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.

Optical Disc Drive Prices

Cd burners range in price from £10 to £134 and in total we found prices for 48 cd burners. On average, a new cd writer costs £42 and 80% of dvd rewriters are priced between £13 and £82. The I-O Data BRPUT6CK is the most expensive cd writer that we found at £133, and the Apple SuperDrive is the cheapest at only £10.

Cd Rewriter Brands - Price Range

The highest average dvd burner price out of all brands is Pioneer dvd (re)writers with an average price of £61. Pioneer dvd (re)writers range in price from £20 to £100.

I-O Data cd (re)writers range in price from £0 to £133, and the average price of I-O Data cd (re)writers is £44 which is the second highest average price of all cd writer brands.

Verbatim dvd rewriters range in price from £0 to £86, and the third highest average dvd writer price out of all brands is Verbatim dvd rewriters with an average price of £37.

Dvd Writer Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 20 expert reviews and 3,463 user reviews for dvd burners and used this information to determine the average rating for each brand of dvd burner.

Biggest Cd Rewriter Retailers

We found 6 current offers for cd (re)writers from Novatech making it the biggest dvd 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 John Lewis with 1 current dvd rewriter offers.

How Fast Do Cd Writer Prices Drop After Release?

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

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of £1 on a typical £15 new dvd rewriter 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.

We found 112 dvd rewriters that are dvd writers that have a tray loading, which makes tray the most popular disc loading type amongst new dvd rewriters. We found 29 dvd burners that are cd writers that have a slot loading, making this the second most popular disc loading type amongst new dvd burners.

Type

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

Amongst new dvd burners, the most frequently found type is internal. We found 82 dvd burners that are internal cd rewriters. External is the second most frequently found type amongst new dvd (re)writers. We found 52 dvd (re)writers that are external cd (re)writers.

Optical Drive Types

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

The most popular optical drive type amongst new cd burners is dvd. We found 114 cd burners that are dvd rewriters that have a dvd Optical drive type. The second most popular optical drive type amongst new dvd writers is blu-ray. We found 27 dvd writers that are dvd writers that have a blu-ray Optical drive type.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Optical Disc Drives?

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 dvd (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. 2 of their dvd rewriter prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Cd Writers for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for optical disc drives by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of dvd (re)writer prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's dvd (re)writer prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was Novatech. 33.3% of their optical disc drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.