plextor versus sony ( or other )

i currently have a pioneer 104 dvd-r drive and after years in the making have decided its time to upgrade my system ( up until now i have really had no need to boost my desktop system up from the p3 733 system since i had a newer laptop from work that i did most of my work on ).... so i am building a new system and am down to the dvd-r drive. i have decided to also update the 104 drive and am looking at either the plextor or the sony drive.. now i know back in the day plextor was the top drive of choice for cd-r's but i have really not heard that much about them with dvd's. probably since they did not rush into the dvd-r / +r market.

so this being said.. can anyone give me their opinion if plextor is the way to go or is the sony, pioneer or tdk better. while price is always a issue ( even with the people who say its not - we all know it is ), i do not mind spending the extra money for the better drive. i build my systems to last ( my son still plays with my p2 machine - luckily games for little kids do not require highend 3d cards and fast processors YET... :) ) so i want to make sure which ever drive i am getting, will last until my next machine and will not be being replaced because its not working or what ever after 12 months..

get the pioneer a06 or 106(same drive, 106 is just oem). they're good burners, and there's a possibility of the firmware pioneer showed at ces burning dual layer on the a06 being leaked or officially released.

the only reason to get anything else would be if you want to invest in an 8x burner. but even then, burning a disc at 4x takes a whole 15 minutes, so unless it's an issue and you want to be burning dvds in 7-8 minutes, it's kinda pointless.

thanks for the reply. i will have to take a closer look at the pioneer drive. i have never had any problems with my a04 drive. the last i looked the a06 was about 150.00 and the plextor was 200.00. that is the reason i asked others opinions about the drives.

thanks again

I used to love Plextor, they were really good back in the CDR days but now I think they've lost it as the competition got too hot. Still, if your gonna get a Plextor, then never get an OEM one, THEY SUCK!!!!!!!

Pioneer burners are awesome. No need to look at other brands. They even have an A07 now.

not sure why you ( Ktran ) say OEMs suck. normally the only difference between a OEM and retail is 1. the OEMs do not come in a nice flashy box ( which normally gets thrown away shortly there after so there is no need for it ) and 2. some OEMs do not come with the software bundles. other then that they are the same drive ( for the most part - i have only seen it once were a OEM was different then a retail ).

as for the a07/107 is it even out yet? i read about it back in november and they said it should come out before year end, but i have not seen it available anywhere yet.

I have read someone has seen it on sale. Should be more widespread within the next week or two.

The A07 is 8X on BOTH + and - Discs.
Here:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news2.php?ID=8433

i had the The A07 is 8X on BOTH + and - Discs - and i took it back - it had issues with alcohol

What was wrong with Alcohol? Says the 107 is supported on Alcohol's site.