Plextor 712a $72/w rebate @ newegg

I just bought a retail boxed Plextor 712a 12x DVD +/- RW DVD/CD drive from Newegg for $102 with $30 rebate coupon.

good deal. plextor uses nec drives a lot too so you can always just pay less and get an nec next time

Thanks for the tip. There are so many choices out there its hard to compare. I looked at the NEC 16x drive. All their drives have a 2 MB buffer and the plextor is 8 MB. I also saw a head to head comparison and the Plextor won hands down.

I got the Plextor last month from Dell. They had a $50 rebate instead of $30, and I ended up paying $58 after rebate (with tax and shipping). http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=332502

I've burned about 25 DVD's with the Plextor and I'm impressed. It writes like a champ. Super fast. Strangely, it doesn't rip nearly as fast as my Lite-on 4x burner, though.

Still, great drive overall, especially for the $$. Dual-layer disks are too expensive and 16x media aren't available. By the time they are, prices will have come down again and I'll be able to get this drive now and another drive in the future for the same money as a 16x drive today!