I find Mitsumi drives to be generally reliable. They're also nice because they can be throttled down if you want quieter performance.

I have been using IDE DVD drives successfully in place of an IDE CD drive. So far I haven't run into any problems with reading CDs, but DVDs won't read if the operating system doesn't have support. Windows 98 has rudimentary DVD-ROM support.

ATAPI DVD drives work fine in Win98, I've used (and still have) an NEC 3500AG, which is a DVD writer.

Just about any optical drive especially IDE will be getting old now.
More than specific brands you ideally want a drive that's had an easy life in an air-conditioned office PC where good chance it's never even been used.
Gives you the best chance that the laser is still good and belts aren't all dried up.

And yes I've been using DVD drives to access CD's just wine in Win9x and above.

I've found newer IDE DVD drives much quieter than the older CD drives. I'd recommend a DVD drive for that reason.

NEC has some pretty decent drives.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-10-14, 23:08:

I find Mitsumi drives to be generally reliable. They're also nice because they can be throttled down if you want quieter performance.

The only ODD that ever died here was our first one, a Mitsumi 32x.

I also would recommend a DVD drive, no matter if BenQ, LG, NEC, Optiarc (Sony/NEC), Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Plextor, Ricoh, Samsung, TEAC, Toshiba, TSST (Toshiba/Samsung), Yamaha or whatever.

If it will be an AOpen ODD (rebadged drives built by OEMs like Lite-On, Pioneer or Ricoh), then you can get the latest firmware from my website -> https://soggi.org/odds/aopen.htm, just in case.

kind regards
soggi

For 486 DX4 my last drive was Asus 34x max

I am using Samsung SH-182M with crossflashed firmware from Philips SPD6002T P1.3

What about Blu Ray (BD) drives? The early models were IDE/ATAPI, still.

And then there are SATA models which are still being made, I think.
Movie BDs (HD, UHD) are still in production, after all.

Maybe an SATA to PATA converter can be used? I haven't tried myself yet.

I would not use any HD-DVD or Blu-Ray with windows 9x only, most of the software are for 2K/XP or later i think. I have one notebook sata bluray hooked to desktop pc, but i do not remember the drive model at the moment. Its fitted to 5.25 with frame/case, also has place to connect 2.5/3.5 ssd/hdd there at the same time. I can see some later Win9x/XP combo PC with bluray drive for Bluray playback. Earliest bluray build i have made is from Pentium 3 and it worked perfectly, of course you have to use HD2400 AGP or 7600GT AGP or some newer graphics card. I had it with Linux / XP, both OS Bluray playback worked with Pentium 3 Tualatin well. 7600GT has Win9x drivers, so that would be good canditate.

This kind of frame: https://www.delock.com/produkt/47200/merkmale.html

Lite-On for DVD, Plextor for CDROM, a 4012 is the best one but 4824 and 5224 are also nice.