Benq 1640,oem or retail?

dustyboy 2005-09-10 12:00:09 UTC #1

Is it worth spending an extra 5 quid to get the retail version over the oem.What is the software supplied and the diff in build plants?(read difference between india and Malaysia,here I think).In uk if that makes any difference.Many thanks gentlemen and ladies ofcourse.

etp 2005-09-10 12:14:01 UTC #2

Not to me IMHO! The Newegg one comes with a fresh copy of Nero and you can download the rest for free.

HarrySmiith 2005-09-10 12:55:24 UTC #3

Dustyboy did say UK. I have sometimes wondered if there is a difference between the BenQ drives sold in the UK and those sold in the US. I keep reading about crap drives RMAs for drives made during the second week in May 2005 on the second floor in TW but personally I always by retail and have never had to RMA a BenQ 1620 or 1640. To me time is money and as I buy for clients as well as for my own company I'm not too worried about the extra cost but I would be worried about the time wasted returning a product. Go for the Retail version and drink a couple of cups of coffee less to pay for the difference.

madmax 2005-09-10 15:32:39 UTC #4

I just bought 3 of them all dated may and from the uk and none are having any problems..
all came supplied with nero OEM..
They were all bought from GLTec cheapest in uk i could find..

chas0039 2005-09-10 16:17:59 UTC #5

I have gone through 3 RMAs with BenQ and seen many more reports of the same for the 1640. Currently there is a lot of work going on trying to figure out which COO is the best to not get a bad drive.

No one has yet seen a pattern that is consistent. If one really wants to get a BenQ in spite of all their quality control problems, you should at least get the OEM and save a few bucks. You be less annoyed if you get hit with one of the defective models and have to pay shipping to return it.

Trust me, your chances of a bad drive are equal no matter what you do.

dustyboy 2005-09-11 03:51:11 UTC #6

Many thanks fellas.

etp 2005-09-11 05:03:00 UTC #7

I would definately buy from a source that had a liberal return policy! Sorry! Didn't notice you were not in the US! Me bad!

C0deKing 2005-09-11 17:00:22 UTC #8

I think this is important for any DVD writer purchase. For what the drives do and the price they have to sell them for, one has to expect some faulty units but one must also remember that someone is far more likely to post that they have a problem then if their drive is working fine, so you do tend to see a rather biased indication of the amount of drives that do fail out of the hundreds of thousands that they do make.

Both my Benq 1620 and 1640 (made in Malaysia) are working perfectly after hundreds of burns.