Ive only had 2 burners my first one was a Liteon which failed after 13 months, i replaced it with an LG GSA 4163b which has been fantastic and has burned over 200 discs with no problem and still going strong. Like to hear from people with reliable equipment , as it makes choosing your next burner less of a risk.
Lotta guys here stand by their BenQ drives. I've gone through Memorex, Sony, HP, and NEC burners and not until recently picked up a couple of BenQs. I just installed the 1655 on my PC and am very pleased with it. Also picked up a Plextor 740A(rebadged BenQ 1640) and am also very happy with the backups I've made.
Benq 1620: My first burner that I purchased,that didn't come bundled with a pc. Over 16 months old/3000+ backups/several hundred on the fly and only 1 coaster this year! It still going as strong as day 1. Second Benq 1620: about a yr old,and only 300-400 burns. Only coasters was a bad batch of Office Depot +16x ricohs.Only 2,before I found the remaining defective discs in that spindle. This drive is on a single drive pc.Because of my burn settings were 1x/2x/2.4x/and max. Majority of my 8x media will burn at 12x and 16x in that max speed setting. So I swapped out that drive for a Benq 1640: Third: Benq 1640. Super drive,combined with qsuite to set the booktype of the plus format to dvd rom. Probably 500 backups on her,an only 1 burn coaster this year! On the fly rip/burn is no trouble. Fourth: Just installed this week is the 1650. Combined with qsuite 2.0 it is very sweet/quite/and smooth. You can't hear the drive when it burns. I'll stick with Benq till I die. Best burner for the buck.The highest assets: 99.9+% backup success/95+% stand alone compatability rate after booktyping the plus format to dvd-rom/stick with the plus format only/They burn anything you slap in them/They perform better using quality media and a faster 8x+ burnspeed/and the price! If a player won't play my backups,then it won't play any backups, Period! I only burn with these drives and scan for errors. Not much playing/and definitely no ripping.That'll make a drive last a very long time. Also no laser lens cleaning. On the fly ripping and burning: Not a single coaster! The quality taiyo yuden and verbatim media also help the performance. I avg around 1 coaster out of every 500 backups.
Just looked up how much the latest Benq drive is here in the UK and its only £28 bundled with Nero software as well. Who makes these drives so cheap , is it China?
Yep. China makes the Benq drives,as well as the majority of dvd-rw drives on the market. Not sure about Samsung? They are a korean name,but probably made in china as well, LOL
