How important is buffer size in a DVD/CD writer?

[Dan]

I'm looking at several DVD writers for my 1100 athlon gateway w/768 meg of
ram, including the LG GSA-4040B, LITEON LDW-451S & SONY DRU500A. The 1st 2
are 2meg buffer size, the last is 8 meg. What is the inherent advantage (if
any) of a larger buffer size? The Sony is about $25 more than the others.
Thoughts?

TIA

Dan

 

[Todd H.]

I'm looking at several DVD writers for my 1100 athlon gateway w/768 meg of
ram, including the LG GSA-4040B, LITEON LDW-451S & SONY DRU500A. The 1st 2
are 2meg buffer size, the last is 8 meg. What is the inherent advantage (if
any) of a larger buffer size? The Sony is about $25 more than the others.
Thoughts?

Having a buffer is important to prevent underruns (i.e. the drive runs
out of data to burn) that could lead to failed burns. Most drives
these days have burnproof technology to mitigate this, but I think
some types of media could still suffer.

That all said, my Plextor PX-708A has a 2Mb buffer and I've never had
a problem with underruns causing failed burns.

The LiteOn's enjoy a sterling reputation, and would be my choice over
the others you have listed. See reviews at cdfreaks.com and
tomshardware.com among other places.

Best Regards,

 

[Dan]

Thanks for the reply, I bought a LiteOn 811S at Ateck for $143, delivered.
SHould do the trick ;-)

Dan

 

[Mike Walsh]

I don't know about the DVD writer but I recently installed a Lite-On CDRW. It also has only a 2 MB buffer but it came with Nero Express, which can use system memory as a supplemental buffer to eliminate the possibility of buffer underruns.