Compare the Best Optical Disc DrivesDecember 2019

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

In total we found 53 cd burners ranging from £10 to £114. A new dvd writer costs on average £40 and 80% of dvd rewriters are priced between £13 and £79. The most expensive cd burner that we found is the LG WP50NB40 at £114, and the cheapest is the Apple SuperDrive at only £10.

Cd Rewriter Brands - Price Range

Pioneer optical disc drives range in price from £23 to £92, and the highest average dvd writer price out of all brands is Pioneer optical disc drives with an average price of £58.

Silverstone cd (re)writers range in price from £0 to £75, and the average price of Silverstone cd (re)writers is £38 which is the second highest average price of all cd rewriter brands.

Verbatim cd (re)writers range in price from £0 to £84, and the average price of Verbatim cd (re)writers is £37 which is the third highest average price of all dvd (re)writer brands.

Cd Rewriter Brands - Average Ratings

We have evaluated 18 expert reviews and 3,418 user reviews for optical disc drives and used this information to determine the average rating for each brand of optical disc drive.

Biggest Cd Burner Retailers

The biggest dvd writer retailer by number of products currently for sale is Novatech. We found 5 current dvd writer 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 dvd writers. John Lewis is the third biggest retailer with 1 current offers.

When Are Most New Cd (Re)Writers Released?

The most common period for new dvd writers to be released in is between April and June. If you want the latest cd writer features you may be best waiting until April 2020. It's also worth keeping in mind that the price of the current dvd rewriters tend to drop off when the next models are released. In June 2018, eight new cd burners were released making it the biggest month that year for new cd rewriter releases. April was the biggest month in 2017 for new cd burners, with seven new cd burners released that month. In 2016 most new cd burners were released in September, with nine new cd burners released that month.

How Fast Do Dvd Rewriter Prices Drop After Release?

New dvd rewriters drop in price by an average of 10% in the first 6 months after they were first released.

That means that on a typical cd burner costing £16 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.

We found 111 optical disc drives that are dvd (re)writers that have a tray loading, which makes tray the most popular disc loading type amongst new optical disc drives. The second most common disc loading type amongst new cd (re)writers is slot. We found 29 cd (re)writers that are cd 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 frequently found type amongst new optical disc drives is internal. We found 81 optical disc drives that are internal dvd rewriters. External is the second most popular type amongst new optical disc drives. We found 51 optical disc drives that are external optical disc drives.

Optical Drive Types

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

The most common optical drive type amongst new dvd burners is dvd. We found 114 dvd burners that are cd (re)writers that have a dvd Optical drive type. We found 26 dvd writers that are dvd (re)writers that have a blu-ray Optical drive type, making blu-ray the second most common optical drive type amongst new dvd writers.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Dvd Rewriters?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying dvd (re)writers. For each retailer it shows the total number of dvd (re)writers 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 writer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Optical Disc Drives 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 dvd writer prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's dvd writer prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers.