Which one ???

[PhantomX]

I am looking at buying a cd-rw and have read your reviews and was just wondering what your preference would be out of these:

Aopen CRW5224 (52x24x52) (retail pack)
website - http://www.aopen.com/products/cdrw/crw5224.htm

-or-

Asus CRW-5224A (52x24x52) (retail pack)
website - http://www.asus.com/optical/crw-5224a/overview.htm

-or-

Samsung SW-252B (52x24x52) (retail pack)
web site - http://www.samsung.com/Products/CDDVD_Writer/CD_RWHalf_Height/CDDVD_Writer_CD_RWHalf_Height_SW_252B.htm

Basically I will be using the writer to back up personal info (documents and applications) and to make back up CD’s of games (ut2k3 and quake 3) and also to back up my music CD’s, oh and also videos
So :

- Documents
-Apps
-Back up cds of games
-Music
-Videos

Just wondering what your preference would be in terms of fastest best quality and performance, I dont really care about the price just the performance and what’s the best in terms of what I need it for.

Advice would be gladly appreciated

Thanks

[TheWizard]

Honestly, either one of those burners will suit you fine for the tasks you have in mind. If anything, I may lean toward the Samsung because I believe it has a better chance of reading the most copyright protections, which your games will surely have. I may be entirely wrong, but I think the Samsung edges out the Aopen and Asus in this department.

[CDRecorder]

I don't know much about the ASUS or the Samsung, but I do think that there are better drives out there than the AOpen you mentioned (I have the OEM version of this drive). My AOpen came with firmware 1.04, and the writing quality was terrible (some discs unreadable ) with CD-RW discs which work fine in my Lite-Ons. Edit: This problem largely went away when I upgraded to version 1.05. I don't know why I didn't mention this before.

If you could, I would suggest Lite-On drives because I have heard that they are good with copy protection, and their writing quality is quite good.