I don't need a Bluray burner because they are still so expensive so I was wondering the best make and/or model of burner to get (SATA).
I'm probably going to get a Pioneer (which I heard is just a Plextor without the software, and I love my Plextors) but I wanted all of your opinions. I have no burner right now so I need one ASAP but wanted to make sure I bought a quality one. I remember looking back on a past thread with the same question and Samsungs, Sonys, LG's, and Plextors/Pioneers were recommended but I didn't know if some of the new ones aren't as good or perhaps one company has improved over the other.

Thanks alot.

I have a Samsung, this one to be exact http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827151154 and I couldn't be happier with it. The burn speeds are great and the drive is very quiet.

I have an OEM Samsung SATA burner that I got at microcenter...works great! Was pretty cheap, too. Lightscribe, even.

I'm pretty sure it was this one: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0267321

Just mine was a hair cheaper, and didn't have the "Samsung" on the front.

I prefer lite on, but I have had sony's and Asus as well.

I asked the same question a couple months ago and people talked good about the samsung. I got it cheap on zipzoomfly, or performance-pcs ( i dont remember). I must say that it has kept me happy so far!!!!

My dad has a Sony and it is kept up with my old Plextor pretty good if not beat it. But i will never buy a Lite-On since my second gateway came with one and it lost the function to burn or read DVDs then I bought one for a friend who was having me build her a computer, then last week it stopped functioning all together.

I guess Samsung's the winner, but I'll price around.

I'll price the best of Sony, Samsung, and Pioneers. Thanks (most likely will buy the samsung since that seems to be the crowd fave )

Sorry for ragging on your Lite-On, I hope you'll have better luck with them than I did. I don't wanna risk a 3rd strike.

I've bought 3 TSST (aka Toshiba/Samsung) drives semi recently and have liked all of them better than any other drive I've used. #1 reason is they aren't loud as hell. Every Lite-On Ive ever used sounded like it was going to take off, and THEN it started reading at full speed . The Memorex I use for work is all right overall, bit noisy, but it's on it's 3rd year of DVD burning and going strong.

Also considering my SH-S203B actually burns error free @ 20x it gets a slight bonus.

for price/performance this 22x samsung one wins, the one you showed me (samsung) was a 20X for 2 bucks more and this is a 22X, which had $3 off and free shipping. It was quite a good deal, I compared it with a Pioneer(well rounded with price too but the samsung had faster burn speeds and supported dvd-ram), Plextor 820SA(which had the fastest read time but at $70, not worth it), and a Sony Optiarc (which people didn't like)

We have a lot of Plextor's at work, which get worked very hard and perform well, they are expensive compared to others, but are manufactured for the professional market and standards reflect this.

I have used NEC (now Optiarc) and Sony, but all developed problems after around 12 months use. I now use Pioneers at home and so far 3 of them are performing very well after about 14 months use. The Pioneers seem to cope a lot better with troublesome media too, that are marked or warped.

As a foot note, I have never heard that Pioneers are re-badged Plextors, or visa versa, as far as I know Plextor only make their own drives as do Pioneer - what's your source? As far as I was aware Plextor is a privately owned company and part of Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd. Would be interested to know if this has changed?

*Supposedly* Pioneer and Plextor are one in the same but I guess that "Plextor" are sort of higher end Pioneer drives? But yeah from what I hear from you/others about the Optiarc's and my personal experience with Lite-On I will not buy either. Money aside I would ALWAYS buy a Plextor, I hated to see my 755SA get sold to my friend but he needed an SATA drive and I figured with how much i burn and use my optical drives that I oughta upgrade. It still worked perfectly and never rejected any media. The Samsung suits me better though since I need faster write times instead of read times.

Another vote for any TSST corp. drive! The Samsung / Toshiba burners are awesome, I have one in my laptop actually

Gonna put another vote in on those samsung tsst corp drives as well.

I've gotten customers the Optiarcs (NEC), Lite-ON, LG and Samsung. And the ones that seem to perform the best and last the longest are those Samsungs. The LG's aren't to bad, but minimal experience with those. Lite-ON ones seem to be loud and vibrate a ton compared to others, and I had the same experience with the Optiarcs as another poster. They crap out or at least start acting up within 6mos or so of "heavy" use.

Now I have a question, so please correct me if i'm wrong... but I don't think there are any 20x or 22x dvd media out is there? I mean I would get the 22x if it's cheaper than the 20x concerning the drive itself, why not eh? I just haven't had a chance to go look into this, but the first time I saw the 20x drives I thought... "Is there 20x capable media?" Or does it even make a difference?

I'll throw another vote on the "Lite-Ons are really loud" point. That's been my experience too.

I've been buying Pioneer drives lately and I've been pretty happy with them.

Any TSST or LG drive gets my approval

once again avoid lite-on at all cost unless you want a very expensive coffee holder. pick up an LG or Samsung if you can, they truly are the best.

The TSST Corp. burners are some of the best on the market. I have bought like ten of them for myself and friends. Some of them are going on 3 years of service. TSST Corp FTW.

Xly15

ya I got the 22X only because it was cheaper, hell I'd buy the Plextor over everything if it was the cheapest haha. This lets me try one of the almighty "TSST's"