What's the best DVD Drive to buy?

I can't get my phillips 8601 dvd drive to write anything, even though it plays fine. Someone suggested that I just buy a new drive,
Can someone recommend the best one to buy?
I would like it to write on dvd and cdr/rw.
Thank You.

Albert

 

i have a sony dru-800ul and i have burned over 100 dvd's flawlessly.Its an external burner.The internal is dru-800A i believe.

 

If you have the extra space in your tower,I'd use the phillips as the reader and put in a benq 1640 to do the burning for both cd and dvd.That phillips will take the wear and tear of ripping so your burner will last longer.

After having 6 different pc burners and a tv burner,there are variations between their backups.Some stand alones will have trouble with certain format,certain media,and certain burners.I've got 2 benq 1620s and a 1640.Their backups will play virtually anywhere I desire.I booktype the plus format to dvd-rom,making them more compatable on stand alones and other pc drives.My original 1620 has over 1700+ burns,and only 1 burn coaster this year!

I've got 99+% success rate/95%+ compatability rate.Very good for $40 burners.

Research the benq 1640. It has some nice features.Other brands like plextor and phillips are also using the exact same drive for some of their own models.Also checkout the utility called q-suite.It controls the max burn speed so you don't overburn your media.It also sets the booktyping.

Anywhere from $38-$44 at newegg.com,depending if you want bare drive or the extra nero oem software.This is a sweet drive.

Good Luck

 

I can't seem to find the Benq 1620 for sale anywhere?
Is this the best one to get, I don't mind spending more money to get something fast and durable.

 

Here's the 1640-beige only:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827101649

They've also got the benq 1620.Those were harder to come by. I'd still stick with the benq 1640.A lot more features on the 1640 than the 1620.

If you look around at newegg.com,you'll see a special on the plextor 740 which is a re-badged benq 1640,just a little more booty.I just noticed that sale a little while ago and posted it in another thread in the dvd-rw drive forum.

 

BenQ DW-1640

The best by test ...

 

I have the Plextor 740 that saugmon is speaking of. Great drive!

 

The LG is a quality drive as well. Check out this article:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/172

And for other drives this page:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/search/B/

This will provide you with lots of information.

Cheers.

 

Hello AL88

The best drive you should buy is the Sony DRX710UL external drive. I have this drive and it has burned without any problems at all. I have burned at up to 16x speed and it is great, It may be a little more exspensive than some but it is very reliable and burns perfectly, I have had it for nearly a year now and used it alot, it is very reliable and sony updates its firmware regular. Hope this is some help...

 

are most of you guys/ladyeees from the US?

if any of you are from the UK, where's the best place to buy? overclockers.co.uk looks the part but i've used them before and their delivery is shockingly bad!

and recommendations guys?

 

The best DVD burner is clearly the Plextor® PX-716S Dual Layer (SATA) with 8MB cache.
http://www.plextor.com/english/products/716SA.htm

 

Hello piggyot

The place I bought my Sony DRX710UL external drive, dual layer, was at ebuyer. It only took two days for them to deliver and I have bought a few things since and their delivery is very quick. I am in the U.K

 

thanks for the info zenon, how's the drive itself? good quality etc?

i'm currently using a laptop with a dvd burner atm which isnt all that, so do need to sort a new one out for my desktop in the near future.

do they sell dvd media aswell?

 

Hello piggyot

The Sony burns perfect picture and sound quality as the dvd you write from.
I have burned a dvd double layer disc up to 7.5 Gigabytes in ten minutes. I used Verbatim - R, it burned it at 16x. I think the sony is very reliable as I have never had any problem at all with it. Ebuyer do sell some media for dvd burners but I would recommend http://www.dvd-and-media.com/dual-layer-dvdr-media.htm they sell Verbatim double layer disc's for a good price.
If you have USB 2 on your pc than you can't go wrong with the Sony. Also the Plextor PX-716S Dual Layer internal burner as The_OGS suggested is also a very good burner. Either of those two will do the job 1st class. I hope this helps. Let us know what burner you decided to buy.

 

I see the BenQ 1640 comes highly recommended but I see it is unavailable now on Newegg....is the 1620 comparable in terms of quality and reliability even if not with as many features? I'm needing a replacement ASAP...thanks!

 

while this price is slightly higher than newegg was offering it less than a month ago, they still have the Benq 1640 in stock~

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merc...e=M&Product_Code=160081&AFFIL=pricewatch&NR=1

i found it on pricewatch btw, so, this is the most inexpensive place FROM a reputable online retailer...it's not an "affiliate" link where i would benefit in any way

docTY~

 

Is the DQ60 the same as the 1640? That's what this link was to. Thanks!

 

Supposedly the 1640 has been superceeded by the DQ60 .. I am waiting for BenQ to verify this. As far as I can tell, the DQ60 is the same as the DW1640 with the exception that the DQ60 can also write to DVD-RAM discs.

NewEgg has a sale on the DQ60 right now for $37.99 + $4 shipping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827101002

 

Cool...thanks for the tip! Let me know if hear back anything different from BenQ but I think I'll shoot for that one.

 

Folks are reporting that the DQ60 is a re-badged BENQ drive. The drive is actually manufactured by TEAC DV-W516E. I read this on cdfreak forum. You should be able to do a search.

bigdm