[witkotatanka]

Originally Posted by AAR.oner

hands down, plextor is the only way to go when it comes to quality & longevity

Originally Posted by saltman

I'd get the Plextor. You'll replace two other drives before that one messes up. They're worth the extra money for a good quality burn and dependability. I just bought a 18x internal for 39 bucks. not sure it gets much better than that.

I heard that and spent $120 on a PX-716A and had problems right out of the box. Plextor wanted to rma the drive and I laughed. Why should I pay for shipping when i could just exchange it at the store? Then I had problems with trades because it was very limited on the number of DVD brands I could use and thus the brands ere limited for the dvd's I'd receive. I kept the firmware up to date. Then after 14 months it died. Plextor's response? Not covered under warranty. Not even a break on a new burner.

And it turns out this drive was just plain crap. Google PX-716A and you'll find many threads with people describing their nightmares. Many people rma'd several drives right out of the box before getting one that worked, only to have the drive die after warranty expired.

And the interesting thing is that www.cdrinfo.com gave the drive a great review. But then they probably received a drive to test that Plextor engineers went over with a fine tooth comb to make sure the drive worked at top performance.

So my experience is to look for reviews but take them with a grain of salt. Best to google the drive you're interested in and see what problems people are having and the frequency. And don't buy a drive that is relatively new. Wait for others to have problems and have their gripes posted on the internet. I haven't found a drive with more bad things being said about it than the 716A. I'll never buy a plextor again.

This PX716a hasn't met my 20 oz framing hammer yet. I'm waiting for my hallowween party btw I'm a carpenter