what speed cd-rw to get

[Flip540]

Hey, ive been looking to get a cd-rw for a while, and now that i have money im going to get one before i spend it on something else. i know there are alot of speeds but is there a right speed? I have my eye on a sony 32 x 10 x 40. is that fast or slow? and is faster better? thanks alot.

[Havoc_online]

faster is better, but make sure you buy CD-R's that match your drives writing speed

[AssassN]

dude get the new yamaha. It is awesome my dad sells them kinda so i might be able to get a deal on noe for you. I did say MIGHT but pm me back and i'll see what i can do if u want it. I think it is called light speed or warpspeed or soething. i have one and it is great mega fast.

[Rocp15126]

Well here's how those numbers make out:

a 32 x 10 x 40 means

The drives initial write speed is 32 ( when it writes to a clean disk. ie: Using a new disk)

The drives rewrite speed is 10 (when it has to zero old contents and then rewrite. ie:Writing over an old disk)

The drives reading speed is 40 (like a CD-Rom's read speed. ie:How fast it reads CD's)

[Cliffio]

also, to get the full write speed you will probably need a USB 2.0 card

since USB 1.1 doesnt support fast write speeds

Cliff

[Tunaman]

get the Plextor...you wont regret it.:D

[Hexis]

Rocp15126 yer a lil off there, but close.

32x10x40

32 = Write speed for CD-Rs
CD-Rs are write once, read many (cept for multisession CDs, more on that in a bit). You can write data to these discs once, and only once. The media is cheap, and this will be the common way of using the drive.

10 = CD-RW speed. This is for writing to a CD-RW. a CD-RW is kinda like a big floppy. You can read and write to it, it's not quite as easy to deal with as a normal peice of removable storage, but same concept. This mode uses different media, and they cost a lil more.

40 = Read speed. This will be the max the drive can read any discs at.

BTW, 1x = 150kbyte/s. So a 32x write speed would be writing 4.8Mbyte/s.

The one important feature that you want is some sort of buffer underflow protection. Most drives over 12x (write speed) have this. I will also second Tun's suggestion, Plextor drives are of the highest quality. There is _nothing_ better out there for CD-R/RW drives. You may want to think about getting a slower Plextor, that way you will have a super high quality drive.

Cliffio since the advent of buffer underflow protection most CD-R/RW drives these days are IDE. I see nothing in his post that leads me to hink he would be interested in a USB drive. That would only make things more expensive and unless he's got a laptop, not add any value.

[Krazy Ivan]

I have a plextor 40X??X??

I don't care about the other numbers as much. But I can burn at 40X! it's nuts! Anything over 32X I've found to be somewhat of overkill now. That stuff about matching the cd speed is crap also. I can burn 16X cd's on my 40X at 40X with no problems. They change the labelling that's all. I used to work at Best Buy during the School year, that's how I know. I worked with people using them all the time.

I would recommend getting a Plextor if you can afford it, with the Nero burning software. Or get the Universal Buslink brand one. It's still a great burner, for a cheap price. As an added bonus u still get the Nero software, which is definetly a selling point. It's the best software on the market right now.

Roxio isn't that good of software, I've used it and hated it. Also the Sony burner comes with a myriad of different programs to burn with. It's a little bit more complicated that what you'd get with Nero, and not as good.

With that said, no matter what burner you do end up with, I would recommend getting Nero for it, however, you will find the Plextor will outlast the sony easily.

[Flip540]

They really helped a bunch. I dont know about the plextor, its a lil bit out of my price range and i just want one that doesnt really have to be the best on the market.

[Krazy Ivan]

I would heavily recommend getting the Universal Buslink then. If your not looking for the best, then go for the cheapest one, that still holds quality. In my entire time of working at Best Buy, (Over a year) I saw not one Universal Buslink drive come back defective. I saw sony's come back and also a few TDK's. Not saying either brand is bad, just stating all I saw.

As an added bonus the Universal Buslink drives come with Nero with them. Trust me on that one, it's the one to get.

[Flip540]

Ok, thanks for all the info KrazyIvan. Im going to go done to bestbuy today and talk to the people there and hopefully decide on which one to get.

[AssassN]

hey sorry my dad was a rep for a company that USED to sell the Yamaha cd-rw's. he doesn't rep for them any more in the cd-rw department. OMG THE MAIL AMN JUST GOT HERE WITH MY POWDERCOATED PARTS I GTG!!!

[Flip540]

i went to best buy and a bought a 48x16x48. it was only 99$ so i was like "why not". it also came with the Nero burning software. im happy with it. thanks for the responses.