Is one interface better than the other for DVD burners? I assume the cabling is better, for airflow, using the thinner SATA cables, right? Is there a performance difference between the two interfaces? Are there any reliability issues with either? Anything else I need to be aware of other than to make sure my motherboard has enough SATA connectors for hard drvies and optical drives?
Do you have a preference for brand and model of DVD drive? I will need one with a black face to match my case.
Thanks in advance.
Jason
DVD Burners: IDE or SATA... Which Interface to Use?
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
SATA CD/DVD pro's:
- nicer cabling
- future compatibility (newer mobos don't have many IDE connectors)
SATA con's:
- boot problems on some motherboards
- other problems on older mobos (no or bad support for all ATAPI commands)
Otherwise they are identical. Speed-wise SATA interface could be faster, but optical device itself is not.
What about brands - Nec (Optiarc) burns everything, Samsung and LG read everything. Plextor is overpriced (but best for audio, esp 716 or 760 models), LiteOn tends fail sometimes, Samsung too, but less frequently. Sony is currently Optiarc. Pioneer uses some other manufacturers OEM. I've no knowledge about BenQ, Asus and other brands.
For myself I'd buy SATA DVD drive, either Plextor (for audio) or Samsung (it is relatively quiet too). Both can be black
- nicer cabling
- future compatibility (newer mobos don't have many IDE connectors)
SATA con's:
- boot problems on some motherboards
- other problems on older mobos (no or bad support for all ATAPI commands)
Otherwise they are identical. Speed-wise SATA interface could be faster, but optical device itself is not.
What about brands - Nec (Optiarc) burns everything, Samsung and LG read everything. Plextor is overpriced (but best for audio, esp 716 or 760 models), LiteOn tends fail sometimes, Samsung too, but less frequently. Sony is currently Optiarc. Pioneer uses some other manufacturers OEM. I've no knowledge about BenQ, Asus and other brands.
For myself I'd buy SATA DVD drive, either Plextor (for audio) or Samsung (it is relatively quiet too). Both can be black
Thanks Arvo, excellent response.
My plans at this time are for an Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard, which is supposed to have 6 internal and 1 external SATA 3GB/s ports.
I'm not sure if I will have one drive or two. The drive(s) would be mainly for loading software, ripping music to the hard drive, or for making data CDs and DVDs. It's not going to be a media center PC.
I will look into Samsung and Plextor. I have Lite-On drives in my current PC, but the DVD burner just died. It's 2.5 years old, which doesn't seem old to me. Oh well.
Anyone else care to offer their thoughts and suggestions?
Regards.
Jason
My plans at this time are for an Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard, which is supposed to have 6 internal and 1 external SATA 3GB/s ports.
I'm not sure if I will have one drive or two. The drive(s) would be mainly for loading software, ripping music to the hard drive, or for making data CDs and DVDs. It's not going to be a media center PC.
I will look into Samsung and Plextor. I have Lite-On drives in my current PC, but the DVD burner just died. It's 2.5 years old, which doesn't seem old to me. Oh well.
Anyone else care to offer their thoughts and suggestions?
Regards.
Jason
Don't forget Nec (Optiarc) - they are IMHO most reliable burners. Not very quiet (esp in writing mode), not always able to read nonstandard disks, not always able to overburn - but their firmware is often updated and I have yet to hear of any big problems with them. Many of my friends use Nec writers without problems.
If you choose your recorder (and you have to have more opinions than mine!), visit http://club.cdfreaks.com/ too - there can be always problems with specific models, you can find such info on cdfreaks.
About Plextor and audio ripping - Plextor uses audio cache, which may interfere with accurate ripping. No problems with good disks, but there can be some little problems with corrupted disks. Plextor is able to internally correct bad audio, which is great whilst listening audio CDs, but not so great whilst ripping these. Well, I personally have had no problems with ripping audio with Plextor, apparently all source disks were in good condition. I had some problems writing DVDs - but these problems disappeared after firmware upgrade, probably my disks (Verbatim DVD+R) were not well supported by original firmware.
And actually there's no big difference between burners at all. Burning technology is standardised, there are no hidden tricks to make one burner substantially better than any other.
If you choose your recorder (and you have to have more opinions than mine!), visit http://club.cdfreaks.com/ too - there can be always problems with specific models, you can find such info on cdfreaks.
About Plextor and audio ripping - Plextor uses audio cache, which may interfere with accurate ripping. No problems with good disks, but there can be some little problems with corrupted disks. Plextor is able to internally correct bad audio, which is great whilst listening audio CDs, but not so great whilst ripping these. Well, I personally have had no problems with ripping audio with Plextor, apparently all source disks were in good condition. I had some problems writing DVDs - but these problems disappeared after firmware upgrade, probably my disks (Verbatim DVD+R) were not well supported by original firmware.
And actually there's no big difference between burners at all. Burning technology is standardised, there are no hidden tricks to make one burner substantially better than any other.
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thegoldenstrand
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Older Kernels of linux won't work well with Sata DVD burners
Just something to consider if you use linux, ide might be a better choice.
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Das_Saunamies
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- Joined: Tue May 15, 2007 1:39 am
- Location: Finland
Count my vote for Plextor, and I'd definitely give SATA a go as I hate the old clunky IDE cables.
Their tools and drives have been top-notch for some time, I rank them on par with Hitachi in the technology field -- and on price too(over here that is). I'm not familiar with NEC, and their drives are a rare sight in DIY machines. Their projectors are trusted, but that's it for all I know.
I was going for a Samsung before I ran into posts describing hurdles in use and wild sample variance in operating sound. Plextor sounds like a safe bet.
My LG drives have been okay in performance, and they could read dried bread, but the sound is monstrous, and the software is el cheapo. If you want something better, avoid.
Their tools and drives have been top-notch for some time, I rank them on par with Hitachi in the technology field -- and on price too(over here that is). I'm not familiar with NEC, and their drives are a rare sight in DIY machines. Their projectors are trusted, but that's it for all I know.
I was going for a Samsung before I ran into posts describing hurdles in use and wild sample variance in operating sound. Plextor sounds like a safe bet.
My LG drives have been okay in performance, and they could read dried bread, but the sound is monstrous, and the software is el cheapo. If you want something better, avoid.
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continuum
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If you're on an Intel ICH8 or later board (or nVidia equivalent) I would go SATA.
NEC was best of breed til the ND-3550A; nowadays I believe Lite-On, LG, Samsung, Pioneer, have marginally better drives, but the gap is very slim. As Arvo points out each particular model has its own strengths and weaknesses.
www.cdfreaks.com
www.cdrlabs.com
www.cdrinfo.com
Are where I usually end up looking. BenQ DW1800 looks pretty good, Lite-On LH-20A1S, as well... I was looking at the Pioneer DVR-212D as well, but the former look pretty solid...
NEC was best of breed til the ND-3550A; nowadays I believe Lite-On, LG, Samsung, Pioneer, have marginally better drives, but the gap is very slim. As Arvo points out each particular model has its own strengths and weaknesses.
www.cdfreaks.com
www.cdrlabs.com
www.cdrinfo.com
Are where I usually end up looking. BenQ DW1800 looks pretty good, Lite-On LH-20A1S, as well... I was looking at the Pioneer DVR-212D as well, but the former look pretty solid...
Thanks for the links. The P5W DH Deluxe mobo has the ICH7R South Bridge... will I have trouble with SATA optical hard drives?continuum wrote:If you're on an Intel ICH8 or later board (or nVidia equivalent) I would go SATA.
NEC was best of breed til the ND-3550A; nowadays I believe Lite-On, LG, Samsung, Pioneer, have marginally better drives, but the gap is very slim. As Arvo points out each particular model has its own strengths and weaknesses.
www.cdfreaks.com
www.cdrlabs.com
www.cdrinfo.com
Are where I usually end up looking. BenQ DW1800 looks pretty good, Lite-On LH-20A1S, as well... I was looking at the Pioneer DVR-212D as well, but the former look pretty solid...
I heard that there could possibly be problems with loading Windows XP through a SATA drive on a new build... anyone here know anything about this? I was assuming I could simply attach the SATA optical drive an off I go... maybe not?
[quote="Jason W"]
Thanks for the links. The P5W DH Deluxe mobo has the ICH7R South Bridge... will I have trouble with SATA optical hard drives?
I heard that there could possibly be problems with loading Windows XP through a SATA drive on a new build... anyone here know anything about this? I was assuming I could simply attach the SATA optical drive an off I go... maybe not.
This article, from "Hardware Secrets" December 15, 2006 may help. The problem is not likely to be with SATA. Certain newer mobos reported as having problems with IDE.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/408/1
QUOTE
It is very important to notice that the single ATA/133 port available on this motherboard is controlled by the JMicron chip, not by the chipset. This means that if you still have a parallel IDE optical drive it will only be recognized on Windows after you install JMicron’s driver. The problem is that this driver comes on the motherboard CD-ROM, and you won’t be able to install it, as the system does not recognize your optical drive. You can download the driver from the net, however the driver for the on-board LAN port is also on the CD-ROM… The only option you have is to copy the JMicron driver from the CD to a floppy disk or a USB pen drive using another PC. This problem happens not only with this motherboard from ASUS, but also with all other motherboards based on Intel P965 chipset we’ve seen to date. Of course if you have a SATA optical drive you won’t face this issue.
UNQUOTE
I discovered this before paying for a new mobo & parts for a new build. Changed the parts in the build mix to avoid the problem.
Hope it helps.
RK
Thanks for the links. The P5W DH Deluxe mobo has the ICH7R South Bridge... will I have trouble with SATA optical hard drives?
I heard that there could possibly be problems with loading Windows XP through a SATA drive on a new build... anyone here know anything about this? I was assuming I could simply attach the SATA optical drive an off I go... maybe not.
This article, from "Hardware Secrets" December 15, 2006 may help. The problem is not likely to be with SATA. Certain newer mobos reported as having problems with IDE.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/408/1
QUOTE
It is very important to notice that the single ATA/133 port available on this motherboard is controlled by the JMicron chip, not by the chipset. This means that if you still have a parallel IDE optical drive it will only be recognized on Windows after you install JMicron’s driver. The problem is that this driver comes on the motherboard CD-ROM, and you won’t be able to install it, as the system does not recognize your optical drive. You can download the driver from the net, however the driver for the on-board LAN port is also on the CD-ROM… The only option you have is to copy the JMicron driver from the CD to a floppy disk or a USB pen drive using another PC. This problem happens not only with this motherboard from ASUS, but also with all other motherboards based on Intel P965 chipset we’ve seen to date. Of course if you have a SATA optical drive you won’t face this issue.
UNQUOTE
I discovered this before paying for a new mobo & parts for a new build. Changed the parts in the build mix to avoid the problem.
Hope it helps.
RK
Some alternative opinions (based on a few thousand burned discs and three dozens of burners evaluated statistically):
BenQ 1640/1650 - most consistent burners. Not easily available. 1650 can still be had under the LiteOn brand in Central Europe. Lousy at cd-writing
LG - bad cd error correction. Fast cd reading (non-scratched discs). Mediocre cd-writing. Highly incompatible with some dvd discs.
Samsung - the worst so far imho. Same chipset designs as LiteOn, but otherwise different. Loud. Cannot be easily silenced.
Pioneer - 112 and later are consistent and solid overall burners. 109 could still be silenced with Pioneer's own utility. 111/112 and later cannot. * Silent pick * if you can find 109 or it's Buffalo rebadge somehwere for sale (look also in external models).
Plextor - best tools and best silenced with their own Plextools Pro (ie. reduce rotational speed). 716/760 last useful Plextors to buy imho, currently doing rebadges of OptiArd (did one or two BenQ's before that).* Silent pick *
LiteOn - nice selection of hacked firmware. The loudest out there.
Nec / OptiArc - not the most consistent burner. In fact, BenQ and later Pioneers are more consistent and even properly picked Plextor. Hacked LiteOns can also be made to perform on par. Best performance with hacked firmware. Among the best cd writing quality (up to 24x).
Sony is a sales brand, as is Buffalo, LaCie, Memorex and tons of others. They don't make any drives, they just rebadge them and you have to be careful to know which one to buy.
BenQ 1640/1650 - most consistent burners. Not easily available. 1650 can still be had under the LiteOn brand in Central Europe. Lousy at cd-writing
LG - bad cd error correction. Fast cd reading (non-scratched discs). Mediocre cd-writing. Highly incompatible with some dvd discs.
Samsung - the worst so far imho. Same chipset designs as LiteOn, but otherwise different. Loud. Cannot be easily silenced.
Pioneer - 112 and later are consistent and solid overall burners. 109 could still be silenced with Pioneer's own utility. 111/112 and later cannot. * Silent pick * if you can find 109 or it's Buffalo rebadge somehwere for sale (look also in external models).
Plextor - best tools and best silenced with their own Plextools Pro (ie. reduce rotational speed). 716/760 last useful Plextors to buy imho, currently doing rebadges of OptiArd (did one or two BenQ's before that).* Silent pick *
LiteOn - nice selection of hacked firmware. The loudest out there.
Nec / OptiArc - not the most consistent burner. In fact, BenQ and later Pioneers are more consistent and even properly picked Plextor. Hacked LiteOns can also be made to perform on par. Best performance with hacked firmware. Among the best cd writing quality (up to 24x).
Sony is a sales brand, as is Buffalo, LaCie, Memorex and tons of others. They don't make any drives, they just rebadge them and you have to be careful to know which one to buy.
Last edited by halcyon on Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
I've got the Sammy SATA on P5B-Del. It's fine and dandy. No probs so far other than my old Slax linux live disc didn't like it. That's a SATA thing more than anything and I've rarely used that Slax disc at all. I reckon the Samsung is pretty quiet when playing back DVDs etc, but when it spins up for burning or ripping it can get quite loud. If like me, you don't do much of that stuff it's fine and fast imo.
Eh? I had no trouble at all installing XP using a PATA DVD-RW on an ASUS P5B Deluxe.robokopp wrote: This article, from "Hardware Secrets" December 15, 2006 may help. The problem is not likely to be with SATA. Certain newer mobos reported as having problems with IDE.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/408/1
QUOTE
It is very important to notice that the single ATA/133 port available on this motherboard is controlled by the JMicron chip, not by the chipset. This means that if you still have a parallel IDE optical drive it will only be recognized on Windows after you install JMicron’s driver. The problem is that this driver comes on the motherboard CD-ROM, and you won’t be able to install it, as the system does not recognize your optical drive. You can download the driver from the net, however the driver for the on-board LAN port is also on the CD-ROM… The only option you have is to copy the JMicron driver from the CD to a floppy disk or a USB pen drive using another PC. This problem happens not only with this motherboard from ASUS, but also with all other motherboards based on Intel P965 chipset we’ve seen to date. Of course if you have a SATA optical drive you won’t face this issue.
UNQUOTE
I discovered this before paying for a new mobo & parts for a new build. Changed the parts in the build mix to avoid the problem.
Hope it helps.
RK
Pretty sure the above only applies to the J-Micron SATA/eSATA ports.
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chienpourri
- Posts: 63
- Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:37 am
Last week I bought a SATA Pioneer DVR-212D for around CAD 40$. SATA is the way to go unless you have an old chipset. It replaced an aging Pioneer DVR-A05.
However I did have 1 quirk with this drive (could be a chipset issue, mine is 945G+ICH7):
When plugged to SATA port #1, XP would never recognise anything more than PIO mode, even if BIOS was detecting Ultra-DMA2. This would lead to constant buffer problems, as well as 100% CPU usage when burning. I then plugged it to SATA port #3, *POOF* everything works as it should....
Also, my unit is totally unable to burn CD-R or recognise CD-RW (DVD-R is fine), I'll send it to RMA this evening. So no matter which drive you get, don't forget to test CD-R burning as well as DVD-R because they use different lasers.
However I did have 1 quirk with this drive (could be a chipset issue, mine is 945G+ICH7):
When plugged to SATA port #1, XP would never recognise anything more than PIO mode, even if BIOS was detecting Ultra-DMA2. This would lead to constant buffer problems, as well as 100% CPU usage when burning. I then plugged it to SATA port #3, *POOF* everything works as it should....
Also, my unit is totally unable to burn CD-R or recognise CD-RW (DVD-R is fine), I'll send it to RMA this evening. So no matter which drive you get, don't forget to test CD-R burning as well as DVD-R because they use different lasers.