New CD Burners

[Havok]

mine died randomly recently, for no reason at all (reset all cables, checked everything on it, uninstalled reinstalled, the works) and I was thinking of getting a new one. there is one by MAD DOG multimedia 52x, 24x, 52x (never heard of the brand) for like $70 and down to $20 after rebates...comes with nero, this is from officemax. A sony from circuit city (I'm pretty sure lol) that is $90 and $70 after rebates...is also 52x, 24x, 52x. I was looking at these two to choose from and was wondering opinions. I know from the past that the sony tech support was horrible (I had an external sony cd burner) but I'm not sure if it has improved since. Never heard of the maddog brand and for $20 I'm leaning toward the "get what you pay for" saying. If anyone knows any other burners for a good price (probably like low $100 max if possible) I'm up to suggestions as well.

[Janus]

for an awesome general purpose cd/rw get the 52x24x52 Lite-ON cd burner at www.newegg.com its about $50

[Havok]

thanks for the help, I think I'm going to go with the Plextor...not 100% sure yet but almost ;)

[Pimpmaster 5000]

I would reccomend the lite-on against the Plextor, as Janus. The only selling points that differentiate it from other burners are

1. the plextor name - but lite-ons have proven pretty damn reliable for quite some time now.

2. Giga Rec - which, although it sounds nice, it'll only work without fail on this particular burner. It's been shown that using this and taking the disc to other drives has been very iffy, where theres a good chance the drive might not recognize the disc.

3. Secu Rec - haven't seen this on any other drive.

I don't think these features warrant the drive to cost twice as much as a perfectly reliable lite-on, but thats just me.

-Pimp