Steve Swift wrote:
I'm looking for a replacement CD/DVD drive for my desktop PC (so
standard height, 5.xxinch)
I'd like to be able to write Dual Layer DVD's, CD-R and CD-RW and also
to play audio CD's.

You'd think that any drive would play audio CD's, but I've seen reviews
of the Sony AWG170A that complain that it won't play audio CDs!
My Plextor PX-708A is starting to fail reading audio CD's, and from new
it locked up my PC for about 30 seconds every time I loaded an audio CD.

Any recommendations?


Not particularly. I find they're much of a muchness. I tend to look at
the reviews for the flavour of the month. For example:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/i...m?ReviewID=223

or:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index...ge=Performance

I haven't seen anything about drives being unable to play CDs - copy
protected discs maybe. What you describe shouldn't happen on any drive -
sounds as though you've got some jam on the CD.

Also, you might want to think about having two drives - a reader and a
writer. It's useful for copying DVDs/CDs, and it's a habit I formed from
the days when writers were quite expensive.