Objekt
30th August 2007, 01:57
My Samsung CDRW/DVD-ROM internal combo drive (model SM-352B) is on its last legs, and I've elected to replace it with an internal DVD burner/combo drive of some sort. That's "DVD" as in "plain vanilla" DVD (albeit multiformat +R, -R, etc.). No Blu-Ray or HD-DVD wanted or required.
The question is, which one? I have narrowed the field to the following:
LITE-ON Black 20X IDE DVD Burner - OEM (LH-20A1P-185 OEM)
LG Black 20X ATAPI / E-IDE Super Multi DVD Burner - OEM (GSA-H55NK)
PHILIPS Black 20X IDE DVD Burner - OEM (SPD2413BM/17)
Here's where I get confused:
-What does it mean for a mfg. to claim "20x" DVD burning? As far as I can tell, the fastest available DVD R media is rated for "only" 16x. I can see the benefit of 20x DVD read speed, but since the media is limited to 16x, why do they bother making 18x and 20x write-speed burners? There must be something I'm missing here.
-The LG and Phillips drives have 2 MB cache, but the Lite-On either has none, or Lite-On forgot to list it. My existing Samsung CDRW has 8 MB cache, but I didn't see a single DVD burner for sale that had more than 2 MB. Wouldn't more be better?
-I specified PATA drives because I do not have a free SATA port in my system (Athlon XP 3200+ on an Abit NF7S-v2 mobo w/1 GB RAM & Win XP Pro - yeah, it's old!). It used to be that there was no point hooking up an optical drive (such as the Samsung combo drive for instance) to a SATA port. There was no way an optical drive could max out a PATA connection, let alone SATA. Is that still true, or should I consider adding a SATA port card and get a SATA-interface DVD burner for better speed?
-Of the 3 chosen, which actually writes the fastest and most reliably with the widest variety of media? Other than the user feedback at Newegg, I've had zero luck finding reviews of the LG and Phillips drives. Could be they're simply too new. Your personal experience with any of the 3, or another you think I should consider, would be helpful here.
-Lite-On and Phillips call it "IDE," but the LG says "ATAPI / E-IDE." Isn't that actually the same thing? Or not?
-Why is the maximum CDROM read speed in DVD burners "only" 48x? I couldn't find a single DVD burner for sale that sported 52x CDROM read speed. I don't understand why a new DVD burner would read CDROMs more slowly than my 3-year old CDRW drive.
Thanks for any help you can provide. If there's another drive you think is the absolute bestest DVD burner on Earth but I haven't listed it, please make a suggestion.
The question is, which one? I have narrowed the field to the following:
LITE-ON Black 20X IDE DVD Burner - OEM (LH-20A1P-185 OEM)
LG Black 20X ATAPI / E-IDE Super Multi DVD Burner - OEM (GSA-H55NK)
PHILIPS Black 20X IDE DVD Burner - OEM (SPD2413BM/17)
Here's where I get confused:
-What does it mean for a mfg. to claim "20x" DVD burning? As far as I can tell, the fastest available DVD R media is rated for "only" 16x. I can see the benefit of 20x DVD read speed, but since the media is limited to 16x, why do they bother making 18x and 20x write-speed burners? There must be something I'm missing here.
-The LG and Phillips drives have 2 MB cache, but the Lite-On either has none, or Lite-On forgot to list it. My existing Samsung CDRW has 8 MB cache, but I didn't see a single DVD burner for sale that had more than 2 MB. Wouldn't more be better?
-I specified PATA drives because I do not have a free SATA port in my system (Athlon XP 3200+ on an Abit NF7S-v2 mobo w/1 GB RAM & Win XP Pro - yeah, it's old!). It used to be that there was no point hooking up an optical drive (such as the Samsung combo drive for instance) to a SATA port. There was no way an optical drive could max out a PATA connection, let alone SATA. Is that still true, or should I consider adding a SATA port card and get a SATA-interface DVD burner for better speed?
-Of the 3 chosen, which actually writes the fastest and most reliably with the widest variety of media? Other than the user feedback at Newegg, I've had zero luck finding reviews of the LG and Phillips drives. Could be they're simply too new. Your personal experience with any of the 3, or another you think I should consider, would be helpful here.
-Lite-On and Phillips call it "IDE," but the LG says "ATAPI / E-IDE." Isn't that actually the same thing? Or not?
-Why is the maximum CDROM read speed in DVD burners "only" 48x? I couldn't find a single DVD burner for sale that sported 52x CDROM read speed. I don't understand why a new DVD burner would read CDROMs more slowly than my 3-year old CDRW drive.
Thanks for any help you can provide. If there's another drive you think is the absolute bestest DVD burner on Earth but I haven't listed it, please make a suggestion.