Which blu-ray combo drive for around $100?

[JohnnyScience]

I'm looking for a blu-ray combo drive that does it all except burn blu-rays (since that generally spikes the price)

But need dvd, cd, cdrw etc.

I'd like the drives to be as fast as they can, 10x for blu-ray.

Also I'd like to stay around $100. What are my options?

Any good holiday deals going on right now? Coupons or anything?

 

[Ponmayilal]

You may reconsider. Just for USD 13 more you can get latest and IMO one of the best burners. See it at Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner 12X Blu-ray Burner with Blu-ray 3D feature Model iHBS112 - Blu-Ray Burners.

Yes it will also burn BDs. (I have it. Bought it on ebay USA, through the Global Easy Buy of ebay India with some special discount.)

As far as any discount offers or better price you may search with Pricegrabber or any such site (hmmm..... I have lost touch with all these) but act fast and you may get some Thanksgiving day discounts by big players like Best Buy etc., mad: again I have forgotten all about the big names. I think Circuit City has been wound up). Anyway, you will be in a better position than me in all these.

 

[JohnnyScience]

You may reconsider. Just for USD 13 more you can get latest and IMO one of the best burners. See it at Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner 12X Blu-ray Burner with Blu-ray 3D feature Model iHBS112 - Blu-Ray Burners.

Yes it will also burn BDs. (I have it. Bought it on ebay USA, through the Global Easy Buy of ebay India with some special discount.)

As far as any discount offers or better price you may search with Pricegrabber or any such site (hmmm..... I have lost touch with all these) but act fast and you may get some Thanksgiving day discounts by big players like Best Buy etc., mad: again I have forgotten all about the big names. I think Circuit City has been wound up). Anyway, you will be in a better position than me in all these.

Yeah I mean an extra $13 for a better blu-ray with burner is not a problem.

But seeing that burning blu-rays isnt a concern of mine, just a nice caveat, wouldnt I be better off going with a player that has 10x blu-ray & not 8x like that Lite-on does?

Wouldnt 20% faster be a really good thing when dealing with blu-rays?

Plus it seems that the other parts of the combo drive, dvd & cd-r etc are going to have faster running specs on non burning drives...

 

[Ponmayilal]

^ I presume you are referring to the BDROM read rate. Anything 2X and above should suffice. So 8X is good enough and matches the current level. I have also read reports from users ripping BDs that speeds above 2X, do not necessarily result in less time. May be other factors related to the system are a constraint rather than than the read rate. So IMO 8X leaves a wide margin to be covered with the rising performance speeds of the systems.

AS far as DVD write speeds are cocnerned, one should appreciate that any combo or multifunction device is a convenience (at times translating into a necessity) with a good price-performance ratio.These necessarily bite a bit on the performance level of seperate devices.

The problem is that the optical drive manufacturers have unnecessarily hyped on the speeds to lure the users. How many times do you see the advice " do write your DVDs in 2X or even 1X speed." I have seen that even in this forum yesterday.

Unless one is burning and churning out DVDs and CDs by dozens a day, the write rates should not bother the normal user. The lower the better. A few seconds or even a few minutes more should not matter. Burning BDs can be a night time task.

The above is my personal opinion. To choose what is best for you is your prerogative. I appreciate the fact that individual mileage may vary.

Do read the user reviews of the many drives you may have in your mind on sites like amazon.com, newegg.com and other CD/DVD/BD specific forums before zeroing in on your choice. I always do.

 

[Zepher]

$80, and it is a Writer as well.
Newegg.com - LG WH10LS30K 10X Blu-ray Burner - LightScribe Support - Bulk - Blu-Ray Burners

Newegg has about a dozen drives under $100,
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=598&name=Blu-Ray-Drives&Order=PRICE

 

[JohnnyScience]

$80, and it is a Writer as well.
Newegg.com - LG WH10LS30K 10X Blu-ray Burner - LightScribe Support - Bulk - Blu-Ray Burners

Newegg has about a dozen drives under $100,
Newegg.com - Blu-Ray Drives

I see that LG has 2mb of cache, where another one has 4mb of it. (the other writer has 8mb)

How important is cache for a blu-ray combo drive? I assume you want as much as possible?

This one has better specs, but is $30 more, is it worth it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106346

 

[Zepher]

what are you going to do with the drive? watch movies, rip movies, etc....?

 

[JohnnyScience]

what are you going to do with the drive? watch movies, rip movies, etc....?

Mostly watch movies, rip movies & occasionally burn something for someone.

 

[Ponmayilal]

$80, and it is a Writer as well.
Newegg.com - LG WH10LS30K 10X Blu-ray Burner - LightScribe Support - Bulk - Blu-Ray Burners

Newegg has about a dozen drives under $100,
Newegg.com - Blu-Ray Drives

I see that LG has 2mb of cache, where another one has 4mb of it. (the other writer has 8mb)

How important is cache for a blu-ray combo drive? I assume you want as much as possible?

This one has better specs, but is $30 more, is it worth it?

Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner 12X Blu-ray Burner with Blu-ray 3D feature Model iHBS112 - Blu-Ray Burners

Group 1: With fast writing speeds and fast computers a 2 MB cache is good enough.

Group 2: Not all have fast computers. Most have slow to medium speed (by current level). Even a fast computer can turn to be a slow couch. Slow and heavily fragmented HDDs, multitasking and the network activity - all these can result in a computer that only crawls or gets bogged down rather than galloping. More often than not the users are not even aware of what all goes on inside their computer - the processes that run, the applications that keep running in the background, the tasks that schedule themselves and run etc. A 2MB cache will halt the writing till it fills up and resyncs to continue writing. With umpteen resyncs the possibility of more burnproof errors increases and the disk writing speed decreases. No use in touting that you have a fast writer!

One also has to take into consideration that all media is not super grade. To deal with the inconsistencies and variables, sometimes even X1 writing is recommended. Here again an 8MB cache will do good.

The more the merrier as far as memory is concerned! It gives you peace of mind.

Hmmmm....... these are the two groups. Now take your pick.

 

[JohnnyScience]

Hmm with shipping the other is almost $40 more.

I've got a pretty fast computer,

Asus mobo
Intel quadcore Q6600
8g ram
2 - nvidia 9800GT's
2 - Dell 19" monitors
Dell 22" monitor
Samsung 46" LCD
2T media HDD
500g OS HDD
80g Ubuntu
Turtle beach 5.1
Sony 5.1 hooked up via digital optical port
52 card reader
Webcam
Bluetooth mouse
Wireless Internet dongle (but also hooked up via hardline)
Wireless Jabra Bluetooth headset with dongle
Wireless Microsoft keyboard

And I multitask on all 3 monitors with about 10-30 webpages at a time in 3 different chrome browsers (one for each monitor) while also watching movies either from HDD or streaming, editing photos via PS, writing HTML with DW and blasting iTunes amongst a dozen or so other weird little side projects. I could use 3 more monitors

Thats my normal daily use