I need to get a new external DVD-RW and I want one that does DAE well. I care more about accuracy and reliability then about speed.

I assumed that Plextor drives would be good for this, so I was surprised to see that the Plextor external DVD-RW in my local store - PX-740UF - is not good for DAE because it supports caching.

Please search the forum first before posting as there are alot of threads like this floating around... The Plextor PX-740A is a rebadged BenQ DW1640 and the Plextor PX-750A is a rebadged TEAC model... Audio caching just means that the extraction time in EAC will be slower since EAC has to overread the cache for the extraction to remain secure...

Hi. Yes, I did search, but I searched on the PX-740UF since this is the external model and I need external.

And, yes, I understand that audio caching will not ultimately prevent me from getting an accurate rip, but it will mean more work (equals shorter life) for the drive when ripping in secure mode. So, if I'm buying a new drive that is 50% for doing DAE, I might as well get one that has all the right features (C2 and no caching) if possible. And that's why I posted here.

It also depends. Are you going to rip terribly scratched CDs? To rip normal CDs accurately, on EAC, caching or no-caching is irrelevant.

A lot has changed since 1998-2000 where getting a good drive was tricky.

Also, secure mode is not even necessary anymore to get SECURE rips.

Get a caching drive, use EAC's burst mode with test and copy and rip to your hearts content.