[miler]

I have just spent too much on a new home system and now am looking to purchase an entry level CDRW drive -- mainly a QPS or EZQuest. I really don't need anything very fast but I do need the drive to be reliable. Cost saving is pretty important right now. I was told, by the sales staff, that the USB drives, which are at least $50 cheaper, are very unstable. Is this true and what is your opinion on what to get?

[chris v]

I'd spring for the Firewire. I don't have any direct experience with USB CD burners, but I don't think it can handle more than 1 or 2X burn speeds, and if you don't think you need 8X, just wait till you've sat through a few 2X burns- you'll want 8X soon enough. The Toast freeware that shipped with my burner won't run in the background while you perform other tasks. 45 minutes (average audio cd length) is a long time to wait to use your computer. I think the fifty or so bucks will pay for itself in productivity pretty much immedietly.
My Que Firewire drive at home has kept me pretty happy. We have a Fantom 8X here at work that has yet to make a coaster, and it's almost a year old.


CV

[pml589]

I have heard that USB drives can be very faulty, and also, like that other guy said, you WILL want that extra speed for the money. I have a QPS Que firewire 8x4x32x and it is awesome on my imac. ive had it for about 6 months and have made not 1 bad disc yet. also this qps drive is not that expensive--maybe $250--and it is worth the xtra 40 bux

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[Chimpmaster]

Ive heard that the Iomega usb zipcd drive is reliable. Its only 4x4x6, but this isnt so bad - particularly if you wont be using it to read cds.

Youve got to look at cost and you did say you are on a budget. Right now, in Australia, I can get this drive for $449 AUS, which would be no more than $249 US - maybe less. I reckon thats a good deal.

And when you compare it to the price of the firewire drives here, the LaCie CD-Recorder Rewritable CD-RW 8/4/32 (Sanyo) External FireWire   is $699 AUS - or around $400 US - that is a lot more money, and in terms of features you get better cdr burn speed, but only the same cdrw burn speed. Obviously read speed is very different, but not many people use a burner for reading cds much.

The real deal is the LaCie CD-Recorder Rewritable CD-RW 16/10/40 (Sanyo) External FireWire   - but thats $1079 here or around $600 US. Its a hell of a lot more money.

Youve got to consider what is more important to you - speed or money, and find your balance there. One other thing, from what Ive seen of the Lacie drives, they look like an internal drive mounted on a plastic bracket - ie not very durable and not very portable. Que drives look much better, but cost even more.

Good luck with your purchase, to be honest, Im buying an external backup solution myself in the next month, and am also weighing up what to get. Im not that interested in copying original cds, and Ive been thinking that a castlewood orb usb drive might be the best for me. It has 2.2gb floppy disks, and the read speed on it is similar to a hard disk - they reckon you can play conmpressed mpegs and mp3s straight fromt he orb disks. And, its only $399 AUS or $200-250 US.

What do you reckon? My budget is around $500 AUS maximum, wso for me its wither a usb burner, or an orb drive....

[cteselle]

if you can spring the extra $$ go firewire.

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