I'm building my first HTPC and I am following the KRP specification closely:

MOBO Intel DG965WH
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
RAM 2x 512 MB DDR2-667 PC2-5300
GPU Asus EN7600GS (fanless)
TV PVR-250 x2
SPU Chaintech AV-710 digital
HDD Western Digital 320 GB WD3200YS
CDD Lite-On DVDRW LH-18A1P
CASE Silverstone LC17
PSU Zalman ZM460B-APS

I just received an email from my supplier stating that the LH-18A1P is at the "end of its life" and they offered the LG GSN-H22NBBK as a substitute.

I'm running a LG GSA-H22N on my workstation and it is certainly quiet enough, but takes a comparatively long time to mount a disk.

The problem I have found with KRP specs is that OEMs discontinue old models so quickly, it becomes difficult to obtain all the parts for a KRP-compliant system.

I would not worry too much about the DVD-RW drive brand / model. I have had great success with any of the Lite-On brand models.

I would recommend looking into the Samsung brand models. They are a lot quieter than other brands / models. The latest Lite-On's are a bit noisy when spinning up. Here is the one I have in my box:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6827151133

I'm using the Memorex with no problems. I think any fairly modern drive will work fine.

Same here. I just picked whatever DVD burner was on sale.

Check reviews for ones with good compatibility with your other CD or DVD drives. Some models are picky about what they will read, others write disks that different drives will reject. I've known folks who had to replace really cheap drives for this reason.

I've tried out the ASUS SATA DVDRW and it's well acceptable. It also doesn't suffer from the "dma off" problem and ripping a disk has much less effect on anything else on the system. As a bonus, it is lightscribe capable.

I've heard that the Pioneer SATA is pretty good, too, but lacks lightscribe.

Cheers

Mike

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LinHES 7.4
Australian Dragon
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