriter a year ago on my PC and it's been great, until today when it's packed up!!!

It's never given me a bad copy but I think a single years use (and not a huge amount) is a little too soon for a piece of kit to throw fits and I'm avoiding another Samsung. So any recs from anyone who's got a goody, one that's reliable, fast, dual compatible (forget about dvd-ram) and hasn't broken yet?

Posted on: 18 December 2005 by Adam Meredith

It is quite strange how we judge reliability. I have replaced several floppy drives, hard disks and CD writers - all "seemed" to have lasted several years but had (in the case of the floppy drive), in reality, been used well under 100 times.

Posted on: 18 December 2005 by Nuno Baptista

If you want a reliable DVD RW buy a Nec or a Pioneer!You can get the last 16X ,I´ve a Nec 4550 and is quite good!

Posted on: 19 December 2005 by Paul Hutchings

Samsung are as reliable as anything, I'd put it down to bad luck tbh.

Broadly speaking you won't go far wrong with Pioneer, NEC or Plextor.

Make sure you get the retail bundle - a lot of the dirt cheap offers are for the OEM drive so you get the drive and nothing else so no software.

cheers,
Paul

Posted on: 19 December 2005 by Martin Payne

quote:
Originally posted by JamieWednesday:
(forget about dvd-ram)

Why? It's supposed to be a great format for random-access & longevity, although disc prices are higher.

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 20 December 2005 by monkfish

Hi
Pioneer 110 is a fine machine at a good price.
Regards
Jim

Posted on: 20 December 2005 by Steve G

I've been happy with my Sony DVD-RW however I'd have thought any of the big names would be much the same. LG have a good reputation for DVD-RW's.

Posted on: 20 December 2005 by JamieWednesday

Thanks guys. Went out and got a Sony now. Not a particular advocate of theirs but their engineering is usually better than average I've found. Price was right. Came with full Nero although frankly I don't need it.

Installed it and it's spookily quiet which implies it's well put together and not expending wasted energy so fingers crossed.

Posted on: 21 December 2005 by JeremyD

I've had an LG for nearly a year. It seems rather slow at accessing/reading CDs compared with my previous (non-broken) MSI CD-RW drive but it has been completely trouble-free.

Oh - just noticed this post is redundant but I can't delete it.