When you contemplate whether something is a better deal because the initial cost is cheaper than the competition, to understand the true cost of ownership, you need to take into account the full cost over the lifespan of the product, including durability, reliability, and longevity, to get a full picture.

For example, if we compare the high quality duplication grade Plextor PX-891SAF CD/DVD recorder drive with another common CD/DVD recorder drive that offers a slightly lower cost. In this scenario, the alternative drive is $5 cheaper than the PX-891SAF, however, the alternative drive lasts only 6 months at most under the heavy duplication production, while the PX-891SAF lasts at least 12 ~ 15 months under the same production load. That means that you would have to purchase 2 ~ 3 replacements of the alternative drive over the lifetime of a single Plextor PX-891SAF drive. So that $5 initial savings is not only wiped out, but you end up paying nearly 2 times more for the alternative drive(s) compared to the PX-891SAF over the lifespan of the drives.

In this scenario, I only looked at the true hard dollar costs of ownership, there’s also the issue that the PX-891SAF offers superior quality and less rejects than the competition. That’s another cost that should be counted when determining the overall cost of ownership. Optical drives may not be very expensive and therefore you may not think it’s worth doing a cost projection for them, however, when you consider the number of times you have to replace your drives, then you’ll quickly realize how those savings can add up.

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