Price Guides October 2004: Optical and Magnetic Storage

DVD Burners: High-End

It seems like only yesterday when everyone was scrambling to get their hands on the latest, greatest, and fastest CD burner that they could afford. The excitement of upgrading from a seemingly ancient 4x CD burner to one that screamed along at 8X was enough to keep everyone glued to the ads in their local Sunday paper, in hopes of finding the best deal around.

Today is no exception to the past, except that the speeds have changed, and DVDs have finally started to nudge their way onto store shelves. Actually, "nudge" might be a bit of an understatement, since the media aisle at any Fry's Electronics tends to be about 50/50, CD to DVD. While a lot of people still use their burners primarily to bring their music with them on the road, or to transfer mid-sized files from one place to another, DVDs have had a relatively slow adoption rate. Let's face it; most of us don't have car stereos that know the difference between a CD and a Frisbee. Luckily, the biggest names in the PC industry have all but dropped CD drives altogether in favor of, no less, a DVD-ROM drive. What this means to you as the consumer is that prices will go down as adoption picks up a speedier pace. Unfortunately, today isn't the day when you can pick up a 52X DVD burner for $30 from any online retailer.

For that reason, we had to pick a drive that best suited the needs of a typical power user. Top burn quality, fast burns and reasonable pricing bring the NEC 16X ND-3500A to light as one of the best burners available for the price. Dual-layer capable, fast 16X burn capacity, and great media and format compatibility are among the key points that help make this drive a great choice. If you want the best of the best and don't mind paying a bit more for it, the NEC 16X ND-3500A is just what you're looking for. While the NEC is capable of writing a little quicker, an alternative choice for a few dollars less is the Pioneer 16X DVR-108D, which has slightly better media support compared to the NEC. In the end, either drive is top of the line and capable of keeping your distant relatives fully stocked with your home videos year round.

It is also worth noting that many 8X and 12X burners are selling for as much and, in some cases, more than either the 3500A or the 108D, which is why we see no reason to hold off from going with the newer devices.