DVD Burner round-up: 12x and 8x drives tested

TechSpot has posted an updated DVD Burner comparison of 16x Dual Layer Drives.

With today’s computers becoming more of a media focal point, data replication is becoming more critical than ever. Computers five years ago were used for surfing the internet, micro-processing and some gaming as well. Today’s high-end computers take on yet another daunting task: creating and storing your unforgettable moments with digital camera images or perhaps a digital video. These devices create amazing quality images, but they also take up a tremendous amount of hard drive space.

In the past, floppy drives and zip disks were the preferred method of backing up important text files and media. Afterwards, CD-RW drives became mainstream thanks to its affordable price and its ability to store 800MB. The time has now come where CD-RW drives take the back seat as did floppy drives before it. DVD writers can store over up to 4 GB of information in one data layer and drive prices have continued to fall since the beginning of the year.

Better yet, today’s DVD-RW drives are more compatible, and faster than ever before. It’s a great time to purchase a DVD-RW drive if you don’t have one already, and this is the sole purpose of this review. I was sent five different drives to torment, here’s a quick rundown before we get them more detail.

I should mention that unfortunately we had to leave out two other, very popular drives out of our round-up. Plextor was kind enough to send their flagship DVD burning unit, the PX-712SA, however we were unable to get the drive working properly and after a few weeks of delay we regretfully had to leave their product out of the comparison. Also, Sony couldn’t full-fill our request for one of their new DRU burners.

So, if you are finally ready to fork over your hard earned cash for a new drive, this is for you.

Select DVD Burners at first glance Pioneer DVR-S706 8x external drive Pioneer DVR-A07XLA 8x drive LG GSA-4120B 12x drive TEAC DV-W58GA 8x drive Artec VOM-12E48X 12x drive Bundled Software Suites from Ahead & Ulead Performance: Sandra DVD benchmark and CD DAE tests Performance: DVD read speed & Burning test Final Thoughts

Go to next page