I've found a great difference in pricing between retail boxed, and online bare drives. Anyone have experience with bare drives? Any differences aside from not having manuals, software and cables? Manuals and firmware updates are available online anyway. Thanks,
i've had no problem with the bare drives i get from my supplier but they do come with software if is a burner.
Maybe not so for firmware updates for some burners- HP for example, LOL. Since it's a replacement drive,you probably already got your cables-80 wire/40 pin. You probably already got your software-those nero6 oem discs are very handy. Then there's the box which you may want to keep around. Some drives will give you a different colored face plate/tray cover like Plextor. I had no trouble with bare drives,except they were Benqs-which are very scarce,but a hell of a burner. Make sure it's a quality drive: Plextor Benq-If you can find the 1640A/1650A/1655A-I'm uncertain how I'll get my future fw updates for my 5 benqs.Benq= Rest In Peace! Lite-on LG NEC Pioneer I haven't kept track of how much they are running now,but my last couple bare drives were well under $40 along with free shipping from newegg.com
