Recommend the best, quiet DVD rom drive?

[stix]

I want to replace my CD Rom drive with a DVD Rom drive. I have read most of the CDR labs reviews on DVD drives. From what I can see here in the forum, The Lite-On 166s may be recommended the most, but I may not want it based on what I hear about it being noisy.
I'm looking for a DVD rom drive that is Quiet, functions great as a DVD player, also functions great as a Fast CD Rom drive, and will read audio and data CDs Reliably and Fast for writing to CDR media via my Yamaha F1 CD burner.
Shouldn't be too tall an order to want it all, right?
Cost is not critical, given most of them seem to be under 100 bucks. although going over $100 wouldn't be a big deal either.

[Gary Kokkin]

BENQ DVP1648A is OEM Pioneer 500M in 48x CD reading by firmware !
Pioneer drives are very good but also noisy .This drive uses ATA 66 (ultra DMA) so make a little extra spin when open-close tray because attempt reading in high speed. I don't remember any valid test of this drive for a link ,but Benq as retail version of the OEM (Pioneer drive) looks great with the logo ! -You can make this drive Region free but flashing this you lost 48x reading and the ID in bios says now Pioneer !
If you still dont like this drive you can buy Sony DVD- DDU-1621 (16x40)
the most quite drive in the market ,great DVD perfomance ,but with some
promblems ( version maybe) in CDr reading !

[vbl117]

For SONY look this link :
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=8497

[MutoidMan]

I bought a BENQ DVP1648A a few months ago. It worked fine for about six weeks and then it crapped out on me. I ended up having to reinstall my old Toshiba SD-M1212 which was much slower but never gave me problems. The BENQ ended up in the dumpster. Your milage may vary.

Recently, I have purchased a Lite-On IT LTD-166S and so far it has performed satisfactorily. It makes a little bit of noise during initial spin-up of a newly inserted disc, which I assume is the automatic disc balancing system adjusting to the disc, but after that it is relatively quiet.

I was up in air about buying either the Lite-On or a Toshiba SD-M1712. The Lite-On got the nod because it was on the shelf when I was shopping for a new CD-RW. I figured since everything I'd read about it was more or less positive, and it was right there in front of me, I'd give it a shot. If this drive craps out on me I'm going to order the Toshiba.

Good luck!

[stix]

Thank you Gary Kokkin, vbl117 and Mutoid Man for your replies, links, reviews and related experiences. Most helpful. Obviously there is no perfect solution for this question of what's the best and quietest DVD drive. Looks like I will have to pick the best compromise.

I'm still happy to get futher response to the original posted questions.

[TheWizard]

Why not get an LG DRD-8160B? LG is known for producing quiet drives.

[stix]

thanks "The Wizard" for the suggestion. I'll read up on the LG.

[stix]

any more suggestions out there on this topic?

[Gary Kokkin]

Make your Pioneer/BENQ silence ! drive using this official program :

http://www.pioneeraus.com.au/multimedia ... ls_103.zip

[stix]

would appreciate any more thoughts on this subject

[TheWizard]

You didn't receive enough responses?

[BuddhaTB]

Any of the Lite-On DVD-ROM drives is good. Also any Pioneer drive would be good too.

[cfitz]

I know you said you don't want a 166S because it is noisy, but it does meet all your other requirements pretty well. And though it is somewhat noisy at high speeds I don't think it is terribly noisy, nor do I think that it is much noisier, if at all, than other high-speed optical drives. More importantly, when playing DVDs/VCDs/SVCDs it spins very slowly so it doesn't make hardly any noise at all.

cfitz

[Action Jackson]

Stix,

From what I have and in order from most quiet to loudest during DVD playback:

Toshiba SD-M1202 4.8x [not made in awhile]

LG GCC-4320B 32/10/40/16 CD-RW/DVD-ROM

LiteON 163D 16x

The LiteON is noticably louder. I also find their ABS annoying.

[casey]

The king of quiet = LG DRD8160