Compare the Best Optical Disc DrivesFebruary 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 (Re)Writer Prices

The price range of cd rewriters is from £10 to £118 and in total we found prices for 47 cd rewriters. A new cd writer costs on average £40 and 80% of optical disc drives are priced between £13 and £82. The most expensive cd (re)writer that we found is the Asus SDRW-S1 LITE at £118, and the cheapest is the Apple SuperDrive at only £10.

Dvd Burner Brands - Price Range

The highest average optical disc drive price out of all brands is Pioneer dvd writers with an average price of £59. Pioneer dvd writers range in price from £20 to £100.

The average price of Verbatim cd burners is £37 which is the second highest average price of all dvd burner brands. Verbatim cd burners start at £0 and their most expensive dvd burner costs £85.

The third highest average cd writer price out of all brands is Transcend cd burners with an average price of £36. Transcend cd burners start at £36 and their most expensive cd writer costs £36.

Dvd Burner Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 20 expert reviews and 3,463 user reviews for cd rewriters and used these reviews to calculate the average rating for each brand of dvd rewriter.

Biggest Dvd Rewriter Retailers

The biggest optical disc drive retailer by number of products currently for sale is Novatech. We found 6 current optical disc drive offers from Novatech. The second biggest retailer is eBay with 2 offers. That means Novatech is more than twice as big as eBay when it comes to optical disc drives. John Lewis is the third biggest retailer with 1 current offers.

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

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

That means that on a typical dvd burner costing £14 you could save on average £1 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.

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

The most popular type amongst new cd writers is internal. We found 82 cd writers that are internal optical disc drives. The second most frequently found type amongst new dvd (re)writers is external. We found 51 dvd (re)writers that are external cd writers.

Optical Drive Types

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

Dvd is the most common optical drive type amongst new dvd rewriters. We found 114 dvd rewriters that are optical disc drives that have a dvd Optical drive type. The second most common optical drive type amongst new cd (re)writers is blu-ray. We found 27 cd (re)writers that are cd (re)writers that have a blu-ray Optical drive type.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Cd Rewriters?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying dvd rewriters. For each retailer it shows the total number of dvd rewriters 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 Novatech. 1 of their dvd writer 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 (re)writers by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of cd writer prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's cd writer prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was Novatech. 16.7% of their cd rewriter prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.