I just don't want to waste money. When I bought my first CD burner I paid
$320 for a 4X and less than a year later got a 16X for $120 and these days a
52X can be had for $20.
This is mainly evidence that your being an early adoptor,
costs more. That is not a reason to not buy a drive now
with them priced reasonably at around $45, IF you chose to.
The larger issue would be media- that good media for highest
speeds will be harder to find, rather than just buying
fastest possible at reasonable prices then burning at the
mature rate everyone else has- and then you can also use
feedback from more users as to which media works well, and
works well with any particular burner.
I just do not want to spend the money to buy a 16X
when the 8X is getting the job done.
Then don't- problem solved.
However if 16X is going to be as good
as it gets
No such thing- even if it were, "as good as it gets" would
mean a mature design that has had some firmware updates too.
If you early-adopt the first 32X drive that would come
along, you are paying premium to be a beta tester, and again
pay premium for media.
then I will go ahead and buy a 16X but if a 32X will be out in 6
months I will wait.
Why would you expect a jump from 16 to 32X? More likely
it'd be 16 to 24X. Will it happen in 6 months? How much
would you pay and were will you be (in the world), 6 months
from now? If 6 months is the window, go ahead and get a
16X drive.