What are some good DVD-ROM drives?

[argh]

Hello, I'm thinking about purchasing a new DVD-ROM drive in addition to my DVD writer. I heard this is better because it takes some of the stress off your writer and it can boost ripping speed. I was just wondering if anyone has some recommendations on DVD-ROM drives that have been known to rip at fast speeds. Also, I heard that you can hack the read speed of certain drives. Does anyone know which drives are "hackable"? Thanks in advance for any help contributed.

[Treebeard]

Dont know about hacking a model, but the Liteon 163 & 166 models rip pretty well.

[Viper10000]

I found Lite-On & LG Electronics did a very good job ripping. Better than Sony for sure.

Cheers,

[jimmalenko]

I have 2 DVD-ROMS in different machines - a LiteOn and a Pioneer slot load. Both are pretty good compared to the rest but in comparison with each other, the LiteOn wins hands down. It rips consistently faster and is not as fussy as the Pioneer when reading slightly scratched discs.

[Poppa_Meth]

Samsung 616 is also quite good.

[argh]

Well thanks for your recommendations! I purchased the Lite-on 166d online (less than 30 bucks) and it came today. I installed it and it was ripping at slower speeds than my Memorex burner at first. Then I switched it and made it my master drive instead of slave. After I did that, it ripped a full DVD in less than 14 minutes! I didn't have to update firmware or anything either. Thanks again for all your help.