Is it REQUIRED to have semi-metallic pads IF you are using cross-drilled rotors?
Will they make the rotor last longer?

I have a set of Zimmerman cross-drilled rotors, and will be installing them soon (using Balo standard rotors with PBR Metal Master Pads). I am not really impressed with what I have now--braking is OK, but very noisy / dusty.

What would be the BEST choice for the cross-drilled rotors? And what about ceramic-style pads?

Thanks,
HB

well, can't tell you the best as I haven't tried them all. But I also installed a set of Zimmerman cross-drilleds and I have been pretty happy with the Mintex pads I installed with them. A bit noisy until they get heated up, but very grippy. Its been a while, so I should probably check the rotors for wear. Thanks for the reminder. ;)

If you are looking for Low dust try Rotex gold blakes. They have a kevlar friciton compound and have been very low dust on my zimmerman cross drilled brakes. I got them at buybrakes.com for around $40 or so. One thing that I would note is that I don't think that I would buy cross drilled brakes again. I think that I would go with slotted next time as cross drilled is more prone to cracking and modern brake compounds do not produce very much gass at all so the gassing off of cross drilled rotors is not very useful. They do look pretty cool I guess.