Getting into the burn game

goatcheese · Feb 18, 2003

Ok.. I'm about a half decade late, but I'm going to buy my first CD-RW drive. At least I skipped over those CD-R only drives!

Two quick Q's:
1) The drive I'm looking at getting is a Buslink 52x24x52. Their drives are manufactured by LiteOn or some other company, depending on your luck. Are these Buslink drives good?
2) For now, I only need CD-R media. I looked at all the ads, and almost everyone is advertising 80min/700mb media. But then I found this Maxell Gold 74min (or 72min?)/650mb media for free after rebate. Is this stuff good? I want to archive some data for at least 5 years. Is there anything wrong with 74min (or 72min)/650mb media besides that it holds 50mb less? I'll never fill one of these to absolute capacity, so 50mb more doesn't make a difference to me. Thanks!

elzt · Feb 18, 2003

Why press your luck by getting the Buslink? Why not just buy a LiteOn burner? It's cheap and good too.

I don't see any problem with Maxell Gold. Most name brand CD-R's are quite reliable.

It's never too late to get hold of a new techno-product... I got my first DVD drive about 6 months ago.

goatcheese · Feb 18, 2003

Buslink is on sale for $20. That's the only reason. If they are a bad bet, I'll cancel the order (not shipped yet), but if it's a good choice... well, ya can't beat $20 for a 52x24x52 (they are already sold out).

What about the 72min/650mb vs. 80min/700mb... is the only difference the obvious (50mb), or is one an "old" technology (to be avoided) and the other "new"?

The bottom line is that I'm using this for data (not music), so I want it to be reliable. That's the most important thing.

AndrewT · Feb 18, 2003

never heard of that brand before and for 20$ it's pretty damn cheap, just hope the quality don't match the price.

lite-on burners are known to be good quality and well priced, we got lots of people on this board who use this brand and they're happy (including me).

I don't know any difference between the two size discs other than the ammount of data they can store. I use real cheap bulk discs and they're just fine, don't know how long they last, but would be pretty sad if they would go bad in a few years.

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ejsmith2 · Feb 19, 2003

Rectum, hell! Damn near killed 'em!

Dude.

$20 for a 52x burner?

I mean, I don't want to sound like a pessimist, here. But that sounds like it's a litle bit too good of a buy.

If it's gold media, then it's most likely pretty damn good. There's only a handful of plants using pthalocyanine. Like, 3; maybe.

And unless they are silver, you can't beat the reflectivity of the golds. And even then, silver only beats them by 10% or less.

Get 'em.

I would.

"I personally think filesystems should be rewritten from scratch every 5 years..." --- Hans Reiser

lhgpoobaa · Feb 19, 2003

Well if its possible, lookat the product code of that buslink drive first... if it says 52246S then yes, its a rebadged liteon and will be good. If not you are getting someother brand of unknown quality.

Get the disks... so long as they are gold surfaced. Golds are better.
Any only really try burning high quality media at 52x.

(P.S. 48x or even 40x burns are alot quieter, more media is capable and the burns are only a few seconds slower)

Anyone claiming they can see the difference
between 450 and 500 FPS in Quake3 deserves to
be severely beaten with a rock.

lagger · Feb 19, 2003

you can identify a buslink \ lite-on version by the words "smart-burn" on the box .. if it says "Just link" it is either an aopen or benq and should be avoided... as for 20.00 being too low I paid only 15.00 for my memorex 52x which is a a lite-on 52246s and has been flashed to reflect this and I paid 29.00 for a memorex 48x also flashed to 52246s lite-on ... right now the only SURE bets for rebadged lite-on's are the memorex's, sony's and the the TDK's... since true liteys are cheap now from either Dell or Newegg the safest bet is to grab one from there for a few bucks more than one of the rebadged deals (cendynes are like buslink also in that ymmv re: getting a lite-on)

Just because you are ignoring those voices in your head doesn't mean they aren't talking about you

goatcheese · Feb 20, 2003

Many thanks to everyone for the advice.

The drive is $70, but has a $50 rebate... that's why it's so inexpensive. I'll take a look at the box when it arrives. If it says "Just Link", I'll return it and buy a Lite-On.

BTW, are most places shipping burning software with OEM Lite-On's, or do you really need to buy the Retail version to get software? Is the built-in writing functionality of WinXP sufficient, or is it a joke?

And I'll definitely get the 650mb Maxell Gold media, from what every is saying.

elzt · Feb 20, 2003

Depending on what you want to burn, some burning software might not fit your needs. For example, Nero is a good software for burning data cds, audio cds, vcds, etc. But it doesn't burn protected discs. Software like CloneCD does a better job. Another software NTI CD-Maker is similar to Nero but is much easier to use. You can just forget the built-in XP burner.

lagger · Feb 20, 2003

If you are purchasing this through a recent promotion at Staples I suggest (as you will certainly get a just link drive from ordering online) taking it to the local Brick and Mortar Staples (unopened of course) and asking to swap it with a Smart-Burn labeled box.. be nice and they may do this also be sure you ask for a "no return" exchange so you can still claim your rebate.

Just because you are ignoring those voices in your head doesn't mean they aren't talking about you

goatcheese · Feb 21, 2003

I went over to Staples, who carries Buslink CD-RW drives in their stores, and I looked at the boxes. They all are clearly stamped "Just Link". It isn't a label... it's printed right on the box. Does that mean Buslink is only using Aopen or Benq drives?

BTW, they are charging 79.98 in the stores for these drives (but I have a $50 and a $10 rebate/coupon bringing it down to $20... I may even be able to get it down to $10 with another coupon if they let me).

If these drives are complete trash, then it's not worth getting it even if it was completely free.

I realize a Lite-On drive would be a better choice, but it'll also cost about $60. So if this non-LiteOn drive (any idea what it really is?) is good enough to burn discs fine, then I'll get it. But if all it's going to do is burn coasters or discs that can't be read in other machines, then it's not worth the $10-$20 or the hassle.

What do you CD-Writer experts think? Is it going to be nothing but trouble, or will it get the job done?

lagger · Feb 21, 2003

starting sunday the sony 52x goes on sale at staples for 69.00 after rebate with your coupons it might be worth it as all sony's currently are lite-ons

Just because you are ignoring those voices in your head doesn't mean they aren't talking about you

goatcheese · Feb 22, 2003

Thanks very much for the heads-up. Unfortunately, the rebate is only good on the Buslink drive (as is one of the possible $10 coupons). The other $10 coupon can be used on either drive.

So I wind up with the Buslink drive for most likely $20, or the Sony (LiteOn) for $60. Pretty huge difference, and I'm on a tight budget. But if the Buslink is crap, then I don't want to spend $20 on crap. Did anyone buy one of these 52x24x52 Buslink drives?

I've never owned a CD-RW drive, so I don't want to get burned (pun accidental) by buying a drive that doesn't work well, but I also don't want to spend more than I have to (who does?). What are the odds of this Buslink drive working just fine, and for the discs it creates being readable by most (all?) other drives on the market?

lhgpoobaa · Feb 24, 2003

do all that you can to check the product code on the drive... if its 52246S then its a liteon.

"Revenues were less than robust" - QWEST
"The company applied its accounting policies incorrectly" - WORLDCOM
"Certian financial adjustments may be required" - AOL+TW.

goatcheese · Feb 24, 2003

Do you mean the actual product code on the drive, or just on the box? It'll be hard to get to the actual drive without buying it. I think the product number on the box was 522452. BTW all the boxes in the store say "Just Link" on them, so that sounds like like they wouldn't have LiteOn drives inside. I'm just wondering how good/bad the non-LiteOn drives will be. I don't have any experience with CD writers, and don't want to get burned (ouch).

lhgpoobaa · Feb 24, 2003

cant open the box? or no fine print on it?
shame

"Revenues were less than robust" - QWEST
"The company applied its accounting policies incorrectly" - WORLDCOM
"Certian financial adjustments may be required" - AOL+TW.

goatcheese · Feb 26, 2003

I don't see any fine print on the outside of the box at all (should there be any?). And I don't think I can get inside the two boxes without some Staples-loser-employee freaking out.

lhgpoobaa · Feb 28, 2003

bummer. hmmm. best to see waht their return policy is before cracking the box open... as that's the only way (short of using a xray machine) that you are going to find out what the product code is.

"Revenues were less than robust" - QWEST
"The company applied its accounting policies incorrectly" - WORLDCOM
"Certian financial adjustments may be required" - AOL+TW.

Getting into the burn game

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