Greetings everyone. I'm going to be buying a new CD-ROM drive soon (soon as in, tomorrow morning) and I've narrowed my choices down to two drives. These drives are:

Mitsumi FX5401W
Lite-On LTN-526

I've heard good things about both of these drives. I know that the Mitsumi reads subchannel data, but I don't know if it's RAW+16 or RAW+96, and I don't really know anything about the Lite-On drive.

I would greatly appreciate it if someone could let me know if these drives can read RAW+16 or RAW+96. Thank you very much.

I wouldn't bother buying a CD-ROM, as they are soon to be abandoned by all the drive makers. A LiteOn CDRW drive will do everything you wish, the LTR-40125S/W drives are cheap and will copy most everything with the newest firmware.

Or you can buy the LiteOn's best DVD-ROM drive (166S). It's cheap and very good.

Ah but you see, I already own a CD-RW drive and I don't want a DVD-ROM drive, which is why I specified that I was going to be buying a CD-ROM drive. Any information you have in regards to the two afore mentioned CD-ROM drives would be greatly appreciated, but a CD-ROM drive is the hardware I'm going to buy.

Can I ask why you want to buy a CDROM drive, instead of something far better, and just a little more expensive?

My favourite CDROM drive is the Plextor 40x drive. The only problem is that it is a SCSI drive!

To answer your question:

a) It's less expensive
b) I already have a CD-RW drive
c) I don't want a DVD-ROM drive, I'm perfectly happy with my DVD player
d) It's less complicated, and therefore there's less that can go wrong with it
e) It can be cleaned with a laser lense cleaner, a CD-RW cannot
f) I just need something that reads CD's well, and that's it... only CD's

And there are your answers.

The argument for the DVD-ROM isn't coming based solely on watching movies on the PC. It's likely for one of the following reasons:

1) Longevity - How long will it be until software begins to show up on DVDs, at which point you'll need the DVD ROM

2) Price - it's cheap ($35-$40).

3) Versatility - CD, DVD, and their Recordable counterparts, all in one unit, and it can read all that nice subchannel data you were after


If you already have a burner, why not just use it for reading sub-channel data? and spend your $20 on a case of beer

a) I don't drink, it's a disgusting habbit
b) I posted my origional message asking for help and information on a particular subject. If you have information on what I asked about then that's great, but I did not ask for alternatives. If you cannot help with the afore mentioned information, then please, don't bother posting, no matter how good your intentions are.

Lighten up, APwrs. This is a forum, a place for discussing and exchanging ideas. It seems as though you are just looking for someone to do your research for you, good luck.
Good sources for you to investigate are CloneCD, Alcohol, and others where you can find lists of drives and their ability to read raw data. You may also wish to contact the drive's makers.

Well it's certainly very frustrating when you ask for help or information on a specific topic, and all you get in reply is "why in the world do you want to buy that" and "buy this instead". It certainly makes the forum, and its members, seem rather low-quality overall.

No that's not it. We are trying to make clear that the decision you made isn't probably the best solution there is. That's what a forum is about: helping each other, to reach the best solution imaginable....

If you want a CD-ROM drive , then that is your choiche and yours only.

So based upon your options i would suggest the LiteOn , since i know LiteOn has proven to be of a good quality for a decent price.

However , as all the other people who have replied already did , i strongly dissaprove of purchasing a CD-ROM drive because of a few things. I will not put brands in here , but simply some reasons. If you are annoyed by this , don't read further please.

A good dvd-rom drive is almost as expensive as a good cd-rom drive. If you pay a little more than 10 bucks or something , you can get additional functionality which can prove worthy in the near future.

A good cd-rw drive is a little more expensive than a good cd-rom drive. If you pay a little more than 15 or 25 bucks , you have additional functionality. You might not need it now. But what if you could have multiple computers with their own writers.

I once needed a cdrom drive for a machine as well , and it would cost me about 40 euros for a good one. The toshiba DVD M1612 costed 44 euros.. The decision was made I'm glad i did. Now i can rip dvd's with one machine and continue to play games with another

wow i am surprised that this didn't turn out to be a flame war! u guys are so good mannered

anyways, back to the topic, if you REALLY intend to get only a CDRom drive, go get a liteon or pioneer. The pioneer drives are louder but for now, (for me) there isn't much CDs and cd protections that bent their knees down to it ..

You may want to re-examine this option.