Compare the Best Optical Disc DrivesAugust 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 Writer Prices

The price range of dvd writers is from £12 to £137 and in total we found prices for 61 dvd writers. On average, a new cd writer costs £43 and 80% of optical disc drives are priced between £16 and £79. The LiteOn IHAS122 is the cheapest dvd burner at only £12, and DELL 338-BGN is the most expensive at £137.

Dvd Writer Brands - Price Range

The average price of DELL cd (re)writers is £67 which is the highest average price of all dvd writer brands. DELL cd (re)writers start at £40 and their most expensive dvd writer costs £137.

The second highest average dvd burner price out of all brands is Pioneer dvd writers with an average price of £63. Pioneer dvd writers range in price from £25 to £100.

Verbatim cd writers start at £0 and their most expensive cd rewriter costs £90. The third highest average cd rewriter price out of all brands is Verbatim cd writers with an average price of £38.

Cd (Re)Writer Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 20 expert reviews and 3,433 user reviews for cd burners and used this data to evaluate the average rating for each brand of cd burner.

Biggest Cd Rewriter Retailers

We found 9 current offers for dvd writers from Amazon UK making it the biggest optical disc drive retailer. That is significantly bigger than the second biggest retailer, Novatech for whom we found 7 current offers for dvd writers. The third biggest retailer is John Lewis with 1 current optical disc drive offers.

How Fast Do Cd (Re)Writer Prices Drop After Release?

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

That means that on a typical cd (re)writer costing £19 you could save on average £2 by waiting 6 months before buying.

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.

The most popular disc loading type amongst new dvd (re)writers is tray. We found 114 dvd (re)writers that are cd burners that have a tray loading. We found 29 cd writers that are cd (re)writers that have a slot loading, making slot the second most common disc loading type amongst new cd writers.

Type

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

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

Optical Drive Types

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

Amongst new cd (re)writers, the most popular optical drive type is dvd. We found 116 cd (re)writers that are dvd burners that have a dvd Optical drive type. The second most popular optical drive type amongst new dvd (re)writers is blu-ray. We found 27 dvd (re)writers that are dvd (re)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 optical disc drives. 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 Amazon UK. 4 of their dvd burner prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Dvd Writers for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for cd rewriters by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of dvd burner prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's dvd burner prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was Amazon UK. 44.4% of their optical disc drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.