Compare the Best Optical Disc DrivesMarch 2021

Optical disk drives cover a wide range of internal and external devices meant to both read and write a variety of removable media. This means they can be used to both read data from discs (i.e - playing a movie DVD or Blu Ray) and also writing or ‘burning’ data (i.e - creating a music CD from individual mp3s, or permanently writing files to a disk for distribution).

While most computers used to house CD and DVD drives as standard, drastically smaller devices and a move towards cloud-based streaming mean that disc drives are being used less and less. Indeed many modern laptops and desktops no longer contain a disc drive at all.

This means that even though it is legacy tech, it’s still worth keeping a drive handy for those times you want to read the data from an old DVD, burn a disc for a friend, or watch a movie when you don’t have access to Netflix. This guide will explain the major points of consideration when choosing an optical disk drive.

Read/Write Speedas

Finally, read & write speeds measure how quickly data can be written from & to the disc. This is measures in bytes per second - the higher the speed, the faster large files (such as movies) will be burnt to the disc, or read from the drive. The read-write speeds are also affected by the USB version supported - USB 3.0 supported drives allow far higher transfer rates than USB 2 drives, so it is worth seeking out the newest drive you can for the fastest data transfer speeds.

Optical Disc Drive Prices

In total we found 13 cd burners ranging from $29 to $128. A new dvd rewriter costs on average $70 and 80% of dvd (re)writers are priced between $39 and $100. The LG GH24NSC0 is the cheapest dvd burner at only $30, and HP 652241-B21 is the most expensive at $128.

Cd (Re)Writer Brands - Price Range

The average price of Verbatim dvd (re)writers is $42 which is the highest average price of all optical disc drive brands. Verbatim dvd (re)writers range in price from $0 to $127.

The second highest average optical disc drive price out of all brands is Transcend cd rewriters with an average price of $41. Transcend cd rewriters start at $41 and their most expensive optical disc drive costs $41.

Buffalo dvd writers range in price from $0 to $100, and the average price of Buffalo dvd writers is $37 which is the third highest average price of all cd (re)writer brands.

Dvd Rewriter Brands - Average Ratings

We have checked 22 expert reviews and 3,437 user reviews for cd writers and used this information to determine the average rating for each brand of cd burner.

Biggest Dvd Writer Retailers

The biggest cd writer retailer by number of products currently for sale is Adorama. We found 2 current cd writer offers from Adorama.

How Fast Do Cd Writer Prices Drop After Release?

New dvd rewriters drop in price by an average of 6% in the first 6 months after they were first released.

If you are prepared to wait then you could save an average of $0 on a typical $7 new cd writer by waiting 6 months before buying.

Disc Loading Types

The disc loading type refers to the mechanism by which the optical disc is loaded into the drive. Normally this is by placing the disc in a tray or by inserting it into a slot.

Tray is the most common disc loading type amongst new cd writers. We found 113 cd writers that are dvd burners that have a tray loading. We found 30 dvd burners that are dvd (re)writers that have a slot loading, making slot the second most frequently found disc loading type amongst new dvd burners.

Type

Type denotes whether the disc drive is meant to be placed internally into a computer, or used externally via USB.

Amongst new cd burners, the most popular type is internal. We found 83 cd burners that are internal dvd (re)writers. We found 52 cd burners that are external optical disc drives, making this the second most popular type amongst new cd burners.

Optical Drive Types

The drive type denotes what type of disc (CD, DVD,etc) the drive is capable of reading.

Dvd is the most popular optical drive type amongst new cd writers. We found 117 cd writers that are cd rewriters that have a dvd Optical drive type. The second most popular optical drive type amongst new optical disc drives is blu-ray. We found 26 optical disc drives that are dvd rewriters that have a blu-ray Optical drive type.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Optical Disc Drives?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying cd rewriters. For each retailer it shows the total number of cd rewriters where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying cd (re)writers. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was Adorama. 1 of their cd writer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Cd Burners for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for cd (re)writers by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of cd burner prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's cd burner prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers.