Which to Buy?? PCE/CD w/ 3.0 or PCE Duo/Duo R ???

[offsidewing]

General question for the learned masses:

I have an opportunity to purchase a PCE w/ CD Rom and 3.0 card OR a PCE Duo-R for approximately the same price.  I know I'm buying used equipment here, but all things being equal, for functionality's sake, which set up would you recomment buying??  I'm buying it to play my beloved games, not necessarily as a collectors piece.

Do the CD Rom systems go bad after X amount of hours?  Does one have a longer lasting laser than the other.  Is the DUO-R more cheaply assembled than the CD Rom or original PCE Duo?  Is there another set up that should hold out for??

Thanks Everyone!!

[FM-77]

There's a choice? No. There isn't.

Get a Duo-R.

[Necromancer]

Many consider the Duo-R and Duo-RX to be the most reliable, yet some swear by the original.  For even money, I'd go for the R and its slighter better seek times.

[nat]

In my own experience, I have found the original CD-ROM systems (PC Engine *and* TurboGrafx) to be freaking bulletproof, even under heavy use/abuse. I've owned a handful of each over the years and the only problem I had was one of the black Turbo CD modules wouldn't play sound, even when used in "Discman" mode with headphones. It came into my possession that way and I never opened it up to determine the problem. For all I know some dumbass kid poured his soda into it. (It wouldn't even spin up when I got it-- this was fixed with some gentle coaxing and a drop of machine oil on the bearings.) I turned around and sold it on eBay to an eBay Store at a profit.

On the other hand, I have heard of many many problems with Duos, particularly the original black ones. Since you're talking Duo-R here I'm not sure how that applies. But just take a look at this forum alone-- there are at least a handful of threads dealing with Duo problems.

In all fairness, I've never actually owned a Duo-R to compare and I've heard the Duo-RX is the holy grail of all Turbo/PCE systems when it comes to reliability.

If it was me, and my choice was the PCE-CD/3.0 system versus a Duo-RX, I'd take the RX hands down. But it's just a Duo-R we're talking here... Is the Duo-R even any different than the black Duos, other than the color?

If it was me, I'd probably ask a question just like you did. I guess all I can offer you is that I'm one of those who "swears by the original". Since I got my first CD deck 10 years ago I've never had one do me wrong.

[Turbo D]

They are all sexy. I personally own the black duo, it rocks. I suggest getting a duo tho and not a cd add-on to the other systems, as they tend to have problems that are harder to fix.

[FM-77]

This is the first time I've heard someone say the original PC Engine CD system being bullet-proof. I've only heard bad things about it up until now.

[nat]

This is the first time I've heard someone say the original PC Engine CD system being bullet-proof. I've only heard bad things about it up until now.

Well, I can only speak from personal experience. I'm interested to hear what problems other people have had.

They do commonly have operational quirks that don't seem to really affect usage. The most common issue I have is sometimes the unit won't power on by flipping the switch. You have to turn the briefcase on, then plug the AC adapter in with the switch in the "ON" position. This doesn't affect play whatsoever. I've heard of at least one other person who's had this problem. Beyond that.....

[Tatsujin]

i always recommend a DUO, because it's the cheapest model (in terms of your wallet) and shows up with the greatest design in the DUO-family  (and sheer console-wide). also you will get a separate earphone output with vol-regulator, which i always appreciated a lot.

[Turbo D]

I'm interested to hear what problems other people have had.

I bought a turbo grafx with cd attachment that worked good for about a year. Then one day it kinda craped out. It takes like 15-20 minutes to load a cd game, with is pretty frustrating. I haven't tried fixing it or anything cuz I've been playing my duo. Anyone know what could be causing the long load time?

[TR0N]

Duo-R or a Coregrafx+SCDR2

Just my 2 cents on that.

[termis]

Go with the Duo. 

1.  Faster load times,
2.  The most commonly worn-out parts are easily replaceable (this _may_ be true on the briefcase system as well, but this is an established fact for the Duo).
3.  If you decide to upgrade to the Arcade System card, it'll be a lot cheaper -- you can use the cheaper Arcade Card Duo, but for the Briefcase system you need the Arcade Card Pro, which is about 2.5-3x more expensive.
3.5  And I also hear that a few SCD games games have problems with Arcade Card Pros, vs the Arcade Card Duos.

So all fingers point toward the Duo.