Which ODD?

[Red_Maw]

My lite-on finally died a couple weeks ago (it was free :bigsmile:) and so I've been looking for a new ODD. As you all know it is difficult to find a good ODD these days so I finally decided to register and ask this question. What ODD do you recommend for ripping and burning? I've found both a NEC 3550a and SH-S203N OEM. The samsung is 1/4 the cost of the NEC but that could be for a reason. Everyone I've talked to that has had the NEC said it produced some of their best burns ever and is very reliable, but I haven't exactly heard bad things about the samsung either. Which one would you recommend I get (or a third unlisted option)?

Thanks in advance.

[DrageMester]

I would recommend NOT getting the NEC ND-3550A since this series of drives (3550, 3551, 4550, 4551) had some nasty problem with relinking during burning causing some (but not most) DVD readers to fail at reading some burned DVDs.

They made pretty looking scans when using some scanning drives, but I consider that irrelevant given this relinking problem at DVD burn speeds higher than 4x.

Welcome to CDFreaks!

[Red_Maw]

Thanks DrageMester, for both advice and welcome. I had some reservations about the NEC before, mainly the age and price, but I had ask just in case it was the golden drive people were making it out to be. With that being the case though I think I’ll just grab the samsung since it’s so cheap ($20) and if things go wrong I won’t be too upset.