buying a new dvd burner

[lumis]

i'm going to purchase a new dvd burner in the next couple of days.

i'm considering purchasing the benq 1620, i can get it for $60.49 shipped from newegg.

a friend of mine has this drive and it seems to be a pretty good drive. he buys 30 packs of 8x dvd+r's for $15, can burn them at 12x speed, and set the book type to dvd-rom. it takes about 6 minutes to burn a full dvd.

can anyone suggest a better drive at or near the same price?

i'm also purchasing a new harddrive, i'm looking at the western digital WD2000BB, 200GB/7200RPM/8.9MS ST/ULTRA ATA 100. its $112 shipped. but i could also get the same drive with an 8MB buffer for an extra $4.

same question, can anyone suggest a better drive at or near the same price?

thanks

[budz]

get the BENQ 1620 because it's the best bang for the buck. plus the drive is great with both types of dvd media, DVD-/+. it has automatic bitsetting for DVD+R media and gets frequent firmware updates from BENQ. other drives like the NEC's have to use hacked firmware to enable BITSETTING and their drives are poor readers. if you wanna spend a little more you could get a plextor 716 drive.

[glockjs]

everybody is gonna have their opinion. so here's mine pioneer makes the best drive around

[erdons]

Theres Pioneer, and then theres others. Definetly go with the Pioneer, you will not regret it.

[budz]

according to lordsmurf he's having problems using NERO BURN with the pioneer 109 drive. others are having other problems with the drive as well. check out the pioneer forum at cdfreaks.com and all the other forums for more info on what pros and cons each drive has.

[lumis]

i understand there are different opinions on what is best, thats why i wanted to hear from people.

i'm not gonna get the sexy plexy, i'd have to about double the price.

the pioneer (109) is a consideration, but its about 50% more than the benq. i've had a 105 since it came out, and its still running like a good little trooper.. its just too slow now and wont let me set the book type of dvd+r media to dvd-rom.

will the 109 allow me to set the book type of dvd+r (and dvd+r DL) to dvd-rom? also, the 8x dvd+r's that i could burn at 12x on the benq are ritek g05's (i think).. does the pioneer let me burn those at 12x?

one things that is attracting me to the 109 is that it will burn dvd+r DL @ 6x.. the benq will only do them at 4x.

thanks for all the responses

[stiltman]

one things that is attracting me to the 109 is that it will burn dvd+r DL @ 6x.. the benq will only do them at 4x.

thanks for all the responses

It will also do DVD -R at 6x
That is if you can find the media

[lumis]

wow, the drive is sounding better and better..

if there was a hacked firmware to allow it to set the booktype to dvd-rom, burn the riteks @12x & rip dvd's faster than the 2x limit imposed by burners i'll probably get it.

[stiltman]

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=180136

[lumis]

doesnt look like there is much of a hacked firmware.. does it autoset book type? looks like the dvd+r DL speed is gonna get upped to 8x, and that support for DVD-R DL looks good too.

[erdons]

I dont know about the 109, but with my 108 i have ripped at up to 13x

[Delerious]

i'm going to purchase a new dvd burner in the next couple of days.

i'm also purchasing a new harddrive, i'm looking at the western digital WD2000BB, 200GB/7200RPM/8.9MS ST/ULTRA ATA 100. its $112 shipped. but i could also get the same drive with an 8MB buffer for an extra $4.

same question, can anyone suggest a better drive at or near the same price?

Unless things have changed, the WD "special edition" (JB) drives had a
3 year warranty, while the BB's only had 1 year. $4 is a pretty good deal for
an extra 2 years.

J

[lumis]

well i guess i'll be going with the JB, 6mb extra buffer & 2 years extra warranty for $4, sounds good to me.

i'm not so much interested in the pioneer for ripping faster, because the benq can do that too. i'm more interested in it being able to set booktypes on dvd+R media & being able to burn dvd+R DL @ 8x (wow), and also that it can burn dvd-R DL.

thanks for the responses, more would be appreciated.

[glockjs]

hard drive

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-032&depa=1

if you have sata go for the seagate sata, if you dont that's the drive to buy