Hi

I have a few questions about combo drives with sata connection. First are they worth getting or are the ones with IDE better choice atm? I realize that there is no real difference in performance except for maybe litle less cpu usage but the cable management advantage would be enough of an argument for me to choose one if the performance is similar.

Which are curently the best ones available.(not counting Plextor- out of my price range).

The Best One are OPTIARC 7170S by Sony/Nec Alliance, here a tomshardware have info about that and overall performance, ripping, movie, digital audio, burning cd, dvd and recognazing disk are this model, in newegg.com cost $31.99, the other one is Pioneer 112 but I no sure if come in SATA.

Great, thanks for the info. hehe i forgot about that review.

I can tell you what not to get. I have an Asus SATA combo drive. It works fine, loads vista and burns movies but it is loud. Sounds like a vacuum cleaner when it's spinning at full speed.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/0 [...] e_trouble/

Here are the DVD Burners review in tomshardware, Asus DVD burner is not on the list, check the review is good one

I read it. Unfortunately it came out a few days after I built this system. The drive was only $35 so I'll probably get the Sony and put this thing up on eBay.