What factors should I look for in a CD-ROM drive?
Feb 04 '02
The Bottom Line Brands may not matter to many people, and neither does speed. Don't get X-rated!
Brand names, speeds, interfaces, seek ratings... what do these all mean for the consumer in the end? If you say "confusion", then you are right!
At this point, many of you would just look at the X rating. You know... those 32x readers... those 56x readers.
Well, time for a wake up call. A quality CD-ROM drive does not really go by the X rating. It's about a reputation. Plextor (www.plextor.com) drives have it, and is well known to be reliable, and have been the best performers (fastest drives).
Okay, so yes, I do side with Plextor for almost any optical drives they produce. However, they are one of the most expensive because of this (although prices are coming down to reasonable prices).
You walk in the store (say, Fry's Electronics), and see these boxes that have big numbers: "52x CD-ROM Drive" or "56x CD-ROM Drive". Those are the first things they want you to see! Where's the brand name? That is the 2nd thing you'll see, but what company is "Artec" or "CyberDrive"?
Ah, yes... CD-ROMs are now a dime-a-dozen. No-names are making them now, along with companies like Sony, Yamaha, Plextor, and other reputable hardware makers. So why choose one over the other?
Most of the average Joe should just go for what is the cheapest. Brands don't matter anymore, as long as you just want a drive to work, and have the ability to return it if it doesn't the 1st time. However, just be prepared to eat the drive if it fails in the long run.
These no-name brands aren't exactly unreliable. I've used them myself to build cheap systems and they work like a tank! They lasted as long (and some of them LONGER) than my quality Plextor drives.
Okay, you now may be wondering about the X ratings. FORGET ABOUT THEM. Most drives are now selling with rated speeds of 40x to 56x, with 52 and 56x in common now. However, if you calculate how fast that really is (52 x 150 kb/s is about 7 MB/second), that is already as fast as your hard drive! Most ATAPI channels top out at 5 MB/sec. So a 40x drive will feel no different from a 56x drive. The lowest CD-ROM drive I would accept is 24x...and that's already masked by faster drives.
What about other drives like CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives? Same story. There is nothing used for these DVD-ROM drives except to watch DVD movies (in which, a 1x drive would do!), replace your CD-ROM drive (which all DVD-ROM will do acceptably, reading them at a min of 24x, but usually at 40x), or to rip movies (in which, all DVD-ROM drives rips at their max speed in the X rating). Not many average Joe uses them to rip DVDs, so any speed will suffice. Again, same for reliability. If you need a name brand to back you up, Pioneer makes great reliable 16x DVD-ROM drives (Currently the fastest) that reads CDs as well at 40x. However, a cheap Artec or CyberDrive 8x or higher will do just fine (although some of CyberDrive products uses the Pioneer drives!). Why 8x? Because I can't find any 1x or 2x anymore, so why even bother? :) A fast DVD-ROM drive for ripping isn't that expensive anymore as well. Also, remember that the rating for DVD is different... 16x is not 16x 150 kb/sec. It's 16x 1385 kb/sec, which is about 22 MB/sec!!! Remember what I said about the ATAPI bus? When I rip DVD with my Pioneer 16x, I only get around 5 MB/sec transfer rates, even though in theory, it's suppose to rip at 22 MB/sec (or same as 16x).
Same goes for CD/RW drives! The average Joe does not do alot of special CD recordings. They write music CDs, copy a few CDs here and there, back up a few files, etc. Any drive can do that. However, you will only need to refer to quality drives when you are into bit-by-bit accuracy, piracy (hey, I'm not interrogating you! :) ), and may need to read/write raw data.
The only drive that you SHOULD make sure you buy from a reliable manufacture is the HARD DRIVE! In this case, brand name counts! In fact, have you seen any cheap hard drive makers? LaClair was the only one. What? You never heard of them? Well, they don't make hard drives anymore. :) They lasted oh....about 6 months! Once they had compaints, they just fell off the shelves and into the recycling bin. Hard drives are harder to manufacture, as they need to be more precise.
Why do you think there are now $30 CD players, $30 CD-ROM drives, and $50 DVD-ROM drives? Even a RW drive can go for under $100 nowadays.
Shop wisely!
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