Inexpensive, QUIET, Cd-Rom Drives.

[gizmo1_1]

What good is a 40x, 52x, 56x, cdrom drive if the sound of the drive is loauder than the game???

I have tried A-OPEN, Mitsumi, Hi-VAl, and Delta, but still have customers complaining. What is a good product in the low end price range?



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[Larommi]

That is a tough one. You kind of get what you pay for. I have found that Deltas are pretty good for keeping the sound down. I am using a Kenwood True72, but that is not cheap. It doesn't help when cd's are cheap and not all that well balanced either.

Here are are a few things that I have done to quiet drives down. I have had marginal luck but something is better that nothing.

1. Some cases come with little cardboardlike washers. You could try mounting those between the drive and the cage.

2. Mount the drive where the cage has the most welds and feels the strongest.

3. If you can, spend a few more bucks and a better constructed case.

4. Some cases have tabs that you can bend to tighten the sidepanels. This will sometimes reduce vibration.

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[MAYHEM]

Good and cheap are not two words that go together. I have customers all the time ask me for the cheapest thing I got, then complain about it the next day. "Well? What did you expect for ten bucks? Look, spend the extra and get something that works." They usualy act a little embarassed and upgrade to the better item. It's the only reason I keep cheap crap in the store. (end rant)

I've been using Toshiba drives for a couple of years. Whisper quiet and I have yet to see a working disk they won't read. Even some of the most off color, scratched up, smudged, smeared, dusty, coffee stained disks I have run without a hitch in these drives. Four machines running at home right now on 6 Toshiba drives (counting 1 DVD and a CDR-RW). I even have a Toshiba HDD in my Linux box, though all my other HDDs are WD.

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[3fingersalute]

we always used goldstar, since back in the 4X days, now we use Creative Labs because we were having trouble getting the Goldstars. The 52X Creative is fairly quiet, and runs around $35.00 dealer cost for a bulk drive. I don't think that's too bad a price to get a reliable drive.

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[Lord_FiQh]

Most of the noise from your cdrom is amplified by your case. By quality drives and cases, natch!

[Jediab]

I have used a Memorex 48x. They run about $50 retail. I have never had a problem, and it ran rather quiet. I upgraded to the Kenwood 72x, and it is VERY quiet, although very expensive.

[NH_Snowman]

This reminds me of something that is said on movie set a lot: Good, fast, cheap; Pick two. I guess it also applies to computers in most cases.

Andrew

[Shard92]

I have found that Memorex seem to be pretty quite, more so than the mitsumi in mine( I don't care what it sounds like as long as it works ) We have also had pretty good luck with Panasonic but I agree with some of the others, look to the cases you use that might be a big contributing factor. My 2 cents.

GLSmith

[KERNEL32]

Believe it or not BTC CD-ROM drives arent that bad. I used to install alot of them and got very few returns on them when i worked as a tech. Delta drives were awfully noisy. I personally have a Kenwood though, but as posted above , these drives are very very quiet but are expensive.

[Paul Cunningham]

I've got a LG 40 speed that's nice and quiet, but the case makes a lot of difference.

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