Conclusion

This is the hardest part of the roundup. We will try to sum up the results produced by the testing utilities and try to derive certain statements concerning the appeal of each drive for the free 5” bay in our computers.

LG GCC-4480B

Highs:

• Pretty design;
• Headphones jack in the front panel;
• High read speed with various types of disk media;
• High performance in the packet mode (Mount Rainier?);
• High audio track extraction speed and high positioning accuracy.

Lows:

• Not very high actual DVD read speed and a noticeable read speed reduction on DVD-RW disks;
• Doesn’t read physically damaged disks well;
• No official Mount Rainier support.

LG GCC-4320B

Highs:

• Nice design;
• Headphones jack in the front panel;
• Two LEDs indicating the drive status and work mode;
• Capable of writing significantly more data than the disks can actually take (overburning);
• Capable of reading physically damaged disks successfully;
• High audio track extraction speed and high positioning accuracy.

Lows:

• Certain read speed reduction on CD-RW disks;
• Not very high actual DVD read speed and a noticeable read speed reduction on DVD-RW disks.

Philips PBC03210G

Highs:

• Mount Rainier technology support;
• Fast disks formatting in the packet mode.

Lows:

• No headphones jack in the front panel;
• Low CD-RW read and write speeds in the packet mode (Mount Rainier);
• Low positioning accuracy when extracting audio tracks;
• Subjectively, this is the noisiest and warmest model of all;
• Not very high actual DVD disks read speed;
• Not very stable when reading physically damaged disk media.

Samsung SM-348B

Highs:

• Original design;
• Headphones jack;
• High audio track extraction speed and high positioning accuracy;
• High read speed across all types of disk media (somewhat lower on CD-DA);
• The fastest drive of all reviewed in terms of actual DVD-ROM read speed;
• Good reading of disks with damaged surface;
• Mount Rainier technology support;
• High CD-RW read and write speeds in the packet mode (Mount Rainier);
• Can write more data than the disks are supposed to take (overburning).

Lows:

• Reduced read speed with DVD-RW disk media;
• Possible stability issues when the drive is attached to the farther connector of the IDE cable.

Toshiba SD-R1202

Highs:

• No advantages worth mentioning.

Lows:

• Unassuming design;
• No headphones jack;
• Doesn’t suit for extracting audio tracks;
• Poor at reading damaged disks;
• Low read speed of CD-RW and CD-DA disks;
• Takes much time to format media to the UDF standard;
• High CPU utilization when working with any types of media;
• Low read speed on DVD-RW disks.

Toshiba SD-R1312

Highs:

• No evident advantages worth mentioning.

Lows:

• Unassuming design;
• No headphones jack;
• Doesn’t suit for extracting audio tracks;
• Poor at reading damaged disks;
• Low read speed of CD-RW and CD-DA disks;
• Takes much time to format media to the UDF standard;
• High CPU utilization when working with any types of media;
• Not very high actual DVD read speed and a noticeable read speed reduction on DVD-RW disks.

So, as you have probably understood, Samsung SM-348B wins this competition and can be considered the best choice among the 6 reviewed combo-drives.