System Builder Marathon: Day Three

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Optical Drive: Sony NEC Optiarc 7170 Serial ATA

The Optiarc 7170S was chosen for the mid-priced build because of its low price, adequate performance, and SATA interface that eases cable management. With no other drives offering a better set of performance features, this low cost part was again chosen for our higher-priced build.

Sony NEC Optiarc 7170 Serial ATA

And why not? Why would anyone spend more money to get the same performance from a more expensive drive?

We'll leave it to our optical drive test team to find a better part, but until they do, the Optiarc 7170 series gets our stamp of approval.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.