Would you still buy an NEC ND-3520A today?

[Number Six]

Hi all - I have been lurking on your site for a few years now and have found a lot of very good and useful information. Keep up the good work!

I have read all the posts about what you consider to be the best DVD Burners available today. The NEC ND-3520A is still listed as the Top User Rated Burner in the DVD Writer section.

I have had an NEC ND-2500A for over 4 years and never had a problem with it. I would like to get a second burner for a new computer that I am building, and there are some NEW 3520's listed on eBay for approximately $35.00 - and that includes shipping. I know that a lot of you do not like eBay, but I have made many good purchases from eBay sellers with no problems.

So, If you could buy a NEW NEC ND-3520A today, would you?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[ricoman]

It is a very good burner but, there are better now and for less money. My suggestion is the Pioneer 115D for around $30 on Newegg: http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Pioneer-DVR-115D-DVD-Burner-Review
Or wait a week and try for the Optiarc 7200A: http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Optiarc-AD-7200A-DVD-Burner-Review/Introduction.html
The Optiarc is made with NEC and Sony I believe.
These are the 2 best reviewed burners in recent months.

[OleTexCajun]

Just bought 3 myself. Pioneer is also good. Sony will ruin NEC, and overcharge for their junk!

[samijubal]

I would definitely buy a 3520 new for that price. I might have to get me one if they are still there. I love my 3500 and wouldn't trade it for anything. I've had it since 2004 and in all that time I had 1 burn that failed for no apparent reason. Could have been the burner, disc or software, I don't know. You can't get better than perfect burns every time. I've got a Pioneer, I don't use it. I know for sure I can always count on the NEC. I don't want to take chances with anything else.

[lordsmurf]

If you want to, sure. But I find Pioneer and Samsung to be fine choices too. Newer, and for same price (or even less) from reliable merchant.

[Video Head]

Samsung or LG for me. At under $30 these have become pure commodity.

[budz]

I've never owned nor wanted a NEC dvd burner after reading how they were not good readers. As LS mentioned for the same price you can buy a better drive like PIONEER or SAMSUNG. Both of those brands at the moment are the best drives on the market right now.

[bevills1]

I'd not buy any NEC burner at any price due to the common -R read problem afflicting many NEC drives including my own 3520 that I unfortunately bought a couple of years ago. For details on this NEC drive problem see http://club.cdfreaks.com/f86/nec-optiarc-dvd-r-reading-problems-209168/. I've had a Pioneer DVR-107d that's still going strong after about 4 years, and I got 2 Pioneer 111D drives about a year or so ago. Pioneer would still be my choice if I needed a burner today.

[Number Six]

Hi - Thanks for the responses!

I did not know about the DVD-R reading problem with the NEC Drives, but it is not really an issue for me because I use DVD+R Media exclusively. My ND-2500A burned everything I fed it perfectly, including the crappy TDK+R CMC Media that I bought when I was at the beginning of my Learning Curve 4 years ago. The only coasters that I ever got was when I tried to figure out how to burn 16X Media. 2.4X burn speed told me that the burn was successful, but the disk was not readable. 4X burn speed works perfectly. I now have a large stock of Verbatim 16X DVD+R Media - some MII and some Made in Taiwan. I would like to be able to burn these disks faster. I also do not use DL Media at this time.

I have looked at the Pioneer, Samsung, and LG Drives and they are all impressive! I may end up buying 1 NEC Drive to replaced my 2500, and 1 of the others for the new PC.

[budz]

Hi - Thanks for the responses!

I did not know about the DVD-R reading problem with the NEC Drives, but it is not really an issue for me because I use DVD+R Media exclusively. My ND-2500A burned everything I fed it perfectly, including the crappy TDK+R CMC Media that I bought when I was at the beginning of my Learning Curve 4 years ago. The only coasters that I ever got was when I tried to figure out how to burn 16X Media. 2.4X burn speed told me that the burn was successful, but the disk was not readable. 4X burn speed works perfectly. I now have a large stock of Verbatim 16X DVD+R Media - some MII and some Made in Taiwan. I would like to be able to burn these disks faster. I also do not use DL Media at this time.

I have looked at the Pioneer, Samsung, and LG Drives and they are all impressive! I may end up buying 1 NEC Drive to replaced my 2500, and 1 of the others for the new PC.

PIONEER & SAMSUNG have frequent firmware upgrades to keep up with newer media id's compared to NEC.

[samijubal]

All NEC drives don't have problems with DVD-R discs. Mine has read hundreds of -R discs from many different burners without any problems aside from cheap discs and burners.

If you buy one of those 3520s on Ebay, post here if all goes well and they are truly new burners. If they are new for that price, I'm going to buy one too. I have 3 other drives, but I just don't know about trusting anything other than a 3500 or 3520.

[lordsmurf]

I heard about NEC DVD-R problems on the 1300 drives, and I've really not had any that I can recall.

[Krispy Kritter]

I've had three of these drives (3500, 3520, and a 3540). All worked fine for me without any issues and they are all stilll operational. I use -R and +R DL media. I now have a Pioneer 112D and a Samsumg SH203B (SATA) which is my drive of preference right now as it has the fastest read speed of any drive I've used.

[bunginuts]

I've owned 3 NEC drives, all trash in my opinion. All developed writing and reading problems about 3 months after buying them and I don't burn a whole bunch of dvd-r/+r's. Cheap yes, quality is subpar. Buy a HP, Samsung or Pioneer.