# CD Burner



## kharmini91

I have a 4x CD burner but now that I have cable internet, I have much more use of it.  I quickly realized I need something faster.  I'm thinking an external but I'm not sure if it would be worth paying more.  Can anyone give me advice and/or tell me what spped I should get?


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## [tab]

Lite-on are quite good value.  Also, consider a DVD burner... they're quite cheap now.


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## Nephilim

What he said!

If you back up PC games the Lite On DVD burners are extra nice since they're able to write the newer protections quite well.


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## Praetor

Just make sure you keep the firmwares on them burners up to date as industry protection schemes target Liteys


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## Watzzupp

i had a liteon and it was the biggest piece of shit ive ever used but thats just my opinion


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## Praetor

WHats the reasoning for that (i.e., what task were you trying to do but couldnt)


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## kharmini91

Thank you very much.  But still, what speed should I get and internal/ext?


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## Praetor

Well you will probably want the fastest one (although I cant reccomend that you actually burn at the maximum speed but that's a completely different discussion). Shouldnt be too hard to grab a ASUS 523252 (or even the 522452 which I've got) or the equivalent Litey drive


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## kharmini91

Could you expand on that maximum speed issue?
ps. I have the latest version of Nero.


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## kharmini91

kharmini91 said:
			
		

> ps. I have the latest version of Nero.



If that matters.


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## kharmini91

PPS. still hanging on this internal/ext debate unless someone commented on it and I didn't pick up what they were saying... !


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## Praetor

> Could you expand on that maximum speed issue? ps. I have the latest version of Nero.


Regardless of what the techie at your local computer store tells you (usually about some gibberish to do with "anti buffer-underrun technology") .. you *SHOULDNT* burn your CDs at the maximum possible speed -- _even_ if your discs are rated at the given speed or even better. This can really get complicated but a falsh-course in CD-technology (for the full scoop look around ay http://forums.afterdawn.com/forum_view.cfm/38 )

- When you buy your media it might say something like "Sony"  or "Maxell" on the case and on the disc but Sony does _not_ make that disc. They just market it. The actual manufacturer may be something like "Ritek" or "CMC". Some are better than others.
- There are two types of errors associated with CD burning (and there are equivalent ones for DVD burning) but they are called C1 and C2 errors. Your local store-techie has never heard of these errors. C1 errors are typically weeded out fairly well by QC and by hardware error-correction so thats not much of a problem (also, even if you burn slower it wont really lower your C1-error rate). Now the C2 errors .... every drive attempts to deal with these errors in a different way and some are more sucessful than others however by burning fast you increase the number of C2 errors and thus decrease the chance of the drive correctly accounting for those errors. It's the C2 errors that you wanna avoid because (a) they lead to messed up data and (b) why burn crappy cds when you have a chance not to? Now relating to the media, certain manufacturers make media that is more prone to C1/C2s than others ... experience and reading will inform you of such trends but almost regardless of the media you've got you can avoid problems by burning slower.
- As a general guide, if you can cap yourself at 24X than you should be fine... typically AudioCDs can be burned faster without a problem as they dont take advantage of data recovery anyways. When burning (S)VCDs or MiniDVDs you'll want to definitely keep it to a 24X max
- Now specifically referring to making _proper_ 1:1 backups of protected games and such you'll want to burn real slow (approaching 4X/8X) as to allow the drive as much time to properly make the burns (wont get into "sheep" but the actual drives themselves are "rated" by certain characteristics and both the ASUS and Litey burners I've reccomended pass those "ratings"). The slower your burn the better your chances of making a proper backup.

Cheers (hope i didnt confuse you too much )

As for internal/external... get an enclosure (~30USD) and internal drive so you have the option of going external anytime -- you buy a purely external drive odds are that it doesnt pass those "ratings" I talked about


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## kharmini91

*Thank You*

You have been much help, thank you very much.


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## Praetor

Glad I could be of assistance


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