Hello everyone, <BR> <BR>I'm currently building a (hopefully) quiet PC from scratch, and I'm looking to buy both DVD-ROM and CD-RW drives. <BR> <BR>But I've been looking at many reviews for CD drives, but very few ever mention anything about sound levels. <BR> <BR>Does anyone here have recommendations for (or experience with a) quiet CD-RW and/or DVD drive? <BR> <BR>Thanks - any help is appreciated.
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Well, <br> <br>I recently bought a LiteOn LTD-163D. So far I have been really impressed by it´s performance when playing DVD´s. It´s almost completely silent (It plays DVD´s 1X) if you don´t count the noise that occurs when it spins up or down etc. It´s quite loud when reading CD´s but I suppose you could use a software to control the speed it runs. As an added bonus they are also sold with a black frontbezel/plastic parts but unfortunately I managed to get an ordinary beige one, it´s quite hard to get specialiced parts here in Finland and as such those black ones can only be found from US or international online retailers which kind of sucks.
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I picked up an ultra-cheap 16X DVD-ROM drive at Fry's Electronics for $40 US. It is in a box by "BTC" - the label on the drive says "Manufactured by TOP-G". <br> <br>To my surprise, it is the best DVD-ROM drive I ever bought! It slows down to 1X while playing DVD movies so you won't hear it. <br> <br>Now I own two of these drives. <IMG SRC="modules/phpBB_14/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">
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From my research I have found the following...Please note these are from reccomendations only and I have no first hand experience of these drives. <br> <br>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- <br> <br>The least noisey DVD drive which I have come across is the Sony DDU1621. You can see a comparison and review here: <br> <br><!-- BBCode Start --><A HREF="http://www.digit-life.com/articles/dvd1001/dvd-10-01-compare16.html" TARGET="_blank">http://www.digit-life.com/articles/dvd1001/dvd-10-01-compare16.html</A><!-- BBCode End --> <br> <br>Its the only drive in that list which is noted to be quiet. <br> <br>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- <br> <br>Also of note is the Samusng SM 332B as seen here: <br> <br><!-- BBCode Start --><A HREF="http://www.samsungelectronics.com/odd/combo/sm_332b.html" TARGET="_blank">http://www.samsungelectronics.com/odd/combo/sm_332b.html</A><!-- BBCode End --> <br> <br>Which has DVA (Dynamic Vibration Absorber) to reduce noise. <br> <br>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- <br> <br>I am building a new system aroung Xmas, and I plan on choosing one of these two drives, unless I find a better option. Also note that these two drives are able to be made region free, which important to me as I live in the UK [R2] and buy DVD's from the US/Canada [R1] and Australia [R4]. <br> <br>I currently have a SCSI 6x Pioneer DVD drive and while it is VERY reliable, it is also VERY noisey. Noisey DVD drives can be real distracting while watching a film!
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I have also read the same review that FraZor pasted a link to (digitlife) and after that I recently bought a Sony DDU1621.

I can say that the drive hasn't disappointed me at all to this point. It is very quiet (it would probably be inaudible in a normal pc-rig, in my (silent) computer it is audible while reading from cd-s but it is in no way even near the noise levels that fast dvd-roms produce). Worth noting is that i haven't used it extensively yet and I dont know for sure if performance and compatibility are great, and I have yet only used it with cd-roms (not dvd, only cdr and commercial cd-discs) but it sure has been very quiet.

I definitely recommend this drive.