What is the best drive to get

[pinecooler]

Looks like my drive may have died and need a replacement.

What is the best drives based on following criteria

Holy Grail money no object

Best you can get but struggle to find it and it's normally pricey

Best you can easily get "off the shelf" but may be expensive

Best main stream drive that gets the job done

For context for the last 6yrs I've been happily using an Asus bw-16d1ht

[Woodstock]

Is there a problem with the topic Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2024?

[Billycar11]

Looks like my drive may have died and need a replacement.

What is the best drives based on following criteria

Holy Grail money no object

Best you can get but struggle to find it and it's normally pricey

Best you can easily get "off the shelf" but may be expensive

Best main stream drive that gets the job done

For context for the last 6yrs I've been happily using an Asus bw-16d1ht

Best drive is the pioneer s13ux but the UBK is almost the same.
But you can't get it off the self working you need one from a seller me Marty and asmcom have pioneers with old fw see seller section for that

[pinecooler]

Is there a problem with the topic Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2024?

Apart from saying pioneers are best but you can't buy them, apart from secondhand. It doesn't actually say which is best, not in the way I'd asked, unless it's buried somewhere in the 175 pages of comments.

For instance if I want a pioneer it looks like amscom on the drive for sale forum is my best bet in UK,but the drives vary in price from £158 to £317 for internal drives which I'd prefer, but there is an external one (now sold out) at £409.
Do I simply infer more expensive is better?

I have an Asus drive which is on that list but it has just died coincidentally on the same day as someone else with the same drive. Do I risk buying another of those?

I figured it was a fair question, but if it's seen as me being lazy in not reading through 5yrs of comments then happy for it to be deleted

[Coopervid]

Is there a problem with the topic Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2024?

Apart from saying pioneers are best but you can't buy them, apart from secondhand. It doesn't actually say which is best, not in the way I'd asked, unless it's buried somewhere in the 175 pages of comments.

For instance if I want a pioneer it looks like amscom on the drive for sale forum is my best bet in UK,but the drives vary in price from £158 to £317 for internal drives which I'd prefer, but there is an external one (now sold out) at £409.
Do I simply infer more expensive is better?

I have an Asus drive which is on that list but it has just died coincidentally on the same day as someone else with the same drive. Do I risk buying another of those?

I figured it was a fair question, but if it's seen as me being lazy in not reading through 5yrs of comments then happy for it to be deleted

A fairly good drive is the Verbatim 43888 which contains a Pioneer UD04 and works OOTB with UHDs. The enclosure is power hungry. So it should be connected to USB-C if you have trouble with it.

[kaysee]

Is there a problem with the topic Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2024?

That thread is regarding UHD drives. The question did not mention working with UHD as a criterion.

[Woodstock]

But it was opened in the "UHD drives" section of the forum... Sort of implies that the author intended to get information about UHD-capable drives.