My Lite-On DVD/CD recording drive is on its lasts legs. It still reads and writes okay, but the drawer only opens one time in 20. I suppose I should not complain much, as it was about $30, 3 years ago. Recommend to me a new DVD recorder. It must be internal, IDE, and preferably in stock at newegg. I have been perusing different models here [i am not sure this link will work for other users], and I notice with some distress that most such units cost $20 or so, which leads me to doubt their reliability. I see a couple Pioneer units that are around $40. It used to be that Pioneer made excellent DVD drives, but that was years ago, and I understand they are crap now. The last Pioneer I had died far too early (just out of warranty, what a shock).
Are there any optical drives that aren't disposable pieces of crap? I hope the $300+ Blu-Ray ones aren't, but I'm also not interested in those right now. What I want is a drive that will burn data DVDs and audio CDs reliably, and last more than a year. A friend recommended Samsung to me. I like Samsung TVs, but I don't know anything about their computer hardware. What do you know, O Head-Casers?