dvd drive question

[point_vector]

ok
I bought a plextor 740a, but it wasn't released yet; and me being impatient, went ahead and bought a plextor 716a. I like the 740 fine, and it writes to +r dL media faster. Thats a plus, but not huge in my book. Anyway, my question is that the 740 has a 2mb buffer while the 716 has an 8mb buffer. I just wanted to know if the buffer really matters much. A 6mb buffer difference seems like alot, but I just don't know. I just got the 716 yesterday and haven't opened it yet, so I might return it. Is it worth keeping it, or should I just return it and get my money back.

[twist3d]

I think that bigger buffer means a lot if you own a _really_ slow system & hard disk, and the drive doesn't have buffer underrun protection. I'd say that with PIII with 7200rpm drive will be enough for 2MB buffer :) I have a NEC ND-3520 with 2MB and the buffer has never run out. 8MB buffer nowadays sounds like a marketing quirk more than really useful feature.