Price Guide, November 2005: Storage
by Haider Farhan on November 19, 2005 7:36 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
We would like to conclude this month's storage guide with our outlook on optical drives. DVDRs are extremely cheap now and are a great way to create backups for your system. With all builds, you want to have at least one optical drive, so we suggest you look into a DVD+/-RW to cover all of your optical necessities. You will be able to burn both DVDs, CDs, and be able to read them as well.
Our two favorite drives are the NEC 16X ND-3540A [RTPE: ND-3540A] and the BenQ 16X DW1640 [RTPE: DW1640] both on sale for about $43.00 shipped. Between the two, we found the BenQ DW1640 to be the better performer, which you can read more about in Purav's Summer 2005 16x DVDR Roundup. Besides these two drives, we also recommend other brands like Lite-On, LG and Plextor. Lite-On, LG, NEC and BenQ are in the same price ballpark, but at the moment, your best option is to go with the NEC or BenQ only because of the pricing. On the other hand, Plextor is always the most expensive of the bunch and one we don't recommend because of that. These all perform very close to each other, so we suggest the cheapest one you can find at the moment.
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Doormat - Sunday, November 20, 2005 - link
I thought this drive was a great value. I just bought one for $200. 50c/GB is great once you get up in this area (>= 400GB).PrinceGaz - Sunday, November 20, 2005 - link
Any chance of including CD-RW and floppy drives next time? :)Calin - Monday, November 21, 2005 - link
Yes, how could they forgot about the floppy disk drives? :DAnd we would like also articles about the best floppy drives, hopefully with media compatibility tests
Vesperan - Saturday, November 19, 2005 - link
Aside the marginal price difference, is there any reason for the recommendation of the BenQ DW1620 over that of the DW1640?Vesperan - Saturday, November 19, 2005 - link
...see above poster.That'll learn me for opening up a page to post, then posting only after making breakfast..
noxipoo - Saturday, November 19, 2005 - link
BenQ 1620 or 1640 DVDR?rrcn - Saturday, November 19, 2005 - link
That was a mistake as I overlooked the DW1640. The DW1640 is the one to go with, no doubt. I have updated the guide to reflect that. Thanks for pointing it out.DrZoidberg - Saturday, November 19, 2005 - link
I think u meant us instead of use. Just my opinion but hard drive prices move really slowly...its like watching paint dry.
DrZoidberg - Saturday, November 19, 2005 - link
sorry i accidently double clicked...DrZoidberg - Saturday, November 19, 2005 - link
I think u meant us instead of use. Just my opinion but hard drive prices move really slowly...its like watching paint dry.