Hey guys, Well I'm finally fed up with trying to fix and update my old HP DVD burner. I'm looking to get a new burner and I'm open to suggestions for what brand to get. I want one that will provide timely firmware updates. I really don't know what else I need, but I know that updates are important. So suggestions? What brands to you use and how long have they lasted you? For reference, my HP lasted about a year before it started going downhill and after 2 years now it's completely worthless and I can't get it to burn anything. (No it's not my discs)
hi yep i agree with Rotary...i have 4 lite-on's...1 of them coming up to 4yrs old and still going strong.
Ok so I was just about to purchase the Lite-On DVD burner and ran into a dilemma... what's the difference between SATA and IDE? I know my pc has SATA controllers and drivers, but I don't really know how to hook anything up to it or what the purpose is... (yes I can see all of you visually cringe from hearing this) do i need special cables for a SATA drive? my PC is about 4 years old now should i get a new IDE cable? I don't know what the specs on the current cable is and don't know how to find out, it is a round cable though not the flat kind. Thanks for helping out a noob
sata is faster transfer than ide, sata are smaller width cables about 15mm across, different power cables from PSU too (check your psu for this!) with sata you may have to enable the sata connection in your bios not sure and get latest drivers for sata from motherboard website. ide you need an 80wire cable and can have 2x drives on 1 cable aslong as you set them up correctly with master and slave jumpers on the back of each drive. ide use the old style 4pin molex for power most psu's have spares...
if you can do sata i would do it Pioneer are the best optical drives out there i would consider this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129020&Tpk=PIONEER+DVR-215DBK
yeah i hear ya, i see a few probs on here getting the system to see a sata, some peoples drives just install and go easy some not, i would gestermate ide being an easyer install than sata just in case of problems most people here will get it going some way or another... i myself am thinking my next drive maybe be a sata BUT! i have 8 sata connectors and 6 are used i have raid turned on as i have 6 sata hd's running dual raid, so not sure if i would need to turn raid off (which i wont do) as its backup, that my new sata would work in this combo or not? and being i have 2 lite-ons (1 burner 1 not) and they been awesome! i would go sata lite-on for me personally... but i need to read more up on reveiws before fully going 100% that way.
Thanks for the replies. I think I'll got with SATA. Anyone else have any comments about brands to choose from?
Thanks ZoSo for the link to Newegg, the selection and prices are a bit better than Tigerdirect. I found one I liked http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106073 and got some ram too while I was at it.
the lightscribe disks are a bit more expensive, but i like seeing a picture on my disks instead writing the title. thanks for your help
hi guys only just catching up (nonfunctioning e'mail) very nice...also with Sata you won't get the problem of DMA being on/off...does'nt apply
I got the burner hooked up and burned my first disk. The hookup was very easy, and I didn't even have to download any new drivers for the SATA. The only annoying part was UPS's fault. They delivered on Thursday and I wasn't home to pick it up and knew I wouldn't be home on Friday. I called and told them to wait until Monday and I would stop by and pick it up. They delivered it on Friday anyway and to add insult to injury left it at the office in my apartment complex which isn't open on the weekends. So close, yet so far away.
