I am helping a friend put 2 DVD burners in his computer and they both need to be IDE (not SATA). He will use them for burning CD's, DVD's, ripping audio (in other words, general use). The characteristics that he is looking for are:

1. Highest CD and DVD burn quality and compatibility
2. Low noise
3. Decent speed

What 2 different drives would you recommend for him? One could be more for reading and the other for burning if that helps. I can perform any firmware changes he needs.

Thanks for your help!

One of the main factors determining burn quality and compatibility is the quality of media. So, the first thing you must suggest to your friend is to buy only quality discs.

Besides the discs, a good choice is the Pioneer 112 or the 115, both IDE drives with excellent writing quality, also for DL discs.

For Audio CD ripping, the best option is a CD burner, possibly a Plextor Premium, but this drive is not easy to find (because not more produced) and really costly. The Pioneer drives I mentioned above, however, are excellent rippers

If your friend is interested also in DVD scans, then a liteon drive is a must, because is the easiest drive to find in the market able to do reliable scans

I would definitely nominate the Pioneer 115(D) for those criteria

I wonder if the "D" stands for Drool

Seconded. And if he's willing to compromise on the "noise" issue, Lite-On DH-20A4P for the second drive.

Oh, definitely. The Litey would cover the Pioneer's weaknesses (rip speed, quality scanning if required etc)

I third the above, but also offer up that, if Optiarcs can be found [and Pioneers cannot], an Optiarc 72xx drive makes a good substitute. They also go well with the LiteOn drives.

So you don't consider the Pioneer fast as a reader/ripper?
What about ala42's () MCSE patched f/w (with read speed).
The only area the Lite-On can possibly beat the Pioneer.
Is scanning.
Even then Lite-On's can't really do CDR's or DL if you want jitter.
If you want to mix drives.
How about Samsung & Pioneer?

I suggest you to go with a Pioneer DVR-115D and a Lite-On combo (don't know a model since there are too many Lite-Ons). See my signature on how I use them. Actually this two drives, I have installed on my system right now.

From the feedback I have receive (and THANKS!), it looks like:

1. For burning: Pioneer 115
2. For reading, scanning, and ripping: either Lite-On DH-20A4P (or similar) or a Samsung (but which one?)

I love my BenQ 1650 and Samsung SH-S203B, but are any of Samsung's IDE drives as good?

In my personal experience, Samsung drives are not so good rippers. Liteon are certainly better, but at the moment the very best is the Pioneer. I have a couple of discs that only the Pioneer is able to read, and all my other drives fails (included the liteon 20A1P)

Thanks everyone. I went with:

Pioneer DVR-115DBK
Lite-On DH-20A4H-08

I have loved my Lite-on CDRW's (and I have had a ton of them), but I have not purchased one of their DVDRW's because the burn quality has not seemed to be quite as good.

^ Nice choices, they should complement each other well