8mb Cache Buffer VS. 2MB Cache Buffer?

[craiger]

With the new combo drives coming out. Would Samsung's soon to be released 52x24x52x16x with the 8mb cache buffer combo drive be better than Lite-On's soon to be released 48x24x48x16x and 52x24x52x16x combo drives with the 2mb cache buffer? Thanks, Craig.

[cfitz]

I wouldn't base my buying decision on the size of the cache. Millions of 2 MiByte cache drives have been sold and work just fine. If after you evaluate the drives according to your own personal needs you find that there is nothing else to distinguish between the two, then certainly get the drive with the 8 MiByte cache. But features, burn quality, media compatibility, price, reputation, bundled software, warranty and availability would all rank higher in my decision making than the size of the cache.

cfitz

[aviationwiz]

Correct me if I'm wrong,

Don't drives with the 8MB Cache tend to give better quality burns?

[BuddhaTB]

Don't drives with the 8MB Cache tend to give better quality burns?

Not necessarily, its a combo of good quality media and a good CD-RW drive. Lite-On's put out good results on good media with only 2MB cache.

[cfitz]

Don't drives with the 8MB Cache tend to give better quality burns?

Not at all. The size of the buffer has nothing to do with the quality of the burns. The only thing a larger buffer does is provide more of a margin against buffer underruns. That used to be extremely important before buffer underrun protection technology was perfected, because without such technology a buffer underrun meant a wasted coaster. In that sense, yes, the size of the buffer used to affect the quality of the burn - it had the possibility of preventing an unreadable disc. But now a buffer underrun is but a delay in the burning process.

Also, although CD burning speeds have increased, so have computer speeds. My system is none too powerful (1 GHz Pentium III), but it has no trouble keeping the buffer 95% full or more while burning at 48x. I've never come anywhere near a buffer underrun that needed to be prevented/corrected by buffer underrun prevention technology, even though my drive has only a 2 MiByte cache. So, 2 MiByte is sufficient even without buffer underrun prevention technology, although, of course, I wouldn't burn without it.

cfitz

[eliminator]

Me want more, the more the better, 8MB, 16MB...oooooH !

[hoxlund]

yeah i thought 8mb was better too, but lately aviation wiz made me burn a cd image using clonecd on my main machine which has the LTR-52246S

and low and behold, perfect burns everytime, and thats comparing it to my yammie 20x which has a 8mb buffer, so the differences are 20x vs. 52x

i'll personally take the 52x, ill probably put my LTR-48125W in my server machine instead of the yammie 20x

[eliminator]

I'll get and check the 52x samsung, as soon as it gets to my local WMart !

[hoxlund]

so your willing to pay almost double the price for getting it locally?

why don't you check out newegg.com

[aviationwiz]

Because he wants to be able to walk into the store and get it. Not wait for delivery. Not worry about anything getting messed up. Personally, I don't blame him.

[eliminator]

... no hassle return too - WMArt has a 90 days, no questions asked policy!

[David]

I don't know when the last time you checked your local WMART even though it is listed as online-only I saw them in my local WMART two weeks ago.