CD writer Q

[Paddy]

I am thinking of purchasing a new cd writer.
I had an old creative IDE one which ran at 2x2x24.
However, now that i have a nice new SCSI card and disk, i am thinkning about a SCSI drive.

• Are there still any major advantages of SCSI to justify the cost?
• I remember that not all writers can do everything ... (bit vague i know!) - any help?
• Any of course, a make and model would be nice!

Cheers for all those replys in advance!

Patrick

[Greebe]

In one word, Plextor! Shortly they'll have a new 12x scsi burner (Rags has the new IDE version of it). It's simply sweet!

[Gurm]

Here's the deal:

1. You want a burner that can both read AND WRITE raw data to a disc. Go to the following site:
http://www.elaborate-bytes.com

and check out the hardware compatibility list. You can't go wrong with an HP or Plextor drive - also many Sonys are wonderful and the TDK VeloCD is supposed to be good.

2. 12x is the fastest speed currently available for mass consumption. However, without a REALLY FAST HARD DRIVE SYSTEM you won't ever get 12x to burn reliably. I only get 12x if I stop everything else, and I'm running U160.

3. SCSI is definitely worth the extra dough. In addition to being more reliable and more robust, it's good to have the SCSI controller in there. No seriously though... an IDE burner will do everything you want, but a SCSI burner will have less buffer underruns and synchronization problems.

4. BUY CLONECD. It's worth it. It can copy ANYTHING, even protected CD's. Not that you'd pirate anything, mind you. It's for "legal backups only"!

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Paddy]

cheers for the fast replys!

I think i will go for the Plextor 12x SCSI when its available - lokks a bit costly though!

Gurm:
"BUY CLONECD"

What does buy mean?
---
seriously though, cheers!

[dZeus]

I can only recommend a SCSI Plextor drive (along with everyone else here).

Not only will you get a very nice burner, but with the included Plextor Manager 2000 you will also get a kick-ass program for Digital Audio Extraction, that can rip at speeds far above any other drive can. Plextor driver are also VERY good at reading data mode-2 cds.

My Plextor Ultra-Plex 32 TSi can extract Digital Audio at the same speed as normal data mode-1 cds (24 speed avarage for the whole cd), and mode-2 also is as fast as mode-1, if not faster (a flatmate who has a AOpen 36 speed IDE drive can only read mode-2 cds at 5 speed average... hehe ).

[SteveC]

Get the Plextor 12X "Burn-Proof" drive. If you can't afford it, the Mirai (I know - just ignore the name, they don't make it!) 12X Burn Proof is great too. I found that I could write at 12x off a standard UDMA/66 drive with other apps loaded on a PIII-650 no problems...

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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[Johnny Ray]

I'm not sure what Plextor product you're all talking about. The SCSI 12X/4X/32X has been out for some time and is worth every penny. I use it on a POS Dell Optiplex(EIDE harddrive) workstation that controls a mass spectrometer. I burn CDs at 12X while I'm acquiring spectra (lots of data coming in) and have yet to burn a coaster. Very impressive. I exclusively use Plextor for home and work for years. My only minor complaint is how slow the tray closes on all the drives. Are you talking about a 12X/12X/32X?

John

[Gurm]

John,

What media and program are you using? I've yet to burn a 12x CD all the way through without running the burning software pretty exclusively, or at least burning from a driver with no other accesses happening.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[dZeus]

I've tried burning some cds from someone else's computer (over the network), and it id not once go wrong... the only thing I noticed is that the Plextor PXW12TS (12/4/32 SCSI) tends to overheat when bunrning too many cds after another (about 15 - 25). Just make sure you have a good ventilated case

[Johnny Ray]

Gurm,

Don't laugh, but I've just been using the Adaptec CDCreator that came bundled with the burner! And I do pay a little more for better quality media, not bulk/spindle, I buy TDK "any speeds" by the 100 (~ $80 US). I need the jewel cases for archiving. It really is a P.O.S. workstation (128 MB RAM, 500 MHz CPU, 8(!) GB 5400 rpm hard drive, 4 MB ATI Rage Pro, etc., and I'm not exaggerating; I haven't burned a coaster yet, and 12X is the way to go. It is just data though. I haven't tried digital audio extraction).

[Gurm]

1. Data is easier than anything else to burn.

2. You're probably not really getting 12x if you're using the old 2.0 or 3.0 that came with your burner.

Just a thought.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Wombat]

I get 12x without any trouble.
I'm using the IDE Plextor 12/10/32A. It's great! And no buffer underruns thanks to the BURN-Proof stuff they licensed from Sanyo. I don't care what I'm doing while a CD burns. If I just can't wait those five minutes, it doesn't really matter. If the buffer were to underrun, the laser just turns off, and turns back on when the buffer is full again.
The Verbatim 8x disks burn just fine at 12x. I've been using Plextor's software to do DAO, and it really is just over 5 minutes for a CD copy from drive to drive (and they're even sharing the same IDE channel. And no trouble watching DVD's. Ahhh).

The upcoming SCSI version of the drive will have a more advanced BURN-Proof (5ms to resume, instead of 40ms), but I don't notice the "lag" anyway. And a 4MB buffer instead of 2MB. And it was worth the US$230 I paid.


One note about HP drives: They're licensed. It depends from model to model. The latest HP drive is a remarked Sony.
www.cdmediaworld.com

I don't know about DAE speeds, since I use my Pioneer drive for that.

[DentyCracker]

I only have an 8X Plextor and normally kill everything when burning CDs. Imagine my shock and horror when I came into my room to see my brother burning a CD while playing an mp3! It didn't underrun somehow. I mean it's a 5400 rpm UATA66 drive. I think if it were when I had the same setup except for K6-2 500 and SS7 mobo it would have underrun. I was thinking of getting the 12x10x32 Atapi Plextor (with burn proof I see no need to go SCSI in anything for my personal machine. I'm holdin off on buying it only because I bought a vanilla to replace my 16 MB SH. I'm selling my 8x and getting one at the end of next month. By the way I'm buying CloneCD, it is worth every penny. I finally made a backup copy of NFSHS that came with my X-Gamer, and just in time too, my little cousins borrowed it (without my knowledge) and scratched it beyond recognition. I wouldn't have lent them as I have seen what they have done to their playstation CDs. I read a review that compared the Plextor burn proof drive to the new Ricoh 7120. The Ricoh was better at reading and DAE speed but doesnot have any burnproof like features inn its current incarnation. A future model is supposed to have that feature

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Inwin Q500 Case
Abit KT7
AMD Duron 700 MHz.
128 MB Micron PC100 Cas 2 PC100 SDRAM.
Seagate 20 GB 5400 RPM HD
Quantum Fireball 4.3 GB HD
Plextor PX-W8432 burner
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! X-Gamer
Matrox G400 DH 32MB
Mag Innovision DX17T
Klipsch ProMedia v2.400
ATI TV Wonder
Realtek 8039AS based 10Mbps NIC
Running Win98SE, Win2K, BeOS 5 and Mandrake Linux 7.1

[Johnny Ray]

The CDCreator version is 3.5c, and it is burning at 12X or very close to 12X.

[dZeus]

my opinion on BurnProof is that it is completely worthless... it doesn't take away the cause of the buffer-underrun, but only the result of this cause. If you buy a SCSI cd-writer, and configure your pc properly, you should be able to do almost everything you normally do without burning coasters. Well... _almost_ everything, since running a game like q3a isn't recommended

With my 12x4x32 plextor I never burned a coaster, heck, I did not once went under the 90% software buffer created by Nero 5.0.1.8 (this program is great! ).

Just make sure you don't do silly things like starting q3a on a 128MB pc when burning a cd or running scandisk... if you don't, everything should work out just fine, even at 12 or 16 speed.