Most reliable Disc based Console?

Most reliable Disc based Console?

  • Total voters
    61
kremiso

kremiso

Member
Wondering which specific model do you consider the best overall, as disc mechanic itself and components quality?

I'm adding also a 2 choices poll, let me know if some model is missing / need to be added thanks
 
PS3 easily even though it's games weren't as good as the PS2 and PS1 era but as a reliable disc based console, it is the best because it plays blu ray as well as dvds which the PS2 plays. It also plays PS2 and PS1 games.
 
Xbox 360 was EASILY the most reliable console of all time

That warm fuzzy feeling when MS shipped your "coffin" to send it away in

Probably only had 4-5 die on me

So yeah. Xbox 360

But in seriousness. Never really had issues with many/if any others.

So I will vote PS2/Xbox
 
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not sure what to click on in that poll,
because it depends on the model.

launch model PS1? dies within 2 years.
PSone? I know someone who still has a working one that never had any disc reading issues.

or like for the Wii, there are some models that simply refuse to read dual layer discs randomly.

or how these are all used inside the Xbox 360:
sk1ygqxsqnKTmuhA.jpeg

all of them have slightly different characteristics... some are better, some worse.
one of my 360s refused to read my copy of Mirror's Edge... the next one I got had no issue.



I think the only real conclusion we can come to is that the PSX is probably the worst one, as it's almost impossible to find them with the read laser still working.
 
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From personal experience.
GameCube and Ps3 40gb died.
Wii and ps1 started struggling with discs.
Ps2 and Ps3 slim, beasts.

Sony systems had insanely more play time so I will say Nintendo sucked at drive quality.
 
The Nintendo GameCube and the Sega Saturn are the two consoles where the disc-drive is frequently named as the most reliable. Honestly, the Nintendo GameCube and the Sega Saturn were both awesome consoles, and I'm glad I got to experience both of them.

With that said, even though it's drive failures were far more prominent, my favorite console is still PlayStation 2.
 
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IFireflyl said:
The Nintendo GameCube and the Sega Saturn are the two consoles where the disc-drive is frequently named as the most reliable. The Nintendo Wii is likely just behind these two consoles. Honestly, the Nintendo GameCube and the Sega Saturn were both awesome consoles, and I'm glad I got to experience both of them.

With that said, even though it's drive failures were far more prominent, my favorite console is still PlayStation 2.
Click to expand...
I came to post the same, My Sega Saturn and Gamecube read disks like there were purchased yesterday, fuck my Saturn even reads recordable discs, something no other concole has been able to do and reads even heavily scratched discs, they used high quality components in that cosnsole.
 
Esppiral said:
I came to post the same, My Sega Saturn and Gamecube read disks like there were purchased yesterday, fuck my Saturn even reads recordable discs, something no other concole has been able to do and reads even heavily scratched discs, they used high quality components in that cosnsole.
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Dreamcast reads CD-R's :messenger_sunglasses: (only certain models)
 
IFireflyl said:
The Nintendo GameCube and the Sega Saturn are the two consoles where the disc-drive is frequently named as the most reliable. The Nintendo Wii is likely just behind these two consoles. Honestly, the Nintendo GameCube and the Sega Saturn were both awesome consoles, and I'm glad I got to experience both of them.

With that said, even though it's drive failures were far more prominent, my favorite console is still PlayStation 2.
Click to expand...

the Wii's disc drives were famously awful.
third party manufacturers profited off of that fact and sold Wii Disc Drive cleaning kits (your typical laser cleaning disc, rebranded for the Wii), but those rarely really helped.

the Wii just had the tendency to refuse to read dual layer discs. some models were even worse, where the disc drives were so low quality that you had insane stutters during FMVs and loading segments.

it only affected select production runs, but it was widespread enough for said Wii cleaning kits to be found in any store that sold Wii games.
 
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kevboard said:
the Wii's disc drives were famously awful.
third party manufacturers profited off of that fact and sold Wii Disc Drive cleaning kits (your typical laser cleaning disc, rebranded for the Wii), but those rarely really helped.

the Wii just had the tendency to refuse to read dual layer discs. some models were even worse, where the disc drives were so unreliable that you had insane stutters during FMVs and loading segments.

it inly affected select production runs, but it was widespread enough for said Wii cleaning kits to be found in any store that sold Wii games.
Click to expand...

I remember the Wii having an overall failure rate that was MUCH lower than the competition at the time, so thanks for calling out my mention of that. I assumed that it having a low overall failure rate was an indicator that the drive itself was pretty good which is why I said "likely". I removed that from my post though since I don't have first-hand experience for that console anyway.
 
How would I know which is the most reliable if I haven't owned all of them? I'd be biased if I chose ones that I did have over others.

 
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IFireflyl said:
I remember the Wii having an overall failure rate that was MUCH lower than the competition at the time, so thanks for calling out my mention of that. I assumed that it having a low overall failure rate was an indicator that the drive itself was pretty good which is why I said "likely". I removed that from my post though since I don't have first-hand experience for that console anyway.
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it had a comparatively low failure rate, but that was at a time where its 2 competitors were absolutely shitting the bed.

I think the first year failure rate was still at around 10%, which is pretty high when looked at in isolation... but it of course paled in comparison to the 30% of the PS3 and the 50+% of the Xbox 360.

also, the Wii disc issues could creep up on you out of nowhere after buying a new game.
if you had it for a year, and randomly only had single layer games... you'd have no idea that the moment you insert a dual layer disc it would refuse to read them.
and I think dual layer discs were pretty rare, so especially casual users (which was a huge chunk of Wii owners) might never have had issues whatsoever.
 
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Hudo said:
Good question! Probably Dreamcast? I have never heard of the Dreamcast having disc drive issues, at least.
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Definitely not. Dreamcast lens will go bad especially, as there were more and more games constantly streaming data on this console. What really destroys disc-based consoles are the constant loading/seeking.

From my personal experience, my Dreamcast lens is dead and has been for years, and I was not using burnt CDs. But games like Crazy Taxi just killed it. You could hear the console suffering.
My Saturn lens is weak, it will eventually fail after some use. Very few games that stream (but these are very bad to use a lot in my opinion, example Atlantis).
Saturn and Dreamcast have ODEs for a reason : there was a real need for it (and a dedicated community to build them).

SEGA-CD has been the most robust so far. But that's because back then, CDs were used as a replacement for ROMs, and most of the time you would load all you needed in RAM (and in a way, build a "small temporary ROM" of your game), and then play a redbook/pcm audio music (or video) from the disc while all gameplay played from the RAM. Definitely the best use of a CD-Drive as it does not wear it a lot.

Overall, streaming is always bad for disc-drives and can lead to uneven speeds when the lens/drive is getting weak, this is why we moved on installing games on hard-drives on consoles anyway. I would suspect PCE-CD, SEGA-CD and Neo Geo CD to be the most robust ones.
 
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cireza said:
Definitely not. Dreamcast lens will go bad especially, as there were more and more games constantly streaming data on this console. What really destroys disc-based consoles are the constant loading/seeking.

From my personal experience, my Dreamcast lens is dead and has been for years, and I was not using burnt CDs. But games like Crazy Taxi just killed it. You could hear the console suffering.
My Saturn lens is weak, it will eventually fail after some use. Very few games that stream (but these are very bad to use a lot in my opinion, example Atlantis).
SEGA-CD has been the most robust so far. But that's because back then, CDs were used as a replacement for ROMs, and most of the time you would load all you needed in RAM (and in a way, build a "small temporary ROM" of your game), and then play a redbook/pcm audio music (or video) from the disc while all gameplay played from the RAM. Definitely the best use of a CD-Drive as it does not wear it a lot.

Overall, streaming is always bad for disc-drives and can lead to uneven speeds when the lens/drive is getting weak, this is why we moved on installing games on hard-drives on consoles anyway.
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Good points. Then the consoles with the highest potential of living a long life are those with a hard drive, so that you don't have to read from the disc every time.
Personally, I still think that that optical discs are inherently flawed. Yes, they offered huge space at an affordable price, but at the cost of reliability (which is why no professional backup systems use disc-based solutions), and speed (always has been a bottleneck).
 
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cireza said:
Definitely not. Dreamcast lens will go bad especially, as there were more and more games constantly streaming data on this console. What really destroys disc-based consoles are the constant loading/seeking.

From my personal experience, my Dreamcast lens is dead and has been for years, and I was not using burnt CDs. But games like Crazy Taxi just killed it. You could hear the console suffering.
My Saturn lens is weak, it will eventually fail after some use. Very few games that stream (but these are very bad to use a lot in my opinion, example Atlantis).
SEGA-CD has been the most robust so far. But that's because back then, CDs were used as a replacement for ROMs, and most of the time you would load all you needed in RAM (and in a way, build a "small temporary ROM" of your game), and then play a redbook/pcm audio music (or video) from the disc while all gameplay played from the RAM. Definitely the best use of a CD-Drive as it does not wear it a lot.

Overall, streaming is always bad for disc-drives and can lead to uneven speeds when the lens/drive is getting weak, this is why we moved on installing games on hard-drives on consoles anyway. I would suspect PCE-CD, SEGA-CD and Neo Geo CD to be the most robust ones.
Click to expand...

also the Dreamcast has issues where heat will bend components connected to the drive.
sometimes your drive will not even spin, because some capacitor desoldered itself over time and you have to bend it into place again (and preferably solder it down again... but you can just tape it lol)
 
I've always had bad luck with disc-based consoles prior to the PS4/XONE. Aside from a few I had drive failures in pretty much everything. PS1 and PS2 launch model drives were especially terrible and both died. PSP drive died. Wii drive died. GameCube drive died. 360 drive died, got it fixed, got RROD shortly afterwards. OG PS3 drive died, got it fixed, got YLOD shortly afterwards. Some were fixed under warranty, others I paid for repair.

My original Saturn and Dreamcast consoles still work fine. So does my OG Xbox. The PS3 slim drive is solid, too.

I don't play physical games much anymore, aside from Switch. So consoles feel more reliable now.
 
All of mine still work but I cannot choose the whole list...only two of them.

The only one I wouldn't choose is the 360...I have keep 4x more of those consoles than anything else on the list due to their RROD issues.
 
I think the Sega CD is the oldest working disc based console I own.
I've been looking for old Sega CD's at Mom and Pop's.
I found out my Lunar 1&2 are worth money. Also Popful Mail.

edit-My dreamcast still works too.
edit-I've got 2 super slim PS2's, The one with the built in power supply still works, the other one with the power brick doesn't read.
 
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Remember 360 disk drive getting stuck, that console was just a disaster hardware wise, tried the towel trick, PS3 I don't think I had an issue, everyone remembers PSN being down though, Wii you had to be careful with its disk drive, PS2 disk drive was mediocre and always felt flimsy but worked.
 
Consoles I've owned:
PS1 - overheating and loading issues within 1 year with an SCPH-5000. Didn't get worse after four more years of use though.
OG Xbox - worked perfectly while I owned it. Had three systems for Halo LAN and lots of MadKatz controllers.
Gamecube - disc read error after two years, un-salvageable. Analog L failed on two controllers.
360 - RROD after six months, second RROD three months after repair, third three months after that. Gave up and got a PS3.
PS3 - yellow light of death after 8 years with a 90 GB model. Got a lot of good use out of it.
PSP - disc lid switch died within two years. Replacement's screen died within 1.
PS4 - howling cooling fan and degraded performance and crashing with extended play sessions. Horribly slow loading from stock HDD. Three controllers got stick drift within three months of use. Worse PS console by far.
PS5 - no hardware issues, but it would need to be hard reset every few sessions when I had it hooked up to an eARC soundbar.

Consoles I've used/borrowed:
3DO - no major issues, just very slow lad times and a shitty controller
Wii - no major issues, just lame uninspired games besides Mario Galaxy and Mad World.
Xbox One - terrible experience, lagging UI, broken Blu Ray playback, hard crashes that corrupted game data. Worst system I ever used.
Wii U - very laggy screen controller with a very short battery life. Just an annoying system to use.
 
It's hard to measure that because of how the drives are used in older and newer consoles. Back in the day you had the laser working non stop and that led to its quicker death, now it's only used when you're installing or launching a disc version. In theory the drive should work longer, but that may not be the case if it's made from cheaper parts.

On the other hand older consoles didn't have to rely on hdd/ssd drives to work and to worry about corruptions and losing all data.

I never had a problem with my 360 (later model) or PS4 and I used them both very extensively. The only issue with the PS4 was the touch eject button which started acting out - solved it by placing 2 coins under the console so it wouldn't come into contact with anything.
 
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PS2 slim. The only one I ever drop kicked accidentally and it worked perfectly fine after that, though my copy of DMC3 saw better days.

It was light enough not to destroy itself from a short slam. Never had issues with PS2 or Gamecube.

PS4 and PS4 Pro no issues but I split those out over the gen and also had many digital games so their disc drives didn't really get stressed much.
 
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It's gotta be Gamecube or Wii right? Nintendo hardware has always been notoriously reliable on the "can kids break it" scale.
 
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nial said:
Where are PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X?
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i think it's difficult to judge the disc drive reliability in consoles that mostly use hdd
probably also Xbox One is a bit stretched in the poll
let's see if others agree/disagree thanks
NeoIkaruGAF said:
The disc tray in my PS2 won't open anymore, so certainly not PS2.
Click to expand...
i have a 360 in which i reach to make open the tray after a strange combination of events :p
 
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kremiso said:
i think it's difficult to judge the disc drive reliability in consoles that mostly use hdd
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That has nothing to do with the hardware aspect of being able to read discs, though. And, as you said, you already included the Xbox One there.
 
I think the Xbox OG was my most solid. I can tell you that my OG PS5 (replaced by my Pro) and my Series X hate playing movies on Blu-ray. Absolute nightmare trying to play them. I have the 4K Star Wars Boxed Set that has 25 discs wouldn't play properly on either, so I gave up trying to watch the movies in it.

I think I need a dedicated Blu-ray player.
 
OG Xbox disc drive died (replaced at no charge -- I was shocked)
Wii graphics chip was failing -- but the drive was still good.
My SEGA CD, PS-1 and PS3 still going strong.

But overall, PS2 and GameCube for me. Tanks, both of those.
 
PS1. Couldnt read discs after 5 years. Would just hang at logo screen. Started around year 3, upside down trick kind of worked, but even that stopped working
PS2. No problems
360 20gb Pro. Red Light after 5 years right at a long ass Skyrim loading screen! It would work a bit after rebooting, but similar to PS1 eventually bombing out, got total RROD a few months later
360 250gb slim. No problems
X1. No problems
One X. No problems
SX. No problems
 
Gamcube or PS2 from what I've seen, and both mine still chugging along.

Definitely not the PS3, especially the launch ones reliably need the laser replaced for either PS1-PS2 discs or PS3 blu-ray discs. Still need to replace mine, it can't read older PS1-PS2 discs anymore.
 
CD based consoles' laser will break down eventually.
Its the big flaw of gaming consoles from that era on up - the laser and moving parts.
ODE solutions are the only way to salvage them.

My Xbox and 360 were toast - and Gamecube laser died too.
And I take immaculate care of my stuff - still to no avail.

On the flipside the NES and Genesis will last past the apocalypse.
All about those cartridges.
 
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In my experience. PS3 super Slim and ps5 never had any issues playing disks. PS3 Slim and ps4 fat both have problems grabbing the disks, and my ps4 fat (the one that has touch buttons) ejects the disks by itself while I'm playing (the console is like 10 years old tho)
I also never had any issues with Xbox one or series x.
 
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My GC games looks the same as day one. Dreamcast are not far from it too

PS4 are poor looking since the building. PS5 and Series X looks even cheaper
 
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