R: Recommendations for external DVD-ROM drive?

  
Hi all,

My old LG finally called it quits so I'm in the market for a new
external DVD-ROM drive. Requirements:

* Accurate/secure ripping with EAC (well, duh ;-))
* Occasionally DVD burning with ImgBurn
* Occasionally DVD ripping with DVD Shrink
* Preferably tray-loading mechanism (as opposed to top-loading)

A superficial Google Search seemed to indicate that it doesn't really
matter much nowadays: optical drives are kind of "old tech" and any
well-known brand will do. True, or does anyone here have different
experiences?

Thanks in advance for any pointers,

Martin
Federico’s advice:
I don’t see any noticeable issue concerning DVD burn/copy. All optical supports that are NOT audio CDs, are read by drives with all error correction facilities that let you be almost sure about copy quality.
The problem comes with audio CDs, that can NOT be read with error correction. This is because EAC exists!
For better performance you should choose drives that do NOT cache audio data during reading. This can speed up audio extraction.
EAC does manage caching drives, if you set them correctly in EAC options. But rip operation becomes slower and heavier for drive itself.

Federico Quadri
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