Looking for a Combo DVD/RW drive... what do you think?

[blakerwry]

I have been looking for a DVD/CD-RW combo drive for awhile... actually, I probably need 2 of them (for 2 different systems).


I saw these at compgeek.net

LG 32x10x40 CD-RW & 16x DVD-ROM IDE Drive w/ Roxio SW (new)

LG 12x8x32 CD-RW & 8x DVD Combo Drive Only (refurbished)

Philips 16x10x40 CDRW &10x DVD IDE Drive ONLY (new)


actually, I just noticed that the 1st drive is available cheaper from mwave.com...


In any event, all drives meet my needs, but I am kind of unhappy about the 4120b (12x8x32 /8x DVD ) only supporting upto multi-word DMA mode 2....

CD-R labs (cdrlabs.com) has good reviews on the two LG drives. It clearly favors the newer LG 4320b because of software, features, speed, and performance. They also mention that it is pretty quiet (which is good for me)

I thought I would run these things by you guys... is there anything I'm overlooking? Anyone with experience with these drives or other combo drives and has comments/suggestions?

 

[blakerwry]

Also, I forgot to add that none of the drives support Mt. Rainer.... How important do you think this feature will be in the next 1-2 years? And do you think I should be looking for it now, instead of later.

 

[CougTek]

The current best CD-RW/DVD drive seems to be the Samsung SM-348B 48/24/48//16 reviewed by CDRLabs.com here. No idea where you can find it thought, but it is a notch in front of all the other comparable drives.

 

[blakerwry]

Thanks for the reply.

I wish the number rating scale was a little different... Both samsungs got a 9, but so did both LG's.... making it hard to objectively determine a cler winner. From reading the review I see Ian really loves the newest Samsung... "it is kick butt" Although it is seems that it is going to cost more than the LG.

Currently, I can find the older samsung, but not the newer. Additionally, even though the new LG is better than the old samsung, the LG is about 20% cheaper.... leading me to believe that the newest Samsung combo is going to be considerably more expensive.

what do you think of the Samsungs looks, btw?

The eject button looks indented, therfore I don't think I will be able to use it (I am doing a mod to one of the drives)

 

[Mercutio]

I've played with combo players in a few laptops (generally less than satisfactory as burners - I should not get a buffer underrun on an otherwise idle 1.8GHz machine), and I've read more than a few reviews of the combo units, and so far as I can tell, you're better off with two drives if you've got a desktop.

Just as an aside, I really like Lite-On's 16x DVD-ROM. Nice and quiet.

What application do you have that requires the single drive?

 

[CougTek]

what do you think of the Samsungs looks, btw?

Well, I'm not sure what the look of the SM-348B really is since it looks like this :

While it looks slightly different in the picture shown in CDRLabs' review :

I prefer the more greyish version since a) doesn't stand out too much from most other drives usually found in the 5¼ bays and b) I'm not gay.

For ease of use, I agree with Mercutio's recomendation of two separated drives. This is also generally a cheaper alternative too. However, if you have space and/or power-related concerns (one drive eats less juice than two), then an optical combo drive can be the answer. In the past, all combo drives used to have a few weaknesses here and there (low DVD reading speed, low CD-RW reading/writing speed, bad media compatibility, etc.), but the new SM-348B seems to have almost none (except the lack of Mt.Rainier support, which I'm starting to doubt if it's gonna be popular someday).

 

[Mercutio]

CD-RW? Popular? Man, those are words that don't belong in the same sentence.

But hey, one of my Linux boxes has full support for Mt. Ranier (drive + OS)...and we all know how popular THAT combo is on the desktop.

 

[honold]

i think the combo drives are feature, price, and aesthetically unattractive

i use (and recommend) dual drive lite-ons

 

[time]

XP <shudder> has Mt Rainier support. So do any of the current Lite-On CD-RW drives. Ahead InCD defaults to Mt Rainier with such a drive.

Is it any good? Yep, it's bloody fantastic, and the reason I started to mess around with InCD again - formatting a disc seems to take about 30 seconds ...

If InCD wasn't such a POS, I'd recommend CD-RW for everyone, which is a stark turnaround for me.

 

[double bit CRC error]

I've played with combo players in a few laptops (generally less than satisfactory as burners - I should not get a buffer underrun on an otherwise idle 1.8GHz machine), and I've read more than a few reviews of the combo units, and so far as I can tell, you're better off with two drives if you've got a desktop.

Just as an aside, I really like Lite-On's 16x DVD-ROM. Nice and quiet.

What application do you have that requires the single drive?

I have a 16x lite on drive and it's a piece of junk (IMO). It's loud, it feels and sounds cheap... plus it often has a hard time detecting and/or reading disks that are otherwise fine in another drive. (this is a lite on LTD 122.. they have other models in the 16x range)

The reason I want a combo drive is (1) in one computer I only have one spare 5-1/2" slot available and (2) in another computer(not mine) I want a cheap/easy solution and I don't want the user to have to know which drive is which or have any other confusion... just 1 drive for everything.

 

[CougTek]

The only 16X DVD reader from Lite-On I've used is the LTD-163 and it's hard to complain against it. There has been several firmware updates for it and now it doesn't have many problem left.

I don't know a Lite-On DVD reader beginning with LTD-122... You must be talking about a 16X CD-ROM reader, aren't you?

 

[CityK]

XP <shudder> has Mt Rainier support

Although I don't use XP, I'm pretty sure that is incorrect time. MS was supposed to have included it, but I believe it has been put off till its next OS (dead cow's skull with large pointy horns)

I have a 16x lite on drive...(this is a lite on LTD 122.. they have other models in the 16x range)

The ltd-122 was/is a 12x dvd-rom drive. The 16x drives are appropriately named ltd-16xx....the latest one, afaik, being the ltd-166s.

Speaking of Lite-On DVD drives...they've seem to have disappeared from Lite-On's website, as only the CD drives are up. Anyone know what's up?

Cheers, CK

 

[cquinn]

XP <shudder> has Mt Rainier support

Although I don't use XP, I'm pretty sure that is incorrect time. MS was supposed to have included it, but I believe it has been put off till its next OS (dead cow's skull with large pointy horns)

XP was already out before the Mt Rainier spec was finalized IIRC.
They have announced support for it in Longhorn. (Windows.NET?)

 

[blakerwry]

The only 16X DVD reader from Lite-On I've used is the LTD-163 and it's hard to complain against it. There has been several firmware updates for it and now it doesn't have many problem left.

I don't know a Lite-On DVD reader beginning with LTD-122... You must be talking about a 16X CD-ROM reader, aren't you?

no... it's a DVD drive, but it is only 12x.. sorry

 

[Buck]

The current best CD-RW/DVD drive seems to be the Samsung SM-348B 48/24/48//16 reviewed by CDRLabs.com here. No idea where you can find it thought, but it is a notch in front of all the other comparable drives.

My distributor doesn't have the SM-348 yet, just the SM-332. But they do have the SW-248 (48x24x48 CD-RW).

 

[time]

XP <shudder> has Mt Rainier support

Although I don't use XP, I'm pretty sure that is incorrect time. MS was supposed to have included it, but I believe it has been put off till its next OS (dead cow's skull with large pointy horns)

Apologies! I had a flicker of doubt when I wrote it - there's a couple of useful things that XP has built-in, and I've obviously got them hopelessly confused.

With InCD at least, they have a little auto-launching HTML file that tells you where to download a driver. I wonder why Mt Rainier doesn't allow space for an actual driver so it could be bundled on every disc? Has anyone looked at the spec?