i heard a high crackle sound a couple of days ago and didnt know what it was...but sure enough it scared the shiet out of me. i found out my starcraft brood wars cd cracked in my cd player and it rendered it useless. so now im in the market for a new cd/dvd player. any recomendations? my previous one was a asus tek...now i know to stay away from their cd players.

 

creative makes a nice unit

 

i've gone through a few toshiba dvd's. they aren't really good speed wise for regular cdrom but the dvd aspect of the drive is great. if you want a good cdrom, i suggest afree.

 

Pioneer makes some of the nicest dvd drives out there, plus its slot ! Just like a car cd player. Here it is, Pioneer DVD-106S, with a price tag of about $57.



High-Speed Average Access Time
-95ms DVD-ROM
-80 ms CD-ROM
Reads single and dual layer DVD-ROM/Video, DVD-R/RW, CD-ROM, Audio CDs, CD-R/RW, Video CDs, Photo CDs, Hybrid CDs, CD-Extra (CD-Plus) and CD-Text Discs
Horizontal or vertical mounting capabilities
Supports Windows 2000/98/95 Plug & Play, Windows NT 4.0/3.51, Windows 3.1, MS-DOS 6.0 or later

 

The new ASUS DVD drive can be made region-free by removing a jumper at the back!!