Compare the Best Optical Disc DrivesOctober 2020

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.

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.

Cd Burner Prices

Optical disc drives range in price from £12 to £190 and in total we found prices for 68 optical disc drives. The average price of a new dvd rewriter is £54 and 80% of dvd writers are priced between £16 and £100. The Apple USB SuperDrive is the cheapest cd burner at only £12, and I-O Data BRDS16PX is the most expensive at £190.

Cd Burner Brands - Price Range

The average price of Verbatim dvd (re)writers is £97 which is the highest average price of all dvd burner brands. Verbatim dvd (re)writers start at £24 and their most expensive dvd burner costs £170.

Intel cd writers range in price from £80 to £80, and the second highest average dvd burner price out of all brands is Intel cd writers with an average price of £80.

I-O Data dvd writers start at £0 and their most expensive dvd burner costs £190. The average price of I-O Data dvd writers is £64 which is the third highest average price of all dvd burner brands.

Optical Disc Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 11 expert reviews and 226 user reviews for cd writers and used this information to determine the average rating for each brand of cd (re)writer.

Biggest Cd Writer Retailers

The biggest optical disc drive retailer by number of products currently for sale is SmartTeck. We found 15 current optical disc drive offers from SmartTeck. The second biggest retailer is Raysan and Carter with 13 offers. That means SmartTeck is slightly bigger than Raysan and Carter when it comes to dvd burners. Novatech is the third biggest retailer with 6 current offers.

How Fast Do Cd Writer Prices Drop After Release?

In the first 6 months after release, cd (re)writers drop in price by 10% on average.

A typical new dvd burner costs on average £26. By waiting 6 months before buying you could save on average £3.

Disc Loading Types

The disc loading type refers to the mechanism by which the optical disc is loaded into the drive. Normally this is by placing the disc in a tray or by inserting it into a slot.

We found 114 dvd writers that are dvd writers that have a tray loading, which makes this the most common disc loading type amongst new dvd writers. Slot is the second most frequently found disc loading type amongst new cd (re)writers. We found 29 cd (re)writers that are cd burners that have a slot loading.

Type

Type denotes whether the disc drive is meant to be placed internally into a computer, or used externally via USB.

We found 83 dvd writers that are internal cd burners, which makes this the most popular type amongst new dvd writers. External is the second most popular type amongst new optical disc drives. We found 52 optical disc drives that are external dvd writers.

Optical Drive Types

The drive type denotes what type of disc (CD, DVD,etc) the drive is capable of reading.

Amongst new optical disc drives, the most common optical drive type is dvd. We found 116 optical disc drives that are optical disc drives that have a dvd Optical drive type. The second most common optical drive type amongst new dvd burners is blu-ray. We found 27 dvd burners that are dvd burners that have a blu-ray Optical drive type.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Cd (Re)Writers?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying dvd writers. For each retailer it shows the total number of dvd writers where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying cd rewriters. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was Raysan and Carter. 4 of their dvd burner prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Cd Rewriters for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for cd writers by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of cd (re)writer prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's cd (re)writer prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was Raysan and Carter. 30.8% of their cd rewriter prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.