I'm curious what you guys look for when you purchase an ide cdrom replacement for a windows 98 retro build. Brands, speeds, etc. It's been so long I can't remember what good and not.
Plextor is usually regarded as "the best of the best" around that time period, but I just buy any old IDE CD-ROM. With that said, I generally buy new-open-box or new of any brand. You can usually get those for around $20-$30. I just bought this new-open-box Sony IDE Burner (attached) for$28.54 including all taxes and shipping on eBay. If you want to spend more time than I did (about 1 minute) looking, you can probably do better.
I have a brand new out of box Sony also. Bought it new many years ago. I'd offer it to you but I acn't.
Primarily... one that's currently functioning no matter what reviews said about it back in the day (There's plenty of stuff that got glowing reviews that died a month or two out of warranty)
It's better if ... you get one that has multiple motor speeds instead of just 1x for audio and max speed where it relied on the buffer. That's because a lot of CD-ROM software initially focused on smooth streaming at about 2x speed, then later I think 8x speed, and if you get a drive that just relies on it's buffer, you get *loud woosh* cutscene starts. *suspicious silence* cutscene continues a few seconds, then stops *buffer runs out drive starts spinning up, loud whoosh* two second pause, scene continues for another 10 seconds, and repeat. I had a LG 24x that spoiled me with perfect behavior, then there's a lot of other 8x to 52x drives that make me wanna defenestrate them for sucky load and pause antics.
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.
It should work and maybe match the case in color.
Somewhat "period correct" for Win98 i.e. built in the late 1990s - still in the "worthless junk" price range, but rather rare to find, without any malfunctions. They both are fickle and have a limited lifespan as such.
Half of them out there are still beige. If there's a a speed figure on it like "40X" then they're at least close in age, same goes for CD player controls, volume control and headphones plug.
If they're signed "32X" they're definitely old enough.
Just a random example, I got this a few days ago under the "I'm paying shipping for something else anyway, let's take that along" clause.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Asus-CD-Laufwerk-Mode … 0-/203850176874
Was clear in the pictures: Made in 1998. And, all the bells and whistles.
40 x means it should read 40 times 150 kByte per second, 5 MB/s is close.
It runs just fine, but that is an utter coincidence - no matter how it was declared on the bay. So, Meatball's "new in box" advice might save you quite some frustration.
With today's prices and sizes of hard drives (and most 9x rigs able to use ones up to 128 GB), don't try to use the CD-ROM like it was 1999.
Install it because it belongs and you'll need it somewhere.
But for games, CD Images on the hard disk and mounting tools in Windows will help a lot.
I like jumpers.
I have three Teac CD-540 cdroms, all still working fine after 23 years of service. It supposedly had DMA problems under win2000 but I never used it under 2000 so can't comment. Otherwise perfect discreet (no logo) unit with a nice beige color 😀
New, old stock drives sell for 5USD here (both sata and IDE) so if I need a new one I just grab one.
