Recommendation for a reliable CD-ROM

[Daniel]

Hello everybody,

Right now i have Plextor's PlexWriter 12/10/32S, which is SCSI burner.
The problem is, that my PCI SCSI adapter lacks BIOS, which means
that it doesn't supports booting from a CD, and i need that feature
(motherboard's BIOS (Asus A7M266) does support it).

The cheapest solution to that problem is to buy a new CD-ROM (new SCSI
adapter with BIOS will cost around 5 times more than CD-ROM).

The question is - which one. For me, the most important feature is
quality, reliability and possibility to read burned CDs (up to 700Mb),
while speed and cost are irrelevant.

I have heard all kinds of stories about bad CD-ROMs which break and/or
damage CDs etc., which is very unpleasant, as my burned CDs are
very close to my heart :), and i would hate to lose even one of them.

Which CD-ROM would you advice me to buy?

BTW, additional problem is that many brands are unavailable to me (they
are not exported :( ). For example, in alt.cd-rom faq it is mentioned
that the most highly recommended drive is the Toshiba TXM-3401, and
after that come NEC CD-ROM drives, but both brands are unavailable.

Here is the list of commonly sold ones:
Lite-on, Sony, Asus, Benq, LG, Artec (none of them SCSI, AFAIK).

Which of them has the best CD-ROMs?
(i will try to dig up more, and maybe i will be able to come up
with couple of other brands).


Daniel.

[Rick]

I will not tell you what you should buy

I will warn you however that Every Sony cd I have installed in my systems is Loud as in spin up
One can be heard over the delta 50 fan on the cpu..

A Delta 50 is about as loud as a cpu fans gets

[Sylvander]

I've been using a Hewlett Packard CD-RW for a few years now with never a hint of a problem.

I've been particularly impressed by the quality & reliability of the hardware & software. But it's not just the hardware or the software supplied with it, but the way the whole package has been integrated.
They took software supplied by others and brought it all together so that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.

[deddard]

I've got a couple of Lite-Ons (one is badged by someone else) and they seem to do the job adequately - no explosions yet:D

edit.....

And if you want a freeware cd/dvd authoring package, check my post here:
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29212

[Beta Geek]

I'll second deddard's LiteOn recommendation. They are excellent drives that compete with big names at a much lower cost (normally).

Another thing to point out is that LiteOn as managed to produce DVD-RWs that are shorter than other manufacturers drives. I don't know if this is true for their CD-RWs and CD-ROMs as well, but it is a nice bonus if your case is a little tight in the 5.25" drive bay area.

I just happen to be a big fan of LiteOn drives, that's all...

[LadyGrey]

I'll go with the LiteOn too. I've got a DVD/CD ROM and it just works great, not had a problem with it. Got the same one for the computer I built for my son too. Good luck!
LG;)