Drives > by Optical Storage

Advantages: Really good looking
Disadvantages: Technical help assumes a level of knowledge I don't have

...3 cds became coasters)! Iomega have a very useful service on their website where you can instant message their technical help department. I did this after the 3rd cd, and was given lots of very complicated advice, including shutting down my antivirus software, deleting files, and going into windows config and messing about! I didn't understand any of it! However, there is an easy answer. I simply do all my cds with the 'test and create' option, ... Read review

Advantages: SCSI, cheap for a SCSI drive
Disadvantages: there are faster drives, IDE drives are cheaper

...finally opted for this drive. Plextor are one of the leading CD-ROM drive manufacturers and only produce SCSI drives. Fortunately a basic interface card for SCSI CD-ROM drives can be bought for about £30 and the benefits this provides over IDE seem to be worth it: namely SCSI does not take any processor overhead boosting performance and also allowing you to do something else on your PC while writing CDs in the background. The drive is sturdily built ...
...and came with all the drivers and software needed to write CDs from the start. While basic the software seems to allow you to produce any type of CD you could want from straight copying to m picking and choosing files (both data and audio) I've yet to have a problem writing a CD although the software has crashed while composing the files a couple of times. Performance wise there are faster drives around now and if you have extra to spend it might ... Read review

Advantages: Reliable, good software
Disadvantages: BS customer service, not all advertised material included

...better. I had to ring Yamaha for the manual, when it came it was 12 A4 sheets bound with a piece of plastic and no apology at all. There are two lessons here: one buy the best, it really is worth it. Secondly, never buy from TECH DIRECT. the service is rubbish, and i will never deal with them again. I am sorry if i sound harsh, but that is my opinion, and this is what ciao.com is all about. Thanks ... Read review

Advantages: lots in pack
Disadvantages: none

...some other budget models, the creative cd blaster is a good all round package that comes witha great wealth of extras. As well as nero burning rom software and the requisite connectors, opening the box reveals 10 cdr's and one cdrw as well as your very own cd labelling kit with 50 labels so i guess this is what you pay the higher price for but this does not mean there is a lack in drive performance, speeds are quick and i would strongly reccommend ... 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