"kony" wrote in message
...
The common problems with CDRW drives are attributable to the media
used. Most cheapo media has progressively worse error rates burning
faster than 32X, regardless of the spec on the label. In my
experience liteon drives do as well if not better than any other
drives (on average) and attaining highest burn speeds per given media
with minimum errors, but specific drive/media combinations, their
results, can and do vary.

Personally, I'd take any major manufacturer's drive if it were
near-free after rebate (except Top-G/Top-Glory/et al.), but if I were
paying near-retail for a drive, it'd be a liteon. Though IMHOl, it's a
waste of $ to buy a 52X burner, as it's only a few seconds (if that)
faster than a 48X drive, and that 4X speed benefit on the outer tracks
of a CDR, are exactly where the read errors are most likely to occur.

I'm odd like that though, I'd rather burn at 32X on a 52X burner, and
have a greater chance that the data is readable in 2 years, though
with low-end media even that isn't certain. As inexpensive as HDD are
these days, I backup to RAID 1 mirrors and only use CDRs for
short-term distribution, not backup.

Nothing odd about that, makes perfect sense...to me at least. What you said
also makes sense, buying 48X rather than the latest whiz, bang 52X. I
highly doubt any drive will actually run at 52X all the way.

Thanks for your opinion.

@drian.