My 3 yrs old Bnq 1620 is still running fine in my daughter's computer!
My 2 yrs old Philps 1648 (Benq 1640) is running fine in an external USB box with a Ew164 f/w.
My 2 yrs old Benq 1650 is still in my computer case.

it is absolutly incredible that such a brand has vanished!

I agre and it is really sad to see such quality burner goes down to the drain.

Well, now that Lite-On owns the rights to BenQ's designs, there's no chance of anyone else bringing those designs back to the marketplace.

wonder what Lite-On is doing with all those designs (various BenQ Models), are they being used and manufactured under Lite-On Logo and marking?.

Benq 1640 is going strong after 3 years

3 "Dead" LiteOns 20A1Ps in 6 months

LiteOn is "still" scratching their heads wondering how Benq made such awesome "reliable" burners , hell , they even bought Benq for that

Well burners were alittle more expensive when the Benqs were still around, lower costs has to have affected build quality to a degree. Benq was moving away from their own burners at the end at least the DQ60 and 1670 weren't made by them. Plextor quit making burners do to profit margins I'd assume. It does seem weird that there are no true premium burners that actually are worth paying more for(Pioneer aren't much more then others). As far as LiteOns while the 20A1 and 20A4 series has their moments the 20A3 series seems to be higher quality(build looks somewhat like my 1640). Pure and simply though most people want cheap and they got it along with the need to RMA or trash more frequently. As we move to Blu-ray(who knows when it'll be affordable) hopefully we'll see some high quality burners/scanners. For what it's worth I have 4 Liteys and havent had to trash one yet, 2 are around 2 years old.

The whole purpose of buying the technology was to bury it and eliminate the competition, not put it to use. This was already explained by someone in this or another thread, who worked in the industry. The hardware industry is different from the software industry. When a company like Google or Microsoft buys someone, they try to incorporate the tech into their stuff, or keep it running as a separate affiliated entity. When a hardware company like Lite-On buys someone, they put the tech in the basement and use the logos and copyrights for branding and marketing.

Actually, I've found my rebadged Lite-On and OEM Lite-On burners to be outstanding. They would be the drives I would use if I didn't have any extra BenQs. I think that the 20A4H is particularly awesome. I'd put it up against a Sammy 203 or a Pioneer 115 any day.

Also, don't forget, BenQ used to have a less than stellar reputation for quality control in the 1610/1620/1625 days. When the 1640 came out, people were a bit skeptical, but BenQ was able to improve their QC with the new drive, such that people's faith in them was restored.

It is not just that plain and simple that they buy a company for $mils & $mils to just buried it for sake of competition.

Hey TCAS, I certainly agree with you.

Hey Sporty! been a while...

OT,,, How goes it zev?

An eBay auction for a very clean and good looking 810A (1640):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=180239036662

Now that person knows how to sell. Nice photos of everything we want to see.

Also, a factory refurbished, Malaysian-made Philips 8701 (1640):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=170215477275

Hey Sport, good to see again it has been long time that we missed here in CDF forum.

Nice find. Thank you negritude.Not that surpising when we know DW162*/164*/165* were based on Nexperia (read Philips) design.Think the reason why Nexperia is more expensive then MediaTek based drives is simple... the wages in Europe (even eastern Europe) are higher then in China, Taiwan or Malaysia, aso.
In optical drives business it's all about costs and $$$$ nowday. Very bad in my opinion.

BTW, I don't think Lite-On when taking over BenQ ODD ever had any intensions to continue building drives based on Nexperia design (already told you why above). So "the BenQ" outcome is evident, in my eyes anyway.

Yep.

Refurbished Philips DVD8601 (1620)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=220229376793

Make them an offer of $15 or $20 and see if they accept it. It will certainly never sell at the listed price.

The asking price for refurbished drive even with BenQ name is outrageous and I have doubt they go from $65 to $15 or $20.

Like-New PX-740UF (DW1640/EW164B)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=300221619638

New OEM Philips DVD8801 (DW1650)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=200222171476

It would be interesting to know how much this "New OEM Philips DVD8801 (DW1650)" will be sold for.

There's a BIN for $24.99 + $11.55 S/H

It's a "Buy It Now" item. No auction involved. They come direct from Dell. They're discontinued OEM drives that got sold to TXccess Surplus.

If they are brand new drive coming from Dell (OEM) even with $11.55 shipping cost the price is worth it for the BenQ 1650.

Unity electronics has the Plextor PX-740A (rebadged 1640) new bare drive available again for $59.

http://www.unityelectronics.com/product-product_id/4208

I bought one last summer and it's done better than my other 3 so far. Still, $59 is expensive, especially since they have 90 available apparently.


EDIT: And 2 minutes later, it's no longer available. Umm...what