lookin to get a new DVD drive

[luciusad2004]

Hey all,

I'm looking to get a new DVD drive and was wondering if there was any brands that you all recommend or if you have any advice for me to keep in mind when shopping.

My old drive was a Lite-on brand drive but i don't really remember anything else about it. It seemed like a decent drive but it recently stopped reading DVDs after maybe 2-3 years of service. It still seems to read and write CDs just fine though. Honestly all i really use them for is burning boot disk for various Linux distributions and subsequently installing them.

I know i want SATA because my motherboard only has 1 IDE channel and i hate having to piggy back my DVD drive on to the same cable as my hard drive. Would you guys recommend getting a Litescribe drive or would it just be a useless novelty? Does anyone even have any experience using Lite-scribe under Linux? I'm using windows for now but eventually I'll probably be using Ubuntu again. (when the win 7 beta ends)

I'm not really looking to spend more than $40 dollars because I'm broke but it seems that most drives on newegg don't cost more than $25-$35 anyway.

Thanks for any input.

[blueonblack]

I've owned four LG drives and have nothing but great things to say about them. I actually had a disc explode in one of them. I was installing a program and WHAM! It sounded like someone had slapped the side of my case with an open hand. Then silence and no more install. After some investigation I found the drive wouldn't open. I took it out and opened it up and this disc was in about fourteen thousand pieces, none of them any bigger than 1/4" across, most of them glitter sized. All I can think is it had cracks in it and the spin tore it apart. I spent two hours cleaning all the specs of plastic out of the drive, put it back together and it's run great ever since.

I had two others that I used as test drives while building a copper drive cage, soldering it together. I actually got them hot enough to melt part of the casing on the back around the input areas, and they both work like new.

They're fast, cheap, and quiet. I swear by them.

[nevermind1534]

I buy (and like) samsung burners.

[Spawn-Inc]

i own 2 LG drives and like them. they burn fast, to me anyhow, and were less then $40. my only issue, a small one, is the drive can get a bit loud only when reading certain discs.

so my vote goes for LG

here is a newer model of dvd drive i have. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136153)

[Drum Thumper]

LG would be my first choice. ASUS would be a distant second. My ASUS just crapped out on me (won't burn, just spins and spins and spins) two weeks after my 1 year warranty from Newegg expired. I emailed ASUS to see if I could RMA it and they sent me an RMA number. So its' getting sent of on Monday.

[crenn]

Pioneer is always good. I haven't had an LG drive fail on me... except for when someone ripped out the drive tray.

[Oneslowz28]

Another vote for the Samsung drives. I have a total of 10 now and they are all still going strong. Last year I had to make 125 wedding photo dvds for each guest that was at a wedding I shot. I burnt them all back to back in 3 drives and they all survived and still work great.

[luciusad2004]

Thanks for the input guys. It seems like it really is a toss up between the Samsung and LG drives. They seem to have the same specs and roughly the same prices w/ Sumsung being $1-$2 cheaper. I think I'm gonna go w/ the lightscribe Samsung because it has more reviews on newegg than LG's lightscribe offerings. It also has the 2x customer choice award. *shrug* besides... I'll save a dollar. I can buy lunch for a dollar.

Thanks guys

Edit: Got this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151173

There was a 3 dollar off promo so i got it for a bit over 21 dollars.

Edit2: Anyone ever modded a disk drive? Once the new one gets here i wont be using the old one anymore... might as well use it for practice or something. I don't know what my possibilities are though.

[progbuddy]

I like both Sony and LG, but for the price I would go with LG.

[SgtM]

That's the same drive I just bought. Good choice. It works great.

[Spawn-Inc]

Edit2: Anyone ever modded a disk drive? Once the new one gets here i wont be using the old one anymore... might as well use it for practice or something. I don't know what my possibilities are though.

yup, on both my dvd drives and floppy drives i swapped out the led's for blue ones. it looks nice.

here is a link to it. (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8842&highlight=quick+mod)

[XcOM]

i like NEC personally, but thats because i like the pefectly blank front, no ink, all embossed!, much nicer

[luciusad2004]

yup, on both my dvd drives and floppy drives i swapped out the led's for blue ones. it looks nice.

here is a link to it. (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8842&highlight=quick+mod)

Thats cool, I think i might give that a shot if i ever get around to purchasing a soldering iron. I always hate that my lights are blue and my drive LEDs are green.

I was also thinking of maybe putting a window in it just for the hell of it. I've seen it done to Xbox 360 disk drives so I'm sure its doable w/ a PC drive. I could also try painting it. I'll probably just use it for something to practice on since i really don't have anything to mod and don't want to touch my primary PC or laptop.


That's the same drive I just bought. Good choice. It works great.

Thats good to hear. I always get terrible buyers remorse after ordering something online because i worried that i just bought something thats not gonna work. Thanks : )

Thanks guys.

[Spawn-Inc]

i also wired a remote switch but never did anything with it and later removed it.