GameBanshee Forums

I am planning on buying a CD writer in the near future, say by next month.
I was wondering which brand type etc you tech gurus will recommend?
I would like best quality for a resonable price.
A very good price would be 80 dollars.
Going over 150 will be out of my limit.
Any help would be appreciated.
Oh yeah i tend to listen to what you guys post here, as i have no clue myself.

How fast do you need it to be?

How much can you afford?

As long as you stick to one of the major name brands, you'll be okay. However, if you see an off-brand (Delta, I/OMagic, etc.) you might check to see who really makes that CD-RW. There are only four of five major manufacturers of optical disk drives even though there are over a dozen brands. It's like generic batteries or cola; often the generic brands are made by the name brands but packaged differently. For instance, I bought a Delta CD-ROM a couple of years ago and it turns out that Samsung made the thing but it was $20 cheaper than an identical Samsung drive.

I've seen a lot of specials on CD-RWs lately. For instance, Circuit City has a Sony 40x12x48x CD-RW for $90 (USD) and even has a couple others cheaper than that. Do you need anything faster than 40x12x48x? Probably not. I'd get a less expensive drive and pay extra for good CD-writing software.

I would look for a Plextor drive. You should be able to find an older model that will fir within your price range. They have great burners, much better than any other I have ever used. If you can afford it, get one with buffer underrun protection. This will cause you to make a lot less coasters.

If you don't want to buy one new, I've got a used Samsung SW-408B 8x8x32x CD-R/RW I'll sell you for $30 plus shipping. It came with NTI CD-Maker 2000 and some other packaged software (no, the "bonus" CD isn't much, but like I said, spend less on your hardware and get good software like Nero or Easy CD Creator).

Fast?
Not that fast.
I dont need 8x or something, (which would be 48x or something?)
I just need something to burn my files and other things we arent allowed to mention on this site.
Its not like i want to burn huge games on the cds.
I just want a simple CD RW which i can store backup files on, but it shouldnt take hours to store 20 mb of word files.

Plextor eh? I will look into that. Thanks.

HLD thanks for the offer.
But i live in switzerland, and getting the stuff here, i am not really sure.
I would have to check how much it costs, and what are the legal requirements of the Swiss govts for this.
These guys give you a license for roller blading, so i should double check.