CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2026-02-10, 07:24:

I have also ditched most the fastest CD-ROM drives because of the noise and slowing them down with software is just not optimal. As many here mentioned, 4x drives are generally quiet, but I recently installed Hitachi 8x drive (can't remember model outright) in place of 52x screamer and it is a huge improvement. I have couple of other 8x drives too and these are all fine, so I'd say that generally 12x or 10x and below will be pleasant to use. I've also noticed that generally DVD drivers are much quiter than fast CD-drives, at least all the models I have in use in my more modern systems (Slot A, Socket A). The problem with slower drives is that at least locally they seem to be increasingly difficult to find, so I tend to snatch these slower drives when ever something pops up cheap.

I think the most quiet drives I have are Creative branded Sony CDU33A 2x drive with Sony interface and MediaVision branded 2x SCSI Sanyo drive. They both just make very quiet hissing noises and are just magnificent. Both are relatively early drives and pretty much fine with 486 preriod correct builds where the performance of these drives isn't a limitation.

Looking up Hitachi models has now led me to something I need help refreshing my memory with. I looked up a manual online for a particular model and one of the audio ports isn't listed. I can't remember which of my previous threads it was discussed in, but when someone informed me about connecting to S/PDIF, I think they said something about some CD-ROM drives not having anything there where it would be...? But I can't remember the details. It isn't numbered/listed anyway.

I don't need to worry about whether my next drive has an S/PDIF port though as my current one can handle that. Just need a memory refresher.

I've come across an 8x Mitsumi for about £89 and it still has it's original box and manual. Model CR-2801TE. It's a recordable, too.

I keep coming across Sony drives (2x, 4x or 8x) on classifieds websites for a good price, often 20€ and less where I live (Germany). If you want, I can send you a message when I see one. Most sellers would probably agree to ship to the UK, shipping cost is 16€ with DHL.

asdf53 wrote on 2026-05-23, 10:29:

I keep coming across Sony drives (2x, 4x or 8x) on classifieds websites for a good price, often 20€ and less where I live (Germany). If you want, I can send you a message when I see one. Most sellers would probably agree to ship to the UK, shipping cost is 16€ with DHL.

That would be great. Thank you. 😀

I occasionally come across old CD and DVD-ROM drives when I'm thrifting, so I will acquire anything that looks interesting or of use to retro computing builds. I recently managed to pick up an unused - in box - IDE CD-ROM drive from the early 90's that was sold at CompUSA.

As I'm still looking for a DVD drive for my retro rig, I've noticed a few DVD/CD rewritable drives from 2001-2004 and they're often listed as being 8-16x read speed for DVDs, but 32-40x for CD-ROM. The latter seems a bit too fast...? And I imagine it'll still generate a lot of noise? Am I best avoiding those if I want quieter and period accurate speeds of around 8-12x? I've noticed one or two of them are Pioneer drives, too. Thanks.

DustyShinigami wrote on Today, 14:38:

As I'm still looking for a DVD drive for my retro rig, I've noticed a few DVD/CD rewritable drives from 2001-2004 and they're often listed as being 8-16x read speed for DVDs, but 32-40x for CD-ROM. The latter seems a bit too fast...? And I imagine it'll still generate a lot of noise? Am I best avoiding those if I want quieter and period accurate speeds of around 8-12x? I've noticed one or two of them are Pioneer drives, too. Thanks.

Pioneer is a good brand, my personal experience with it was always positive, for the speed, 32x CD-ROM speed is usually no problem even with scratched disks, it was 52x or faster drives that had a slight chance of breaking disks if the CD is already damaged because of the high RPM. The noise is always more to personal preference and the other mechanical devices around it, for example if the computer you intend to use it in is very silent, then even a 32x CD-ROM drive can feel loud, if it already has loud fans then even a 52x+ might not even be noticeable, unfortunately DVD/CD-ROM drives rarely had their noise level written in decibels anywhere, so most of the time you have to hear the drive in action to decide whether it is too high noise or not (If you are particularly concerned about that you can ask the seller how loud they feel the drive is, while the exact feeling of noise level is personal, if the drive is really particularly loud then the seller should also notice it when testing it).

MagefromAntares wrote on Today, 15:00:

DustyShinigami wrote on Today, 14:38:

As I'm still looking for a DVD drive for my retro rig, I've noticed a few DVD/CD rewritable drives from 2001-2004 and they're often listed as being 8-16x read speed for DVDs, but 32-40x for CD-ROM. The latter seems a bit too fast...? And I imagine it'll still generate a lot of noise? Am I best avoiding those if I want quieter and period accurate speeds of around 8-12x? I've noticed one or two of them are Pioneer drives, too. Thanks.

Pioneer is a good brand, my personal experience with it was always positive, for the speed, 32x CD-ROM speed is usually no problem even with scratched disks, it was 52x or faster drives that had a slight chance of breaking disks if the CD is already damaged because of the high RPM. The noise is always more to personal preference and the other mechanical devices around it, for example if the computer you intend to use it in is very silent, then even a 32x CD-ROM drive can feel loud, if it already has loud fans then even a 52x+ might not even be noticeable, unfortunately DVD/CD-ROM drives rarely had their noise level written in decibels anywhere, so most of the time you have to hear the drive in action to decide whether it is too high noise or not (If you are particularly concerned about that you can ask the seller how loud they feel the drive is, while the exact feeling of noise level is personal, if the drive is really particularly loud then the seller should also notice it when testing it).

Okay, thanks. Yeah, that's kind of the issue with the Creative 52x CD drive I have at the moment. Some discs will spin at quite a noisy level it almost sounds like the CD or drive will take off. :p That the disc is rubbing against the tray at bit harshly. I'll try reaching out and asking the sellers what the noise levels are like.

Perhaps someone will be interested:

In the late 90s, ASUS released CD-ROM drives with speed-slowing feature to reduce noise, which activated by pressing Play button (for one second)

Doug Schneider — Jul 18, 2001, 4:48:40 PM

Since you've already got a CD this is probably not what you want to hear, but the Asus CD-S500 CD-ROM allows you to adjust it's speed. You hold down the play button for a few seconds and the speed drops, repeat the process and it drops again. I don't have the literature in front of me, but I think it goes in steps of 24X, 12X, 6X, 4X, something like that, don't quote me. Upon ejecting the CD the speed resets to the default 50X. We sell a lot of them, and they come in quite handy for older CDs that were never meant to spin at 50X, especially the ones with graphics all on one side and none on the other, which creates really bad unbalance. They're not cheap, we sell them for $70CDN (I think that's about $5 USD), but they've proven incredibly reliable to date
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.computer/c/GG … /m/iYBTTwfWBrAJ

ASUS CD-S500, CD-S500/A (50x CD-ROM) and ASUS DVD-E608/G (8x DVD-ROM ) definitely have this feature.

Note: Later versions such as the CD-S500/A4 no longer have this feature.

DustyShinigami wrote on Today, 14:38:

As I'm still looking for a DVD drive for my retro rig, I've noticed a few DVD/CD rewritable drives from 2001-2004 and they're often listed as being 8-16x read speed for DVDs, but 32-40x for CD-ROM. The latter seems a bit too fast...? And I imagine it'll still generate a lot of noise? Am I best avoiding those if I want quieter and period accurate speeds of around 8-12x? I've noticed one or two of them are Pioneer drives, too. Thanks.

32-40x CD-ROM read is period correct, for the slot 1 P3 in your signature.

That build should coincide with the the Slot A Athlon I built mid-2000. Looking thru old photos - it initially had optical drives that were at least 2 years old - Creative (Panasonic) 2X DVD-ROM (~20X max CD read), a Kenwood/Zen/True-X 52X CD-ROM, and a much older Ricoh 2x2x6 CD-RW drive. My secondary PC had a Panasonic 32X max CD-ROM.

The final upgrades to that PC in 2001~2002 were a Toshiba DVD-ROM with CD reading ~40X, and a TDK VeloCD (Plextor) 12x10x32x CD-RW drive. Both of those drives were very reliable and fairly refined on noise and anti-vibration.

In contrast - I recently found and used a Panasonic 12X CD-ROM that I was using 1997-98, which appears to be CLV, so prior to the "max" ratings of CAV. That might win for loudest drive. Not for speed alone, but it immediately spins up to full speed when you load a disc, doesn't dampen vibrations of less-than-perfect discs well, and was prior to any considerations for noise being programmed into drive firmware. My point here - don't assume that going "slower" will always mean quieter.

Hopefully that helps with anchor points of year to drive speeds.

ott wrote on Today, 15:47:

Perhaps someone will be interested: […]
Show full quote

Perhaps someone will be interested:

In the late 90s, ASUS released CD-ROM drives with speed-slowing feature to reduce noise, which activated by pressing Play button (for one second)

Doug Schneider — Jul 18, 2001, 4:48:40 PM

Since you've already got a CD this is probably not what you want to hear, but the Asus CD-S500 CD-ROM allows you to adjust it's speed. You hold down the play button for a few seconds and the speed drops, repeat the process and it drops again. I don't have the literature in front of me, but I think it goes in steps of 24X, 12X, 6X, 4X, something like that, don't quote me. Upon ejecting the CD the speed resets to the default 50X. We sell a lot of them, and they come in quite handy for older CDs that were never meant to spin at 50X, especially the ones with graphics all on one side and none on the other, which creates really bad unbalance. They're not cheap, we sell them for $70CDN (I think that's about $5 USD), but they've proven incredibly reliable to date
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.computer/c/GG … /m/iYBTTwfWBrAJ

ASUS CD-S500, CD-S500/A (50x CD-ROM) and ASUS DVD-E608/G (8x DVD-ROM ) definitely have this feature.

Note: Later versions such as the CD-S500/A4 no longer have this feature.

Oooh, that certainly sounds intriguing. Of course, finding one might be tricky. ^^; Pity more companies didn't add that feature to their CD/DVD drives. I would definitely need the DVD variant.

Fazeshift wrote on Today, 15:47:

32-40x CD-ROM read is period correct, for the slot 1 P3 in your signature. […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on Today, 14:38:

As I'm still looking for a DVD drive for my retro rig, I've noticed a few DVD/CD rewritable drives from 2001-2004 and they're often listed as being 8-16x read speed for DVDs, but 32-40x for CD-ROM. The latter seems a bit too fast...? And I imagine it'll still generate a lot of noise? Am I best avoiding those if I want quieter and period accurate speeds of around 8-12x? I've noticed one or two of them are Pioneer drives, too. Thanks.

32-40x CD-ROM read is period correct, for the slot 1 P3 in your signature.

That build should coincide with the the Slot A Athlon I built mid-2000. Looking thru old photos - it initially had optical drives that were at least 2 years old - Creative (Panasonic) 2X DVD-ROM (~20X max CD read), a Kenwood/Zen/True-X 52X CD-ROM, and a much older Ricoh 2x2x6 CD-RW drive. My secondary PC had a Panasonic 32X max CD-ROM.

The final upgrades to that PC in 2001~2002 were a Toshiba DVD-ROM with CD reading ~40X, and a TDK VeloCD (Plextor) 12x10x32x CD-RW drive. Both of those drives were very reliable and fairly refined on noise and anti-vibration.

In contrast - I recently found and used a Panasonic 12X CD-ROM that I was using 1997-98, which appears to be CLV, so prior to the "max" ratings of CAV. That might win for loudest drive. Not for speed alone, but it immediately spins up to full speed when you load a disc, doesn't dampen vibrations of less-than-perfect discs well, and was prior to any considerations for noise being programmed into drive firmware. My point here - don't assume that going "slower" will always mean quieter.

Hopefully that helps with anchor points of year to drive speeds.

Though I've been told the opposite... That 8-12x would be more period accurate for the sorts of games I play on it. I'm just concerned anything higher than 24x is going to be too loud now. The 52x one I have really takes the biscuit. ^^;

At any rate, I've asked a few sellers about the noise level of their CD/DVD drive listings and none of them are able to test or confirm. 🙁

ott wrote on Today, 15:47:

Perhaps someone will be interested: […]
Show full quote

Perhaps someone will be interested:

In the late 90s, ASUS released CD-ROM drives with speed-slowing feature to reduce noise, which activated by pressing Play button (for one second)

Doug Schneider — Jul 18, 2001, 4:48:40 PM

Since you've already got a CD this is probably not what you want to hear, but the Asus CD-S500 CD-ROM allows you to adjust it's speed. You hold down the play button for a few seconds and the speed drops, repeat the process and it drops again. I don't have the literature in front of me, but I think it goes in steps of 24X, 12X, 6X, 4X, something like that, don't quote me. Upon ejecting the CD the speed resets to the default 50X. We sell a lot of them, and they come in quite handy for older CDs that were never meant to spin at 50X, especially the ones with graphics all on one side and none on the other, which creates really bad unbalance. They're not cheap, we sell them for $70CDN (I think that's about $5 USD), but they've proven incredibly reliable to date
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.computer/c/GG … /m/iYBTTwfWBrAJ

ASUS CD-S500, CD-S500/A (50x CD-ROM) and ASUS DVD-E608/G (8x DVD-ROM ) definitely have this feature.

Note: Later versions such as the CD-S500/A4 no longer have this feature.

However, I have come across the Asus Dvd-e616a model and I think that also has the speed adjust function.

DustyShinigami wrote on Today, 16:20:

Fazeshift wrote on Today, 15:47:

32-40x CD-ROM read is period correct, for the slot 1 P3 in your signature. […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on Today, 14:38:

As I'm still looking for a DVD drive for my retro rig, I've noticed a few DVD/CD rewritable drives from 2001-2004 and they're often listed as being 8-16x read speed for DVDs, but 32-40x for CD-ROM. The latter seems a bit too fast...? And I imagine it'll still generate a lot of noise? Am I best avoiding those if I want quieter and period accurate speeds of around 8-12x? I've noticed one or two of them are Pioneer drives, too. Thanks.

32-40x CD-ROM read is period correct, for the slot 1 P3 in your signature.

That build should coincide with the the Slot A Athlon I built mid-2000. Looking thru old photos - it initially had optical drives that were at least 2 years old - Creative (Panasonic) 2X DVD-ROM (~20X max CD read), a Kenwood/Zen/True-X 52X CD-ROM, and a much older Ricoh 2x2x6 CD-RW drive. My secondary PC had a Panasonic 32X max CD-ROM.

The final upgrades to that PC in 2001~2002 were a Toshiba DVD-ROM with CD reading ~40X, and a TDK VeloCD (Plextor) 12x10x32x CD-RW drive. Both of those drives were very reliable and fairly refined on noise and anti-vibration.

In contrast - I recently found and used a Panasonic 12X CD-ROM that I was using 1997-98, which appears to be CLV, so prior to the "max" ratings of CAV. That might win for loudest drive. Not for speed alone, but it immediately spins up to full speed when you load a disc, doesn't dampen vibrations of less-than-perfect discs well, and was prior to any considerations for noise being programmed into drive firmware. My point here - don't assume that going "slower" will always mean quieter.

Hopefully that helps with anchor points of year to drive speeds.

Though I've been told the opposite... That 8-12x would be more period accurate for the sorts of games I play on it. I'm just concerned anything higher than 24x is going to be too loud now. The 52x one I have really takes the biscuit. ^^;

Note that while it is unlikely that you find one as they were rare, but some high quality fast CD-ROM drives reached the high read speed by using two head assemblies instead of rotating the drive faster, so these are actually has the RPM of a drive half their speed, so they are generally as silent as a drive half their speed rating, but I have to say it again these were high quality, rare to find models, only popping up rarely on on-line stores/auction sites.

EDIT: The most extreme example: https://www.pcstats.com/articles/339/index.html, it used a 7 beam pickup to read the disk quickly instead of rotating the disk fast, it is basically unobtainium now, but still an interesting HW.