Considering a new cd-rw, advice please.

[Boy_Wonder]

Hi,

I want a new cd-rw because my old one is, well old
These are the ones I consider

Plextor PX-W4824TA
Yamaha CRW F1
Sony CRX210A1

I've read reviews, here and elsewhere, on these drives but I still have a couple of questions.

The Sony is cheaper but only has a 2MB buffer and no mt.rainier support. I am not so worried about the latter, but is 2MB buffer sufficient? My system is quite fast (XP1800+, WDBJ120 HDD), No worries there, but I still want to be able to do other stuff while burning without buffer-underun protection kicking in.
I am also conserned about what seems a lack of support from sony, as I can find no information on sonystorage.com for this drive.

The Yamaha drive sounds real good. But my worries here goes to the relative long access time. Does this really matters, if so, in what way? Is it just a matter of waiting 2 sec more before the autorun pops up, or is it 5 sec? 10? Also the T@O bit is not really usefull, it just drags the price up.

The Plextor drive is sort of in between with it's 4 MB buffer. A friend of mine owns a older plextor, and the spin-up time on this is actually quite long, even when just reading CDs. In fact, he cannot play red alert in LAN because the spinup time is so long that the game times out when trying to access the CD. Is the long spin up time a fact also with the newer Plextors?

Hope anyone can enlighten me a bit.

[Nisa]

Definitely Yamaha. You can get this drive after rebate or maybe some coupons around $80.00.

[BuddhaTB]

The 2MB buffer will do you just fine. You have a very fast computer in a XP 1800+ with a nice WD hard drive. You will be able to run applications in the background as long as they don't require too much system resources. I would recommend the Sony drive since its based on a OEM Lite-On drive, but uses Sony firmware. Lite-On drives have always had a good reputation around here with many loyal supporters. Don't be too concerned with the lack support for your drive, as this forum does an excellent job of answering questions and solving whatever problems may arise. As long as you have the warranty from Sony, you should be fine.

[Scour]

Hello!

I think the Yamaha is really good. Good writing quality, perfect for protected Audio-CD. But it´s only ´fast with a few of media

The Plextor is good, too. Best writing quality and a little bit faster than the Yamaha

The Sony is a Lite-OEM, not so reliable as Plextor or Yamaha

[coolestnitish]

The Sony is a Lite-OEM, not so reliable as Plextor or Yamaha

I don't get it why people think LiteOn and LG can't be relied on Does a more competitive price mean less reliable? So if tommorow LiteOn started selling their drives for double what they cost right now, and make loads of booklets of documentation, all of a sudden LiteOn will be reliable?
What matters is the way the burners of that particular manufacturer work. On these forums we have many members who have owned more than 2 LiteOn drives and recommend them for anyone who is thinking of a new drive. Plus if Dell, Sony, TDK, and many other companies are ready to put their reputation in LiteOn's hand then they are pretty reliable.
Plus Boy_Wonder said his system is pretty fast so he shouldn't have a problem with a 2MB Buffer.
Look at it this way, the LiteOn will be faster than the Yamaha and Plextor, so you will finish your burns faster, in other words you will have more time to do your work compared to waiting longer or doing your work with a lagging system.

[yuki chan]

Buy the Plextor drive it is your best bet

The Yamaha drive is ok but it does not have the ability to report c2 errors

Sony does not come close to the other two

One other thing Burn proof technology is almost gapless when it starts the burn again for a buffer under-run

And the plextor is the only one to have it
the other two have knock-offs

[coolestnitish]

Sony does not come close to the other two

Why not??

[BuddhaTB]

I'm with coolestnitish, I would choose Lite-On or a rebadged Lite-On (TDK, Sony, and etc.) over Plextor and Yamaha any day. Lite-On drive have nice reliable quality and are the best bang for the buck. For the price of a Yamaha or a Plextor drive, I can get a Lite-On CD-RW drive and a Lite-On DVD-Rom for the same price.

Get the Sony, there is nothing wrong with this drive and a very sound and reliable CD burner that won't burn a hole in your wallet.

[Boy_Wonder]

Thanks for your replies folks.

My impression is now that 2MB buffer is sufficient and I have actually never heard anything wrong about the liteon drives, so Sony comes out strong here.

Yahama has got a problem with their new firmware that defaults audioripping to 24x. I feel this is a problem because you pay and buys a 44x reader and ends up with a 24x (agreed audioripping only, but still..).

I think I'll hold on just a little bit to see if a review of the new lite-on 52x24x52 drive as this actually costs the same as the Sony 48x12x48 and some 30$ below the yamaha and plextor.

I guess you guys feels, as me, it's better to go for a lite-on than a sony based on a oem lite-on?

[Spazmogen]

Well I reviewed my LTR 52246S here: http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7271


and here's a very thorough review: http://www.cdfreaks.com/document.php3?Doc=99 Don't get hung up on his ability to write 99 minute discs. Mine have been just fine, and I was unable to duplicate his results.

[Scour]

The Sony is a Lite-OEM, not so reliable as Plextor or Yamaha

I don't get it why people think LiteOn and LG can't be relied on Does a more competitive price mean less reliable? So if tommorow LiteOn started selling their drives for double what they cost right now, and make loads of booklets of documentation, all of a sudden LiteOn will be reliable?
What matters is the way the burners of that particular manufacturer work. On these forums we have many members who have owned more than 2 LiteOn drives and recommend them for anyone who is thinking of a new drive. Plus if Dell, Sony, TDK, and many other companies are ready to put their reputation in LiteOn's hand then they are pretty reliable.
Plus Boy_Wonder said his system is pretty fast so he shouldn't have a problem with a 2MB Buffer.
Look at it this way, the LiteOn will be faster than the Yamaha and Plextor, so you will finish your burns faster, in other words you will have more time to do your work compared to waiting longer or doing your work with a lagging system.

I have friends, they burn many CD-R´s. They tell me their experience with various CD-writers. Plextor and Teac are much more reliable than LiteOn, LG and so on.
LiteON drives don´t survived a year, when they burn so many, they said. Plextor and Teac are survive 3-4 years, and make rarely problems

DEll, Sony, TDK.... uses LiteON because they´re cheap

[Boy_Wonder]

Thanks Spazmogen for your review of the Lite-On drive. It was very interseting, and I am going to look into this drive. The price is quite attractive, however there seem to be an issue with the writing quality on cd-r's http://www.cdfreaks.com/document.php3?Doc=99&Page=8

I am a bit conserbed about that.

[Scour]

Hello!

Look at this review:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Article ... RW&index=6


I choosed the external Plextor (it´s the same as the internal), because it has FW 1.02



I think, this writing quality is the best you can get

http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.ph ... erformance