ATA optical drives

[Obiwanshinobi]

Any reason to choose Sony over LG?
(Posted in Off Topic subforum by mistake. It was supposed to be in Hardware.)

[Ed Oscuro]

ATA or SATA? CD, or DVD, or HD-DVD/Blu-Ray?

My SATA Asus works well enough; kind of a bother playing audio CDs with it (which is more use to me than the whoop-de-doo burning features!) but I did use it to successfully rip a CD.

Also, sometimes the units under one marque are really rebranded versions from another (I forget whether this Asus is really a Sony, or LG, or something else), and sometimes that could make some difference. I wouldn't go in for firmware flashing to another model though (unless it was absolutely a sure thing).

[Obiwanshinobi]

ATA, DVD. My old one keeps burning DVDs and CDs, but appears to have a hard time reading some printed DVDs already. I can't even install some games I have on pristine discs; also, anything Dual Layer might be out of its reach anymore.
The convenience of installing and uninstalling games from my library of physical copies without downloading data every time is worth the upgrade (since I'm gonna need this old computer to play old games on it anyway).

[BulletMagnet]

(Posted in Off Topic subforum by mistake. It was supposed to be in Hardware.)

Moving now.

[Ed Oscuro]

Overall I've had no problem with my cheapie Asus (being the rebranded LG or whatever). DVD drive building is a well-understood art by now, so you'll be fine with whoever you go to.

I wonder if the old drive doesn't just need a bit of cleaning, though. Could be a laser issue in which case it'd be just as well to buy a new $20-ish drive, but if it's just mechanical some cleaning plus appropriate grease should do the trick (unless a plastic gear is worn out, in which case sourcing a replacement would probably be a headache). Could just be the worm gear getting clogged up, which is easy to clean and regrease.

[Obiwanshinobi]

What the old one stays for is burning CD-Rs at x4. Word is, particular PSX games (presumably other CD-driven consoles too) can't stomach x8-burnt CD-rs well. We'll see whether the Sony one I've just ordered can do x4.

[stuntman]

What the old one stays for is burning CD-Rs at x4. Word is, particular PSX games (presumably other CD-driven consoles too) can't stomach x8-burnt CD-rs well.

I burnt over 100 PSX games to Verbatim (AZO) CDr at x24 with a Lite-On drive and all tested fine.

[Ed Oscuro]

One of these days, I should look into homebrew to see if empirical testing of media and burn speeds is possible...all you would need to test for is the number of successful reads, I think. Nothing else matters in sparing the longevity of the laser (since the laser intensity is fixed) assembly, meaning the mechanical parts only.