LiteOn SLW-831SX

Author's product rating:   

Reliability	Excellent
Ease of Installation	Good - quick to install
Value For Money	Good

Advantages:	Light, slim
Disadvantages:	Needs external power  : (

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Like many Laptop users i don't have the money to buy a laptop with a DVD RW built in so i went for the option of having an external drive. I didn't really look into them very much (big mistake) and just got one that looked nice from eBay. Being me i took the word portable to mean you can take this drive anywhere and use it with your laptop like on the train and stuff, i was dead wrong! Mobile means you can take it and use it anywhere lol. So with this drive you need a wall to plug it into, so if you need a mobile drive this isn't for you! If on the other hand you have a lack of space in your house and use a laptop as your main computer and want a DVD burner to attach to it this little baby is great.

The LiteOn SLW-831SX is super slim and compact (about 15cm long, 13 cm wide and 2.5cm deep) due to the fact that it doesn't have a trap that comes out of the drive itself, it just uses a slot that you push the DVD or CD into and it then ejects out. Even though the SLW-831SX is slim it is also quite though and durable so if you're sitting at your table and you knock it off it won't break :)

The SLW-831SX uses a USB2 connection that all laptops come with these days so you don't have to worry about not being able to connect it to your computer (the USB2 cable comes with the drive so you don't have to go and buy it too) Now because it uses this USB2 connection is not as fast as say and IDE DVD RW that you would have in your PC but that not much of a problem because your paying for this drive to be external so it can be used anywhere (as long as there's a plug there lol)

The drive writes at speeds of 8x (DVD-/+), 2.4x (DVD+R Dual Layer), 4x (DVD-/+ RW) and 24x (CD-R and CD-RW), it also reads at 8x for DVD's and 24x for CD's. This is a very respectable speed for an external DVD RW drive and it takes me about 3 and a half mins per GB to write on DVD-R.

With the SLW-831SX you get all the cables you need (USB2 and power cable), the drive it's self and a full copy of Nero Express and Power DVD. This takes care of all your viewing and burning needs. Nero Express is especially good because it is so easy to use and the menus are so easy to navigate.

In conclusion this drive is NOT good for someone that wants to use it on the go were there is no wall plug but for someone that is on the go in business going from office to office or someone with a laptop and not very much room and what's a good quality DVD RW then this is perfect.