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Optical Disc Drive Buying Guide

Optical disk drives cover a wide range of internal and external devices meant to both read and write a variety of removable media. This means they can be used to both read data from discs (i.e - playing a movie DVD or Blu Ray) and also writing or ‘burning’ data (i.e - creating a music CD from individual mp3s, or permanently writing files to a disk for distribution).

While most computers used to house CD and DVD drives as standard, drastically smaller devices and a move towards cloud-based streaming mean that disc drives are being used less and less. Indeed many modern laptops and desktops no longer contain a disc drive at all.

This means that even though it is legacy tech, it’s still worth keeping a drive handy for those times you want to read the data from an old DVD, burn a disc for a friend, or watch a movie when you don’t have access to Netflix. This guide will explain the major points of consideration when choosing an optical disk drive.

Mounting & Portability

The first important consideration is what type of drive you want to get. While all our drives read and write disks, there are 2 main types - internal and external. It’s important to note that generally speaking internal drives can’t be used outside of computers, and external drives have to be powered via USB, and can’t be mounted inside a desktop or laptop.

Internal drives: These are meant to be placed into the computer body itself and wired directly into the system for power and data. They are used mostly for either replacements, or if you are building your own computer from scratch. Because these drives have to fit into a specific bay, it’s important to make sure you get one that is the right measurements and compatible with your computer. This also includes the correct mounting for the machine you’re wanting to install the drive into.

External drives: These drives are meant to be plugged into a computer (usually via USB) to serve as a temporary drive when one is needed. These drives tend to be more expensive than internal drives, but can be used with any computer. They are especially useful for laptops, since the current trend in ultra-thin laptops mean that most modern models don’t have a drive built in. Because external drives are removable, they can be easily stowed away until needed, making them helpful if you only need to read a CD/DVD occasionally. They are also very portable, making them good for watching movies or accessing data on journeys where you may not have access to a stable net connection.

Media Support

There are 3 main types of optical media supported by the disc drives on our site - CD, DVD and Blu Ray:

CD: Traditionally used for music, and while rather a legacy format, there are so many CDs in circulation that you are bound to need to access one at some point. All disc drives will read and write CDs, but the downside is they hold the least information of the 3 types.

DVD: DVDs are generally used for movies, since they are higher density, so can hold far more data than CDs. DVDs are still widely used for movies and video games, and can also hold a large amount of information, making them useful for backing up lots of files. Nearly all of our drives support both CD and DVD read writing.

Blu-Ray: The newest and highest density of optical media on the market, Blu-Ray discs can hold an enormous amount of data in a single disc. They are primarily used for very high-quality movies. However because they are a new format, Blu-Ray writers are far more expensive than CD or DVD-compatible models. Moreover, not all drives support Blu-Ray reading or writing, meaning that you may find other users are not able to read the data on the disc.

Read/Write Speedas

Finally, read & write speeds measure how quickly data can be written from & to the disc. This is measures in bytes per second - the higher the speed, the faster large files (such as movies) will be burnt to the disc, or read from the drive. The read-write speeds are also affected by the USB version supported - USB 3.0 supported drives allow far higher transfer rates than USB 2 drives, so it is worth seeking out the newest drive you can for the fastest data transfer speeds.

Optical Disc Drive Retailers, Prices and Features

Dvd (re)writer Prices

The price range of cd burners is from £0 to £1,345 and in total we found prices for 102 cd burners. A new cd rewriter costs on average £39 and 80% of dvd burners are priced between £0 and £73. The Acer DVD Writer is the cheapest cd burner at only £0, and HP DVD+/-RW DL SuperMulti is the most expensive at £1,344.

Dvd Burner Brands - Price Range

The average price of Sony dvd writers is £299 which is the highest average price of all optical disc drive brands. Sony dvd writers range in price from £299 to £299.

HP cd burners start at £0 and the most expensive HP cd (re)writer costs £1,344. The second highest average cd (re)writer price out of all brands is HP cd burners with an average price of £143.

The third highest average cd (re)writer price out of all brands is Silverstone dvd (re)writers with an average price of £81. Silverstone dvd (re)writers range in price from £81 to £81.

Dvd (re)writer Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 1 expert 0 reviews from across the internet and used these reviews to determine the average rating for each brand of optical disc drive. Asus is the top rated cd burner brand with an average rating of 69%. Philips is the second best brand with 0% and Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the third best brand with 0%.

Biggest Dvd Burner Retailers

The biggest dvd writer retailer by number of products currently for sale is Techdna. We found 21 current dvd writer offers from Techdna. The second biggest dvd writer retailer is Communications Solutions with 18 offers. That means Techdna is slightly bigger than Communications Solutions when it comes to optical disc drives. PC World Business is the third biggest retailer with 16 current offers.

When Are Most New Cd Burners Released?

We looked at the release dates for new cd rewriters over the last 3 years, but couldn't see any prominent trend. The biggest month in 2016 for new optical disc drive releases was February, with eight new cd writers released that month. July was the biggest month in 2015 for new dvd (re)writers, with 16 new dvd (re)writers released that month. In June 2014 28 new cd (re)writers were released making it the biggest month that year for new cd (re)writer releases.

How Fast Do Optical Disc Drive Prices Drop After Release?

In the first 6 months after release, dvd burners drop in price by 29% on average. That means that on a typical cd (re)writer costing £38 you could save on average £11 by waiting 6 months before buying.

Disc Loading Types

Type of mechanism by which the optical disc is loaded into the product.

Tray is the most popular disc loading type amongst new cd burners. We found 74 cd burners that are dvd writers that have a tray loading. We found 18 cd burners that are cd burners that have a slot loading, making slot the second most popular disc loading type amongst new cd burners.

Internals

Optical Drive Types

We found 322 dvd writers that are cd rewriters that have a DVD Optical drive type, which makes DVD the most popular optical drive type amongst new dvd writers. We found 146 cd (re)writers that are dvd rewriters that have a DVD-R Optical drive type, making DVD-R the second most popular optical drive type amongst new cd (re)writers.

CD Read Speeds

This measures how quickly the optical drive can read information from a CD.

Across the range of cd rewriters, the CD read speeds range from 14x to 48x. The CD read speeds of most cd writers range from 23x to 26x. The AsusBW-16D1HT has the fastest CD read speed. This dvd writer is a 48x CD read speed dvd writer and can be purchased for £67.78. The cd (re)writer with the slowest CD read speed is the AsusBW-16D1HT, which is a 14x CD read speed dvd rewriter and can be purchased for £0.00.

Faster read speeds mean that the data on the disc can be accessed quicker, making every operation faster and meaning less time is wasted waiting for the disc to load.

Biggest Cd (re)writer Retailers

The biggest dvd rewriter retailer by number of products currently for sale is Techdna. We found 21 current dvd rewriter offers from Techdna. The second biggest dvd rewriter retailer is Communications Solutions with 18 offers. That means Techdna is slightly bigger than Communications Solutions when it comes to cd burners. PC World Business is the third biggest retailer with 16 current offers.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Cd Burners?

With the cheapest price on 6 cd burners, Amazon UK is most frequently the cheapest dvd (re)writer shop.

Proportion of Dvd Writers for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

With the cheapest price on 85.7% of its dvd (re)writers, Amazon UK is most frequently the cheapest cd burner retailer.

	LightScribe 1
	Disc-At-Once (DAO) 13
	Track-At-Once (TAO) 13
	Session-At-Once (SAO) 13

	LG 8
	Asus 13
	HP 11
	Samsung 6
	Acer 1
	Fujitsu 4
	DELL 2
	Lite-On 3
	Lenovo 3
	Apple 2
	LiteOn 2
	Buffalo 2
	Verbatim 1
	Streacom 1
	Sonnet 0
	Silverstone 1
	Philips 0
	Transcend 1
	Sony 1
	Toshiba 0
	Hewlett Packard Enterprise 0
	Freecom 0
	Pioneer 1

	Amazon UK 42
	Misco 13
	Currys 5
	Maplin Electronics 4
	Littlewoods 4
	John Lewis 2

	Metallic 2
	Aluminium 0
	Stainless Steel 1
	White 5
	Silver 5
	Red 2
	Grey 3
	Blue 2
	Black 48

	DVD+RW DL 6
	CD-DA 9
	DVD-R 40
	DVD-R DL 36
	DVD-RW 39
	DVD-RW DL 6
	DVD+R 40
	DVD+R DL 36
	DVD+RW 39
	BD-RE XL 3
	BD-R XL 2
	CD-ROM 30
	BD-RE DL 6
	CD-R 38
	CD-RW 37
	DVD 45
	DVD-RAM 30
	DVD-ROM 32
	BD 10
	BD-ROM 8
	BD-R 9
	BD-R DL 9
	BD-RE 9
	CD 42

Compare the 10 Best Optical Disc DrivesAugust 2017

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#1 LG GH24NSD1

#2 LG GH24NSD1

#3 Asus DRW‑24D5MT

#4 Asus DRW‑24F1MT

#5 Asus SDRW‑08D2S‑U LITE

#6 Asus SDRW‑08U7M‑U

#7 Asus SDRW‑08U5S‑U

#8 LG GH24NSC0

#9 Asus BC‑12D2HT

#10 Lite‑On DU‑8A6SH

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