Re: PATA HDD and only 2 IDE connectors

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 11:18:51 -0600, Rob Stow wrote:

> keith wrote:
>> On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:44:17 +0200, Grumble wrote:
>>
>>
>>>George Macdonald wrote:
>>>
>>>
<snip>
>>>>I believe there are a few SATA DVD burners out there, IIRC Plextor has
>>>>one and maybe Asus too.
>>>
>>>I'll keep that in mind. Thanks.
>>
>>
>> Also keep in mind that they're 2X-3X the price of pATA burners.
>
> The IDE version of Plextor's 16x dual-layer burner is only about
> 5% cheaper than the SATA version.
>
>> The Plextor name is some of that though.
>>
>
> If you burn enough DVDs it is worth it. I have also tried BenQ
> and Sony IDE DVD burners that cost less than half as much and
> were nominally also 16x dual-layer drives. However, they both
> took about 20% longer than the Plextor to fill up a dual-layer DVD.
>
> As well, when I use Drive Image to burn drive images directly to
> DVD with no intermediate storage on a hard drive, the Plextor
> works every time while the BenQ and the Sony made coasters every
> time. This, not the faster burn times, is why I don't regret
> the extra cost of the Plextor drive.

I spend a lot of time on http://club.cdfreaks.com, reading the forums and
learning about optical drives. I bought my first dvd burner when the sony
dru-500a shipped -- the first dual mode (plusR and dashR) on the market.
Since then I have owned approximately 10 other dvd burners, and have burned
literally thousands of DVDs. I have a subdirectory on one of my hard
drives which contains all of the quality tests that I have performed (using
Kprobe and CD-Speed) on the various drives using different media. That
subdirectory contains 385 .png files at present, and I test only a small
percentage of the disks that I burn.

First lets examine the cost of the Plextor versus the Benq, I just did a
quick check on Newegg (my favorite online store). The Plextor PX-716SA
(serial ATA) is $119.98 plus $4.00 for shipping, totals $123.98. The Benq
DW1640 costs $38.99 plus $4 for shipping, totals $42.99. The Plextor costs
288 percent more than the Benq. Newegg has the Nec ND-3540A for $38.99
plus $2.99 for shipping, totals $41.98. You could buy both the Benq and
the Nec for $84.97, and still be $39.01 cheaper than the Plextor alone.

If you read the forums and the reviews at cdfreaks and cdrlabs, you will
find that the Benq performs better with more different media than the
Plextor. There are a few mediaids which will will work better in the
Plextor, but only a few. If you purchase both the Benq and the Nec, you
will be able to get great performance with virtually all of the decent
brands of media on the market.

I do not (can not) dispute your claim about the Plextor working better with
Drive Image (I do not use Drive Image, I use Acronis True Image and I
backup to a separate hard disk, not DVDs). I also have no direct knowledge
of writing to dual layer DVDS, as I have never done that. Dual layer dvds
simply cost FAR TOO MUCH to be practical. When and if the price falls
below $1, I will then consider using dual layer DVDs.

To summarize, the Plextor may be the right DVD burner for you, given your
individual needs, but it is not the right DVD burner for the vast majority
of us.


>
> I also love not having any ribbon cables in my system. In
> addition to making it much easier to tinker inside the case, it
> became noticeably quieter and motherboard temps dropped 3'C when
> I replaced my two IDE hard drives with larger SATA drives and was
> able to get rid of the last ribbon cable.

This may have more to do with the drives than with the cables. Older 7200
rpm drives tend to run MUCH warmer than later generation models.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: DVD Drive.
    ... 760 A DVD Burner. ... PLEXTOR CDRW ... Sometimes it will burn sometimes it wont. ... most of the present DVD R/W drives support multi format of various DVD ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: SP3 Installation Issue
    ... inspect the settings for secondary IDE channel settings. ... If both drives are attached to the secondary channel, ... There are a wide range of freeware available for benchmarking DVD ... a Plextor DVDR PX716A and a LITE-ON DVD SHD-16P1S. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsmedia)
  • Re: DVD Drive Compatibility Suggestions Needed
    ... He opened a couple of drives so we could try them in the store ... I took it home and tried every data DVD in my library. ... I hunted locally for a Plextor and found none. ... No trouble reading CD's ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage)
  • Re: Atapi.sys or Imapi.sys UDFS_FILE_SYSTEM blue screen of death (
    ... have determined that the BSOD will occur only after I rip a DVD movie to my ... the next DVD media loaded to my Plextor PX716A drive (blank ... or otherwise) caused the BSOD. ... I've extensively tested each of my drives ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Fehler NEC DVD_RW ND-3540A
    ... Jitter bezog sich ja nur auf DVD und der Benq meints da noch gut mit dem Samsung. ... BenQ kann alle Werte ermitteln auch C2 komplett, aber nur im Advanced Modus, im Standardmodus zeigt er nur E32 als C2, keine E22. ... Im Standardmodus hab ich auch immer 0 C2, aber das ist halt nur die halbe Wahrheit:), und Plextor reagiert auch noch etwas empfindlicher auf C2 E22 Fehler als BenQ, da sieht man dann nochmal ein paar Unterschiede mehr zu anderen Brennern, die auch den Plex zufrieden stellen können. ...
    (de.comp.hardware.laufwerke.brenner)