Compare the Best Optical Disc DrivesJanuary 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 Rewriter Prices

We currently list 43 cd writers ranging from £10 to £121. On average, a new optical disc drive costs £40 and 80% of optical disc drives are priced between £12 and £86. The cheapest dvd (re)writer that we found is the Apple SuperDrive at only £10, and the most expensive is the Asus SDRW-S1 LITE at £120.

Cd Writer Brands - Price Range

The highest average dvd writer price out of all brands is Pioneer cd burners with an average price of £59. Pioneer cd burners start at £20 and their most expensive dvd writer costs £100.

Verbatim cd burners range in price from £0 to £86, and the second highest average dvd burner price out of all brands is Verbatim cd burners with an average price of £37.

The average price of DELL optical disc drives is £35 which is the third highest average price of all cd burner brands. DELL optical disc drives range in price from £0 to £56.

Dvd Burner Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 20 expert reviews and 3,444 user reviews for optical disc drives and used these reviews to determine the average rating for each brand of cd writer.

Biggest Cd Writer Retailers

We found 5 current offers for cd (re)writers from Novatech making it the biggest cd rewriter retailer. That is more than twice as big as the second biggest retailer, eBay for whom we found 2 current offers for cd (re)writers. The third biggest retailer is Amazon UK with 1 current cd rewriter offers.

How Fast Do Dvd Writer Prices Drop After Release?

On average, in the first 6 months after release, dvd writers drop in price by 10%.

A typical new dvd rewriter costs on average £13. By waiting 6 months before buying you could save on average £1.

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.

Amongst new dvd (re)writers, the most popular disc loading type is tray. We found 112 dvd (re)writers that are dvd rewriters that have a tray loading. We found 29 cd rewriters that are cd (re)writers that have a slot loading, making this the second most common disc loading type amongst new cd rewriters.

Type

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

We found 82 cd rewriters that are internal dvd writers, which makes internal the most popular type amongst new cd rewriters. We found 51 dvd (re)writers that are external dvd rewriters, making external the second most popular type amongst new dvd (re)writers.

Optical Drive Types

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

Amongst new cd writers, the most frequently found optical drive type is dvd. We found 114 cd writers that are dvd writers that have a dvd Optical drive type. The second most common optical drive type amongst new cd burners is blu-ray. We found 27 cd burners that are dvd writers that have a blu-ray Optical drive type.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Cd Burners?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying optical disc drives. For each retailer it shows the total number of optical disc drives where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying dvd burners. 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 shop4world. 1 of their cd burner prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Dvd Burners for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for dvd rewriters by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of optical disc drive prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's optical disc drive prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers.