Picking a DVDr drive help needed

[8210]

need a bit of help to help a m8,

basically he is after a dvdr drive and i know nothing about them and he knows less lol
He was on ebay and seen this one;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3754&item=5104776089&rd=1

however i said that he should get one of these for the same price

http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/acatalog/Hardware_Section__.html#a940 (its {HA 4063} one) @ £55
or
Pioneer 107 8x DVDR/RW Multi Format Recorder Drive @ £55 from digipromo
simply because they are faster, so out of the 3 which is best/would you go for. or is there another model that he should buy? any help would be great

[PhilEnfield]

The trouble with a question like this is ... you will get lots of different opinions.

FWIW ...... IMO the NEC is better than the Sony you mention, but does not like Riteks, without a firmware flash. If yr friend is really clueless, he might find this a daunting prospect.

I would be inclined to tell him to pay the extra tenner for the 107, as this will love Riteks and is well proven.

[Jesterrace]

There is a 107 at 56 pounds from SVP. I would personally go with the 107 just because there is very little price difference and the Pioneer burners are almost made for Ritek (considered by many to be the best media for the price) whereas the NEC can be fussy with them. As mentioned above, a firmware upgrade with the NEC generally fixes this problem but he might have some qualms about doing that. BTW I don't recommend the Sonys to anyone anymore because they are all just rebadged Lite-Ons now. Not necessarily saying that they are bad drives (although I would take a Pioneer or even an NEC over the Lite-On) but you are paying way more than you need to because it carries the "Sony" label on it. Also buying a DVD Burner off of ebay is not a wise move. You almost never save any money and with SVP you get the warranty and the peice of mind of a brand new drive (not a used one or a refurb which are all over ebay). BTW when buying Ritek DVD-R (yes, go for the -R Riteks) make sure you stick either to the Ritek or Ridata brands. There are some cheaper variations but they cause all sorts of problems. Although, I have to say that Datasafe Ritek DVD-R discs will do in a pinch (just don't confuse it with Datawrite, which are about as bad as they get :eek: )