Price Guides September 2004: Optical and Magnetic Storage

Introduction

Welcome back for the latest price guide. The last few weeks haven't shown much in the way of price changes for hard drives or DVD burners, except for the price dip every once in a while as retailers put something on sale and slap on a few dozen mail-in rebates.

Be certain to visit our RealTime Pricing Engine for the latest prices and deltas before you go shopping.

DVD Burners

While hard drives aren't changing very much, DVD burners are showing quite the opposite. With the recent releases of numerous 16X-rated DVDR/RW drives comes the chance to burn your data at tolerable, if not pleasant, speeds.

Offerings are already on the table and ready for purchase from manufacturers such as Pioneer, NEC, etc. The best part is that the prices for these new faster drives are almost the same as that of a fast CD burner a year or two ago. Media prices, additionally, are coming down in price and going up in quantity and quality, save for the still obvious availability shortages found in dual-layer media.
This week's pick for DVD burners goes to the Pioneer 16X DVR-108D. At just under $90, it isn't necessarily the cheapest of the 16X selection, but it does continue Pioneer's track record for hassle-free and high-quality burns. This drive is also fully capable and ready when it comes to burning to dual-layer media and even supports DVD-RAM. The speed bump compared to 8X and 12X models will also help to keep burn times short, which has historically been a driving factor in helping recording media products obtain acceptance from the masses. Overall, this is the best DVD burner on the market right now and is certainly worth the approximately $10 premium over other 16X drives.