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.

Optical Disc Drive Prices

The price range of dvd (re)writers is from £12 to £136 and in total we found prices for 62 dvd (re)writers. The average price of a new optical disc drive is £45 and 80% of dvd (re)writers are priced between £16 and £80. The cheapest dvd rewriter that we found is the LiteOn IHAS122 at only £12, and the most expensive is the DELL 338-BGN at £136.

Cd (Re)Writer Brands - Price Range

The average price of DELL cd rewriters is £67 which is the highest average price of all dvd (re)writer brands. DELL cd rewriters range in price from £40 to £136.

The average price of Pioneer cd burners is £63 which is the second highest average price of all cd burner brands. Pioneer cd burners start at £25 and their most expensive cd burner costs £100.

The average price of I-O Data dvd writers is £50 which is the third highest average price of all cd burner brands. I-O Data dvd writers range in price from £0 to £133.

Cd Burner Brands - Average Ratings

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

Biggest Optical Disc Drive Retailers

The biggest dvd (re)writer retailer by number of products currently for sale is Amazon UK. We found 16 current dvd (re)writer offers from Amazon UK. The second biggest retailer is Novatech with 7 offers. That means Amazon UK is more than twice as big as Novatech when it comes to dvd (re)writers. John Lewis is the third biggest retailer with 1 current offers.

How Fast Do Cd Burner Prices Drop After Release?

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

That means a saving of £2 on a typical £20 new optical disc drive if you wait 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 common disc loading type amongst new optical disc drives is tray. We found 114 optical disc drives that are dvd (re)writers that have a tray loading. We found 29 dvd writers that are optical disc drives that have a slot loading, making this the second most common disc loading type amongst new dvd 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 this the most common type amongst new optical disc drives. The second most common type amongst new dvd rewriters is external. We found 52 dvd rewriters that are external cd burners.

Optical Drive Types

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

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

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

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying dvd burners. For each retailer it shows the total number of dvd burners where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying cd (re)writers. 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. 8 of their optical disc drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Cd (Re)Writers for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for dvd burners 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. 50% of their cd writer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.