I know that there isn't one answer for this, but I'm buying a new drive. I have a TON of music to rip (upward of 4000 songs) and want to know the best drive to do it with. I'm getting a Benq DW1655 as my primary DVD drive and I think it's pretty good with ripping but is there anything better (like an old CD-RW or DVD drive) that I can pick up as well?

The old liteon cd-rw drives were pretty good.

Plextor PX-716A

I was in the same situation last month like you are right know. There are various striking advantages
of it. If you'd like to know what, use the search function of the EAC forum and type in the complete
drive name, which will lead you to a posting of me, in which I practically justify my choice in a very
detailed way...

Please remember to use the search.

I couldn't find your post (searched back to August 2005) but found that, as well as some other stuff that either praised Plextor or bashed them. Word has it the premium drives were the best for DAE but I can't find one. Some people say the 716A is good, others say it's bad but basically everyone says models since that are rebadged drives (I think?)

Even if the 716 is a fantastic drive though, I can't justify spending $130 to rip 200 CDs if the BenQ (which costs $40) can do it just as good. Most of the CDs are good condition(will be ripped using burst mode + test and copy) so is the BenQ DW1655 a good option?

Yes.

I meant the EAC-forum, not hydrogenaudio.org-forum. Of course, I also encountered the quotation
before the purchase, but that doesn't impressed me, as Plextor's support is very good. They make
sure, that you got, what you have in mind while purchasing this drive: a working, unbroken the PX-716A ...