SATA burner

[Admiral]

I'm looking for a plain SATA DVDRW drive since I want to get rid of all the IDE cables in the case. Pretty much lost track with who's building for who now a days and what drives I should avoid.
It must be reliable, compatible with most discs out there and also, the DVDs I burn with it must work in other drives. Looking for something close to that, I know nothing can be perfect.
In general, I burn archived data and ISO images, though it would be nice if it does a good job for other tasks.

[Technoid]

Plextor has an horribly expensive one that is quite good

[uberlad]

I have heard good things about the Optiarc drives. I can tell you if they were right when mine arrives.....

Uberlad

[Nowhere]

Latest Pioneer drive (212?) is pretty good, also according to burners review site/forum that I mentioned here few times (I believe the only one originating in this country that has good methodology/etc.). Definatelly doesn't cause me any trouble (though I have 112, but supposedly the only difference is the interface used)

[Claymonkey]

I've been pleasantly surprised with Samsung burners lately. They are cheap but workhorses.

[Admiral]

First of all, thanks for the replies.
Secondly, wow, everyone recommends a different brand !

Plextor is too expensive even if I could find one here, looking for something in the normal price range.
Thinking Pioneer DVR-212BK, Liteon LH-20A1S or SAMSUNG SH-S203B. Probably going to settle on Pioneer.

[Mehen]

yeah go Pioneer

[Belwarrior]

how about LG?
they are not too shabby as well

[Helevitia]

I bought the latest Plextor SATA drive. The 810SA. It's not worth the money over the others. It's a good drive, but the definitely got rid of some cool things they used to give along with the drive such as DVD removal tool and Plextools. And of course they won't license Litescribe for some unknown reson. Sure, it's not the fastest technology but it's nice to have now and then. So for ~$50 less, you can have one of the other brands.

[Wombat]

I had a Pioneer slot load, and currently have an NEC and Samsung burner. The slot-loading was nice, but the Pioneer itself had problems (dual layer DVD-Rs wouldn't read, etc). The NEC wasn't as fast to rip, but the Samsung is. For $30, I won't complain. DVD burners are now cheap enough to be disposable.

[Admiral]

DVD burners are now cheap enough to be disposable.

No kidding, I have 3 ATAPI drives I'm putting up for sale later this week. If Pioneer isn't good, it will have to join the list.

[Mehen]

Me and my brother both have LG DVD burners, neither of us have had any problems, but he (me brudda) did have a LG CD-RW that stopped working. It was probably about 3 years old, not sure what made it go.

CD and DVDs combined, I've probably burned ~200 discs, not a single coaster so far.

I recommended Pioneer ealier because thats what consensus usually says. Sometimes the consensus is stupid tho

[Claymonkey]

I've been a lite-on fan for years, but started recommending NEC for quite awhile. I picked up a nice samsung burner because it was $35 local from Microcenter... the thing is a workhorse and I yet to get a coaster. I also picked up a straight LG dvd drive (can't recall the model number rightnow) because it's the only one that can read wii/gamecube discs without problems and the thing just flies. Any drive that can read Wii/gamecube games can read just about anything.. if it can read a scratched/odd disc.. its unlikely to ever be read by anything.

So...

Lite-on: still good but not the vendor it was and can be flakey
NEC: Good stuff
Samsung: CHEAP and good
LG: only played with dvd readers but seems good

[Elie]

Yesterday I was at a computer store (Logic Computer House) I asked about the Pioneer 212 SATA they said it's $38 Canadian. That is very cheap.

Regards
Elie

[Admiral]

Bought the Pioneer 212 and haven't got to testing it yet since I just reinstalled Windows (also changed motherboard). Will do so in the next days.