Top 5 drives (January – March 2007) Vote now!!

Hi Everyone.
You may have noticed the new CD Freaks site has a devices section. In this section you will find the latest optical drives and various other digital storage devices.
You may also notice the “Devices” section has a “Top 5 Devices” table. How is this table derived?

When the new CD Freaks site launched back in October, the CDF staff nominated the original table. Now it’s your turn to vote on the 5 drives you think are the best. You can vote for as many drives as you like. The poll will close on January the 3rd and the 5 drives which poll the most votes will be added to the “Top 5 devices” table.

We intend to carry out this poll every 3 months (subject to change).
So cast you vote now and have your say.

We would also like to know why you voted for the drives in this poll, so let’s hear your views as well.

Hi
I personally cannot vote for a single drive, as none is that good an allrounder.
Plextors PX-760A for quality with TY. This drive excells when the audio aspect of recording is required.
LG GSA-H22N is ecellent with DVD+R media (both speed & quality).
Pioneer DVR-111D & BenQ DW1655 are acceptable if the above drives are either outside of budget. Or not available in that region to which the user is.
Of these latter drives the Pioneer proves to be adaptable for most uses. The BenQ due to f/w developement hasn't really reached the expectations I put on it.
Of the rest well each to their own. But despite owning Lite-On, Nec & Samsung models. My own experience with these makes leaves a lot to be desired.

I agree with Zebadees accessment. If you use + media the LG H22 is a great drive.

zebadee:

Any possibility of more detailed explanation of weaknesses of those drives from your experiences?

Hi
@ TLO (& others interested).
Lite-On - My experience here is noisey drives. Long Leadin/out times. Poor quality on DVDs @ rated speed. CDR's poor @ any speed.
Nec just slow & ave when writing DVD's(although L&D's patches go a long way in this respect). OK, if slow readers. CDR performance exceptable.
Samsung just fast at the expense of quality (this is of course dependant on media to a large extent - TY 16x being mine at present).
This is just my experience.
Going by the results so far I'm in a minority here.

While I think there are some very good drives on the list, maybe the next poll can allow everyone to add a drive or 2 not on the list.

Is it possible to choose less than 5 drives? If so than I would think that Zebadee should vote on the poll and choice only 2. He says that the Pioneer DVR-111D & BenQ DW1655 are acceptable if the above drives are either outside of budget after his 2 favorites, making them the 3rd and 4th best drives.

CLGerow

Edit: After re-reading Zebadee's response I realize he is saying that no 1 drive will do everything as good as he wants it do. Problem is not everyone can afford 3 or 4 drives to set-up the best system possible. I see this poll as one that a newbee is going to look at and use to try and buy a replacement drive for his OEM drive in his new computer. Put yourself in that person's shoes and choose the drive or drives that would help someone like that to better utilize his computer.

That is what this web site is all about IMHO.

CLGerow

CLGerow

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Last edited by clgerow; 27-12-2006 at 00:07.

You can vote for as many or as few drives as you like.
If you think a drive should be on the list for the next poll you can post the drive model here.
The drive must be a current drive, it must be available from a retailer. In other words. You must be able to purchase the drive.

I voted for the LG-H22N. It's an excellent drive in almost every aspect. I have an LG-4167B and it's also excellent.

I also voted the pioneer 111D since it's extremely reliable and gets the job done every time without hassle. Pioneers IMO have always been very reliable drives.

My vote, Lite-On SHM165P6S and the Pioneer 111/111D. For the newbie I'd say the Pioneer. For anyone that wants the best community support and firmware mods out there the Lite-On for sure. I'm going to be getting a 165P(H)6S soon.

My vote is for Pioneer 111. It´s a great drive for much media, only the features (scan, 99 Min CD-R) could be better

I would never personally buy a Plextor PX-760A, @ 78.99 to 108.99, you can buy 2 or three other good DVD Burners, but since I have the pleasure of owning one at work, I have to say it is my favorite burner.

I have two BenQ 1640's, (at work) several LiteOn Burners (also at work), and a BenQ 1620 and 1655 at home.

The BenQ 1655 performs just about as fast and reliably as my Plextor (they are on different systems, so it is hard to directly compare), but as there are very few 1655's left to be purchased, I had to give my vote to the Plextor.

I voted for the 1655, H22N and Plex 760.
1655: It's a great all-around drive that does everything well. Unfortunately, the supplies are dwindling, so it's not something the average Joe can find without some good research.
H22N: Wow, what a great burner. I've fed the thing some 52x Khypermedia CD-R's (CMC) and it produces stellar burns on something I'd consider a trash media. That's not even venturing into the territory of what this drive really loves; TY 8x +R (YUDEN000 T02) and Verbie 16x +R (MCC 004, CMC variety). If it had scanning capabilities, it'd be the new 1655.
Plex 760: Great all-around drive that can rip like nobody's business. Add in the excellent tool suite and you've got a great drive. I've only just purchased one because, after rebate, I got it for $50. In this day of much cheaper burners, I wouldn't pay full-pop retail for a Plex.

I vote 1655 on behalf of my 1640
love the traditional BenQ.

I voted for the H22N. It's such an improvement over my old lite-on 1633s

Me too.H22N is a very good drive.It must be in the Top3.
Waiting for a new firmware.

btw, what is wrong with NEC drives 5xxx and 7xxx models? I haven't closely followed NEC.

Last time I remebered 35xx and 4550 are both top quality drives, right?

I voted for 1655 and SH-S182M. 1655 I use for TY mostly and it is excellent, voted for Samsung because it became good drive on my list this week, after I solved DVD-R recognition problem, and it produces best burns on MCC003 RG20 CMC among my other drives. I will consider it equal to 1655 if it will be possible to bitset it permanently and make it region-free. Other two drives I use regularly are not on the list because they are old: NEC 3500 I use to burn old Maxell media at 8x, and LiteOn 1693 for scanning and for burning Verbatim 2.4x DL at 4x (it produces better burns than 1655 with modified firmware).

Out of the 4 dvd drives i have just now for all round ability probably the LITEON SHM165P6S as its a lot better than the previous ones but having said that i dont use it for writing i use either my BENQ 1640 or NEC
I also have a BENQ 1650 but think the 1640 is better..
But i gave liteon my vote for being a good reader and very good also at scans..

Pioneer 111D.
I've had, and still got other makes of drive but the Pioneer ones have never let me down. With good quality media, as far as I'm concerned they can't beat. The 111D is no exeption.
How are they with cheap media ? Don't know and not even gonna try finding out.

TY and Verbatim forever.

Its really hard to namen them, but for me 3 drives stand out. !!!!

BENQ 1655
LG H12
LG H22

For me none of the other drives in the list are upto these quality standards, especially with the LG's when burning +R @ 18x...

Looks like 111+111D combined score of 40% makes it the best drive out there (which is the same unit for a really cdfreaking person) . Its only drawback for me is the error correction on DVD media; my liteon and other benqs can easily read high PIF discs which Pio considers hopeless.

Not that i'm biased.
But i've yet to see a better 18x burn than this one.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=194740&page=4

****waits on someone proving her wrong****

A good drive is defined not only by how good burns it can create but also by not making bad burns.

The one-out-of-three Optiarc AD-7173A drives that I've had that actually works, produces coasters at 18x with even the best MCC004 media. So even though you have good results, I consider the 7173 to be the worst quality drive I've ever had, and I'm not going to buy a fourth one to see if the first three were just bad luck.

I voted for the BenQ DW1655 (I have two) which for most media produce the best burns I can get.

I voted for the LiteOn SHM-165P6S because it's a solid all-round drive with better reading than the BenQ, more reliable DVD scanning IMO, and it can read CDS200 protected Audio CDs. It's not quite as good at burning as the BenQ however.

I also voted for the Pioneer DVR-111 which produces excellent burns most of the time, if I avoid some of the annoying quirks of the two drives I have.

Wow... so many drives!

I'm looking to get my first DVD writer, so I'm keeping a close eye here. (Don't get me wrong, I'm no noob to PCs!).

I just want to backup music CDs, maybe mix my own, and make data backups. I also want to backup my DVD movies and favorite TV shows. Since I'm a cheap b*st*rd, I'm leaning towards a drive that can read DL, so I can backup to DVD+R (single layer) just because the discs are cheaper. I know the software combo I'll be using (probably DVDdecrypter + DVDShrink) I just need a DVD writer that can do the job quickly and reliably. I might play these DVDs on my PC, or on the living room's ElCheapo DVD player (at least until I get an HTPC together).

Right now I'm leaning towards the Lite-On SHM-165P6S . I'm very familiar with Lite-On's products and like them a lot (but I'm not stuck on them).

If I can record a DVD in 6 minutes (i.e. 16X) that'd be great. If it takes twice that time, it'd be inconvenient, but I can live with it. Tying up my PC for one hour to write a DVD is absolutely out of the question: it'll be busy doing many other things.

I have no problem adding a DVD reader to go along with this unit, if it makes anything go faster.

BTW, I've googled all day for information on various writers, and you guys are the only source I'd want to spend any time with: good reviews, a large and very active community, mods/hacks, etc.

I know very well what constitutes as a good drive. My 7173 and 7170 produces mostly excellent results on the media i use. It certainly doesn't make coasters.

Old hat and very overrated IMO and almost impossible to buy these days.

This drive used to be the best burner in my rig, outperformed by my two Optiarc drives.