Drives > CD-RW Drives > From 30 GBP to 70 GBP

Advantages: Price, Quality and Speed
Disadvantages: None

LiteOn is one of those companies that you don't hear much about. You don't see TV commercials or printed advertisement about their products, but if you own a Dell you probably had one and never knew about. They are pretty well known in the OEM market for their low price and quality. Let me start with the basics. This is a CD-RW drive. It is used to burn both CD-R media and CD-RW. The difference between CD-R and CD-RW is the later one is rewritable. ...
...behind its quality is what LiteOn calls SMART-BURN technology. SMART-BURN checks the media quality and it sets a limit to burning speed to ensure successful writing sessions & data retainability. This really works, and so far I haven't had any underrun errors. The LiteOn LTR 52327S is a workhorse. I would recommend this drive to anyone who is considering buying a burner. ... Read review

Advantages: "works" with Mac and Windows
Disadvantages: Too many to list.

...work... (using Taiyo Yuden media bought from Microboards authorised retailers) >Manuals... inexistent! After days of bugging their support, a PDF was emailed over... > Support - rude and unhelpful most of the time. Takes days to get anything out of them In short? Stay well clear from this product! ... Read review

Advantages: Fast Write speeds, wide compatibilty, 20 speed dvd writing and CHEAP
Disadvantages: Not any that i've experienced!!

I found this to be an excellent drive as i picked up one for around £30 and that was when it came out(last year, june). I think that this is an excellent drive for the fact it has a wide range of DVD and CD writing features; 20 speed writing, my favourite feature is the light scribe feature which allows you to design your own cd labels on a special 'lightscribe disc'. The Drive was also quiet, but not too quiet. I found the OEM Box that the drive ... Read review

Advantages: Very Cheap, Changeable cover panels, Fast Speed
Disadvantages: No firmware, Region Locked, Major issues with burning regular cd's

...and thus bought it as LG has become more reputable. The Pros This drive was very easy to install. It was practically a plug and play drive. It also came with different front panels in order to change colors from black and white. Although this may seem pointless it is a factor to take into consideration if you are after certain specification like color for your computer. The drive has never had a problem playing any cd's DVD's and etc. It ...
...this drive as it seems LG has forgotten about this drive and moved on. 3) This final problem is the killer part of this drive and the reason it is ranked so low. When durng xvid files and various other files onto a CD to watch on an xvid player and part of the files which are over 350 mb will not work. Thus typically TV shows are 350 mbs and meaning half the disc is wasted. Despite the cheap prices of CD's these days it still is a waste. Conclusion ... Read review

Advantages: Permanent disc labelling
Disadvantages: Monochrome and media is hard to find

LG Super Multi DVD Rewriter GSA-E60N These days most new PCs come supplied with a built-in DVD writer, indeed the last PC I bought more than a year ago provided one in the standard price. So with a perfectly good writer already in my tower case why do I need this rather blocky external one taking up space on my desk? Well this writer comes with the nifty bonus of being a LightScribe drive, a permanent disc labelling system that provides a high quality ...
...are running out. The LG Super Multi DVD Rewriter That superlative laden model name is a bit cumbersome so from now on I'll refer to it by its model reference: GSA-E60N. The GSA-E60N is a pretty ugly piece of kit, and I won't pretend otherwise. A blocky, bulky lump of black plastic it looks like something from the mid nineties, a time when design aesthetics had no place in the personal computing world, the only concession being a thin silver strip ... Read review