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Hello!
I am rearching for the most reliable CD burner that can safely reproduce cds. I guess it would be better if it has excellent media compatibility, good mechanical design and something that can stand a lot of usage(It could be running over ten hours a day!) Speed is not a concern for me. Integrity of the data is more important.
After reading some of the articles here, it seems that TEAC is a good brand to go for. Could someone give me any advice onthis subject? Much appreciated!

Stephan

i recommend lite-on hands down for best reproducer, but as far as a work horse, i would go with plextor, you'll be sacrificing reproduceing

but if you burn out the liteon, just spend like $40 and buy a new 48x

I have heard that Plextor has a few media compatibility prob. Or did I heard it wrong? I have been thinking about lite-on. Base on what you have said, is lite-on a bit questionable in build quality so it can't be pushed too hard? and plextor is otherwise?

Lite-On is very good in terms of craftsmanship and build quality. I think what Hoxlund was trying to say is that if you burn A LOT of CD's, it might burn out. That's only if you burn A Lot of CD's like over a couple thousand in a month. Get the Lite-On as it is the best CD-RW drive around and is very media friendly unlike the Plextor. Lite-On is simply the best bang for the buck.

come on budda, its the best of all time, in the whole world

i also want to announce to anyone that reads this topic

I got my first computer compenent for my new pentium 4 system, my mobo

I bought the IT7 Max 2 Version 2, $170 at newegg.com, only took 3 days for shipping, and it was free shipping

i just want to say again, i LOVE!!!! newegg.com

hoxlund wrote:i recommend lite-on hands down for best reproducer, but as far as a work horse, i would go with plextor, you'll be sacrificing reproduceing

but if you burn out the liteon, just spend like $40 and buy a new 48x

i can't believe it - hoxlund recommending a Plextor over a Lite-On.
OH MY GOD!!!
the sky is falling...

seriously, Plextor do have the reputation of being very well made, reliable and true work-horses.
i must say i've read many more posts about problems with Lite-On drives on these forums than problems with plextors, and also reports of drives dying out after X time of usage. however this has to be taken with caution - the frequenters of these boards are much more likely to buy Lite-On drives than Plextors. so this does not necessarily mean much.

i would suggest the Plextor if you're going to be using it so much. i do belive Plextor's reputation is deserved (or did i just by into the hype ? )

hoxlund wrote:come on budda, its the best of all time, in the whole world

BuddhaTB wrote:Get the Lite-On as it is the best CD-RW drive around and is very media friendly unlike the Plextor

Plextor is a true workhorse though. My TDK 12x10x32 which is a rebadged Plextor is still going strong.

Lite-On's are good, but I like my LG just as much. It seems to take whatever I throw at it nicely. Of course this is an older 16x one, I can't speak for newer ones. In terms of quality I would take a Yamaha over a Plextor. Yamaha's generally last A LONG time, and tend to have all the latest bells & whistles. Some of the whistles, like T@2 (or however you spell it) would have been better left out and worked on longer. But my 8x Yammie SCSI cdrw drive has served me so well over the years...

I guess TEAC is not being recommended by anyone.
The college I work for right now uses Plexter mainly. These bundled cd copying machines will become eratic after 4 to 5 hours of continuous usage. Plexter are great, but they are very picky about the media that we can use on them. It is not cheap buying only Taiyo Yueden or Hitachi Maxwell blanks, because they seem to be the most compatible ones with the Plexter.

Lite-on sounds good. Is there any other brand that you guys can think of?
Thanks for all the info!

I would recommend TEAC all the way. Maybe not the new Asus-based drives, but the older ones for certain.

A pirate friend of mine has 4 6-burner duplicators, all with TEAC 58s 8x SCSI writers installed. He reckons he's burned around 50,000 CDs on EACH unit (oh yes, he's a large-scale dodgy character lol). Not one of them has given any trouble whatsoever. I have 2 58s drives and a 24x TEAC IDE (524E?) and these seem to run forever as well. In my experience they are the Mazda of CD writers; underrated, not particularly exciting but utterly, utterly reliable.

jase wrote:A pirate friend of mine has 4 6-burner duplicators

Define "pirate friend"...is he an actual pirate who roams the high seas and raids other peoples' boats? If so, that would be a cool life! Although, I wonder how he owns all those CD burners if he is contantly sailing. He'd need a pretty fancy boat to provide electricity to a computer and enough electricity to constantly burn 50,000 CD's!

of its time to close down thread, were starting to get other cd-rw brands mentioned, big mistake if you go with anything else but a lite-on, im just warning you now

most reliable burner of all time?

Teac CDR5xS (4x, 6x, 8x SCSI burners), and Plextor 8x SCSI burners are among the most reliable.

That would be the burner that isn't invented yet, haha, you like my smart ass comment?

hoxlund:

Abit IT7-MAX2 V2.0 Mobo (Intel 845PE Chipset), AMD +1800 XP, 512 DDR (PC 2100), Aopen 1640 Pro-A DVD, Lite-On LTR-48125W, PNY GeForce 4 Ti4600, Audigy X-Gamer Sound Card, Logitech Z-560 Speakers

I just want to know how do you get an AMD CPU to run on an Intel P4 base Motherboard and an Intel chipset?

TheWizard wrote:

jase wrote:A pirate friend of mine has 4 6-burner duplicators

Define "pirate friend"...is he an actual pirate who roams the high seas and raids other peoples' boats? If so, that would be a cool life! Although, I wonder how he owns all those CD burners if he is contantly sailing. He'd need a pretty fancy boat to provide electricity to a computer and enough electricity to constantly burn 50,000 CD's!

lol you know what I mean. Pirate = one who makes many illegal copies of software discs and sells them on. It's a big business. I don't do it but I know plenty who do

Teac CDR5xS (4x, 6x, 8x SCSI burners), and Plextor 8x SCSI burners are among the most reliable.

Yup, I'd say you've got that right. I think it's fair to say that early generations of Japanese equipment, made in Japan are nearly always the last word in engineering quality. Only when they start "consumerising" items, making them out of lower grade components in China and the like to cut costs do they start to slip. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are still early TEACs and Plextors on the go 10 years from now. And yet, ironically, they go dirt cheap on ebay, with cheap pieces of crap like early HPs, BTCs and Memorex/Aopens fetching silly money. Idiots, the lot of them.

For best media compatibility and super reliable performance go for TEAC SCSI drives. As already recommended, CD-R58S model, made in Japan, is superior. I have one myself for years and there hasn't been a single issue.

Unfortunately TEAC stopped producing SCSI drives, but if you'll look hard, you may find an old stock of CD-W512S model, which is the only Teac SCSI drive capable of writing on CDRW media.

edited

Current TEAC drive are not as good as the old SCSI one,I gathered. Is this true?

It would be a bit strange to go searching for an older drive, and it is not very practical as our college probably needs over ten of these burners to replace our old ones. I would probably have to recommand again with Plexter.

Thanks for everyone's input!

The TEAC 540E (40x) is still a very tough and dependable drive. They may not be quite up to the standards of the SCSI drives but they're still just as good as Plextor, and a bit cheaper. You'll find that they may not copy as many protections but they are very solid and will write fast and with good quality to almost any type of media.

The 548E (48x) is based on an Asus drive. These aren't bad, but longevity is not proven and build quality isn't as good. That said, TEAC do have a reputation to maintain so their endorsement of the Asus drive could be a good sign.

I still have one of TEAC's old 6x SCSI writers. That thing is bulletproof.

I also have to give props to Yamaha. I had one of their SCSI 8x CD-RW's at work that I used every day for years. Still works great.

hoxlund wrote:i have plenty of "pirate" experiance, i have three 200 cd albums full, about to start my fourth one, just computer cds too btw

Umm, this is not something you want to come out in the open and admit.

Dune wrote:I have heard that Plextor has a few media compatibility prob. Or did I heard it wrong? I have been thinking about lite-on. Base on what you have said, is lite-on a bit questionable in build quality so it can't be pushed too hard? and plextor is otherwise?

The only Plextor with media-problems is the 4012A

All other Plextor´s have great media compability

If you want a real reliable burner, get a Plextor or Teac(til model 540, newer are from Asus)

And i believe, SCSI are better than IDE, but also more expensive

Plextor has just released its brand new 40x SCSI burner. I think it's worth a shot...