CD/DVD-ROM Drive Page

• CD-ROM drives are necessary today for most programs.  A single CD can store up to 650 MB of data.  CD-ROM burners or writers allow a user to create their own CDs of audio and/or data. 
• DVD-ROM drives are relatively new and can store up to 4 GB of data (not sure on that, but it's more than most people would ever need). 

What To Look For:

• First you need to decide if you want IDE or SCSI, which should only depend on whether you are getting a SCSI card and SCSI hard drive.  If you are getting either of these, you should definitely get a SCSI CD-ROM drive since they aren't much more expensive, but do save a lot of CPU time.  They are also good to have if you plan to use a SCSI CD-ROM burner.  Also worth noting, the only CD-ROM burners that work reliably are SCSI models. 
• Transfer rates are quite important, but it is not a good idea to just go by the 12X, 24X, 32X, etc. ratings as they are usually not very accurate.  These numbers are supposed to indicate how many times faster the drive is than if it were being played at its default speed (the speed at which you listen to an audio CD).  Usually, these numbers only represent the maximum speed these drives can reach.  Thus, it is better to compare average sustained transfer rates.  For CD-ROM burners, it is only necessary to look at the X rating.  Look for a burner that writes at 4X as they are not much more expensive than the 2X writers (but are twice as fast).  They will also be given a read speed, but that's usually not very important since most of your reading will be done by the regular CD-ROM drive only. 
• The access time is also very important.  This is usually measured in milliseconds and an access time of 85 ms is pretty good for a CD-ROM drive.  These numbers are usually a lot higher for burners. 
• Like hard drives, the amount of cache is also important.  This can range from 64k to 512k.  256k is a good number to look for, but 512k is preferred.  For CD-ROM burners, look for at least 1 MB of cache as this cache is VERY important in avoiding bad burns (wasted CDs).  2 MB cache buffers should prevent this from ever happening. 
• rpms are also important, but usually are not given. 
• In my experience, most of the 36x and 40x CD-ROM drives are not much faster than the current 32x drives.  Also, the 32x drives (Toshiba) can be had for under $50 now. 

Recommendations:

CD-ROM:

1. 6/16/00 Update - Kenwood's TrueX 52x CD-ROM drive is a good choice and the cost is no longer prohibitive, however, it has some problems with CD-RW discs.  Just about any 52x drive will do (Creative Labs is your best option). 
   

2. For IDE CD-ROM drives, I would recommend the 32X Tohiba CD-ROM drive.  It has a 256k cache buffer, sustained transfer rate of 4800kb/sec, and an access time of 85 ms.  It is also capable of quick digital audio extraction.  This is an old drive, but still a reliable one (higher speed drives tend to die from vibration, and the extra speed is negligible), speedy, and great for the price. 

3. 
4. For SCSI, the Plextor UltraPlex MAX 40x is about the best you can get, but it carries a pretty big price tag too.  Their older version (the UltraPlex) is also great, but a little cheaper.  It does extremely fast digital audio extraction, it spins at 6890 rpms, has a 512k buffer, is capable of burst transfer rates up to 20 MB/sec, and has an access time of 85 ms.  When I tested it with digital audio extraction (CD to WAV), it did it at 23.1X while the Toshiba below did the same track at 10.7X (outer track). 
   The UltraPlex Wide will run on a 68 pin UW connector, but I advise against it unless you won't be using a burner or any other Narrow devices. 
5. Another great SCSI drive is the SCSI version of the Toshiba 32X listed above.  The statistics for this drive are about the same as the IDE version. 
6. 6/1/99 Update- The newer Hi-Val 40x40 CD-ROM drive is quite expensive, but it is by far the best IDE CD-ROM drive out there.  I question whether or not it is worth the expense though.  It uses multiple laser beams to read from the CD unlike most CD-ROM drives that only use one.  As far as I know, this technology is patented, so it won't be seen in any other drives for awhile. 
   Unfortunately, there is no SCSI version of this at this time.

CD-ROM Burner:

1. 6/16/00 Update -- Most of my recommendations below still hold.  The Yamaha CRW8824 I listed below is now available (though hard to find), so if you want fast rewrite speeds (8x), that is the burner to get.  The Plextor PX-W12432TI is the burner for the power user with little patience (12x write), and the Plextor PX-W8432TI is a great choice for a fast (8x), inexpensive (about $185), IDE burner. 
   4/24/00 Update -- Yamaha recently introduced a new *8x* CD-R AND CD-RW - yes, it does *CD-RW* at 8x.  No other burner comes close in RW speeds.  It doesn't have the 12x CD-R speed, but if you use RWs a lot, this is the drive to get.  You'll have to be patient though as it isn't expected to be released until June '00.  The model is CRW8824.  Read speed is 24x by the way (not great, but sufficient for a burner). 
2. 3/1/00 Update -- Plextor's new PX-W12432TI is now king of the hill!  With a 12x write speed, 4x rewrite, and 32x read speed, along with a 4 MB buffer, who could ask for more? 
3. The Yamaha 6416S is my former number one pick for SCSI Burners.  It records at 6x, rewrites at 4x, and reads at 16x.  It has a 2MB cache and is the one of the most reliable CD-Burners out there. 
   There is an IDE version of this burner too, but in general, IDE burners are something to avoid as they can be much more problematic and unreliable when compared to SCSI burners. 
4. 1/17/00 Update- If you are going to use an IDE burner, then the Plextor PX-W8432Ti is the best you can get.  It writes at 8x, rewrites at 4x, and reads at 32x.  This is an incredible drive, but unfortunately it is only available in IDE...
   My second pick for SCSI burners is the Plextor PX-R820TI which records at 8x, reads at 20x, but does not do rewrite.  If you don't need rewrite, then this is the best to get.  With a huge 4MB buffer, this drive is also incredibly reliable. 
5. Another great drive and one of the few IDE burners I would recommend is the Ricoh 4x4x20 with a 2 MB cache buffer.  If you're going IDE, get this one or the Yamaha listed above. 

DVD-ROM: 

1. 6/16/00 Update - Pioneer is now all the way up to 16x DVD!  The price isn't too much higher either.  I highly recommend Pioneer's DVD drives. 
2. 1/17/00 Update- Previously I had recommended the Pioneer 6x DVD drive.  That's still a great drive, but I thought I'd mention that the Pioneer DVD-114 10x DVD drive is now available.  It's somewhat faster than the 6x, but it is region locked, unlike the 6x.  If that doesn't matter to you, go ahead and get the Pioneer 10x.
3. 10/10/99 Update- DVD drives have become very affordable.  As a matter of fact, there's really no point in purchasing a CD-ROM drive anymore.  The best one out there is the Pioneer 6x (IDE or SCSI) which can be had fairly cheap.  In my opinion, software decoding is just as good as hardware if you can find a good software decoder (Cinemaster and PowerDVD are the best).  If you prefer, get a RealMagic Hollywood Plus decoder card.
4. Toshiba's 6x DVDs are also quite good and represent my second pick. 
5. Hewlett Packard has a great new drive coming out in Fall '99.  It's called the HP DVD Writer 3100i (DVD+RW drive).  This drive will read and write to DVD-RW disks and unlike the DVD-RAM drives, these disks will be able to be read in any of the newer DVD drives.  This may end up being an incredible backup solution!