Drives > DVD-ROM Drives > Less than 30 GBP

Advantages: Good quality; quiet operation; very affordable
Disadvantages: Rather high CPU usage

...the drive's cache size? The Samsung has only 256kB of cache (as opposed to the Plextor's 2MB). DAE quality was rated "10" (perfect) with the "Accurate Stream" feature present. CPU usage with CD-R dics was fairly good for a quality drive: 0% at 1x, 1% at 2x, 2% at 4x and 4% at 8x. CPU usage reading DVDs seemed staggeringly high at first glance: 6 % at 1x, 19 % at 2X, 47 % at 4X and 77 % at 8x reading a pressed DVD-ROM, and even higher with a burned ...
...% at 4x and "n/a" (out of range? ;-)) at 8X. Then I measured CPU usage with the (generally acclaimed) Plextor drive: it was just as high. Not being an expert in this field I can only speculate that during normal operation CPU usage won't be a problem; DVD film playback occurs at 1x; audio file playback off DVDs also doesn't require higher read speeds. Aside from file copying, the only circumstance I can think of where thed drive would have to provide ... Read review

Advantages: Very, very cheap; SATA; Fast; Reads/Writes most DVD formats
Disadvantages: Only comes in beige; No DVD-RAM writing (Read Only)

...REVIEW I bought my Pioneer DVR-212D, a few days ago for just £11 inc. VAT, BRAND NEW, from eBuyer.com. I hope you agree that's an incredible price for a S-ATA DVD rewriter. I only really needed the Pioneer drive to aid in testing the functionality of another more current P-ATA DVD-RW drive that was exhibiting some very odd behaviour that I wasn't absolutely certain was the drive's fault, so I wasn't too fussy about it being highly specified. Having ...
...the drive vertically. Being Pioneer I imagine longevity is a given, at least here in my household they have an enviable reputation for reliability. I have never managed to break anything I have bought from them in the past. It doesn't seem to matter what quality of disc you present it with either, it just accepts any old tat. Even the really nasty 8x reject DVDs my local computer emporium tries to pass of as quality gear work in this drive, a welcome ... Read review

Advantages: ummmmm
Disadvantages: Doesn't work very well, slow, intermitently recognises disks, poor back up service, need I go on?

I ordered my Freecom DVD Recorder LS USB 2.0 after my CD/DVD drive packed up on my 15 month old HP Desktop. I wanted it mainly to load CD ROM and burn DVD's from movies already converted to DVD format on my hard drive. Being that my PC had no disk drive I relied upon this external drive to load the bundled DVD burning software (Roxio 9). This took several days and many attempts. Then I tried burning my first DVD. After taking 3 hours to do a task ... Read review

Advantages: PERFORMES WELL LIKE OTHERS.
Disadvantages: NOT A LEADING NAME IN HARDWARES AND SLOW

Although LG is not the leading names in both computer hard ware and software production but they have some thing really to offer in this their LG GGW multi blue precisely. The LG drive is capable of copying and reading information's as fast as it can and on the other hand the DVD play back. I got this specifically for writing and duplicating plates. CD writing has been a convenient stuff for me since I got this. I won't emphasize on the drive of ...
...THE DESIGN. The LG hard drive comes in a black square colour but short. Quite heavy and strong feel when touched. THE MAJOR FUNCTIONS. The specific functions of the LG device is for copying, DVD and other disk format play back. Not only that, the LG drive is also capable of storing some disk in formations comfortably. The read speed and the write speed have almost the same format of 40X speed. It is also capable of rewind DVD and so on. It has ... Read review

Advantages: Fast, Quiet, Affordable
Disadvantages: none

...past. But I bought a Samsung drive (Super-WriteMaster SH-S202J) from www.ishift.co.uk and I must say that not only is it just as fast (20x) and I have seen no real difference in performance between the IDE or SATA drives as the Liteon and Pioneer drives but it is much much quieter! To be honest the whole build quality of the Samsung seems a lot better as well plus it came with the software I needed, unlike many of the Pioneer OEM drives I have bought. ... Read review