Drives > Hewlett-Packard Drives > Less than 30 GBP

Advantages: Fairly simple to install (sorta)...
Disadvantages: Be careful why you want a burner.

...reason I went with the HP is that is what my computer is, an HP. I am a very firm believer that like brands work better with like parts. O.K. I got the burner. Now what?? Well if you knew me you would think I know an awful lot about computers. You would be wrong! I put up a good front but I know enough about computers to get me in trouble! When I opened the box I was .. oh what’s the word?... INTIMIDATED!!!! Yup that’s the word. I had no clue what ...
...but in case there wasn’t, HP included another IDE cable with an extra connector to replace one in computers with only the one connector. On with the burning. WHAT DO YOU MEAN I NEED ANOTHER PROGRAM TO COPY DVDS????? ARGHHHHHH!!!! Yes although the burner included three different programs to play the DVDs, copying them required me purchasing a copy of DVD xcopy express. Which I had to buy used as the ones on store shelves have been stripped of the ... 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

Advantages: Supports all media except DVD-R DL
Disadvantages: doesn't support DVD-R DL for burning

A good CD/DVD burner. Reads and burns CD's and DVD's (-R, -RW or +R, +RW) with no problems. (with firmware version US09, - note: 0 is a zero) Plays DVD films with no problems. Supports digital playback of CD's. Works with Nero, Pinnacle, Deep Burner and every other burning program I have used. Burnproof / Justlink technology for succesful burning. It once started acting sluggish and made a loud wrrr noise, but after close examination this was ...
...with a game. I uninstalled the starforce driver and it worked fine again. The game installed fine, and worked without problems - It was just that wrrr thing. Why 4 stars instead of 5: If you want to burn Dual Layer (DL) you can only do it with DVD+R DL discs. It doesn't seem to support DVD-R Dual Layer discs for burning. It also doesn't support Fujifilm DVD-R, but supports Fujifilm CD-R, which is just weird. ... Read review

Advantages: Fast and quiet, simple to install
Disadvantages: Small capacity compared to other drives, 150GB version is faster

I bought one of these after checking out the charts on Toms hardware site. Although it has now been superceeded by the 150GB model it is still a fantastic drive and currently the second fastest on Toms charts. The combination of 16mb memory cache and 10,000 rpm makes it incredibly fast and I've witnessed a significant difference in the time taken to start up windows and other hefty applications. Despite its performance this drive doesn't announce ...
...If anything it is quieter than my old IDE drive and in a totally different league to the SCSI drives on our servers at work. I'm using this in an Antec superlanboy case which has removable drive trays. The rubber grommets between the trays and the drive provide some vibration dampening but I expected this drive to be much louder. I'm glad I was proved wrong. The interface is serial ATA (SATA-300) which means no need to mess around with jumper switches ... Read review