LiteOn SOHW-1673SX

Advantages: Fast speeds, value for money
Disadvantages: none

...Lite-on are a well respected company that have been around for a while. LITE-ON oringinated from a team of scientist and engineers from ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Insitute) in 1995. LITE-ON Information Technology corportation are constantly devoloping anit-vibration mechanical design, advanced circuit design and increased performance. LITE-ON Information Technology Corporation (LITE-ON I.T.) this was a big part of the LITE-ON group which concentrated on the optical storage devices which then led to the creation on these fine CDROM drives we have today. This LITE-ON CD-RW is a very good drive and after purchasing one for personnal use I have purchased many more for computers I have built for friends and family. Very easy installation, driver support is excelent. With dvd-rw's coming down alot in price recently I... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Cheap, can be made multi-region. Works well. PC Pro Best Buy
Disadvantages: Doesn't alter the fact that dual layer media is not cheap! Possible dual-layer compatibility issues with home DVD players

...It's about three years since I first bought a DVD-writing machine for my main desktop PC. This was an NEC model 1300a and was one of the first to handle both DVD-R and DVD+R formats, without paying the somewhat inflated prices being bandied around by Sony at the time. Overall, I think it cost me around £130. Oh! How the mighty, (or prices, in this case) have fallen. I've just taken delivery of a LiteOn SOHW-1693 DVD writer that not only writes to everything that the NEC will, AND with its 16-speed write-velocity it's 4 times faster, but it will handle dual-layer writable DVD media too, and all for £29! Dual Layer? Yes, one of the limitations of early DVD writers is that they would only write around 4.8 gigabytes of information before becoming full. This might not sound like much of a limitation to those used to a CD-ROM's 700... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Fast burning, can copy nearly anything
Disadvantages: Er.. boring fascia??

...I was looking to upgrade my 16x burner to something with a little more punch. My friend's dad had bought a Lite-On 24x speed burner and it came highly recommended. After a little more research, the 40x Lite-On seemed the way to go, and for a reasonable price. Once it had arrived, I opened the bright red box and peered in. Contained within was the drive itself, 4 screws to install in it your system case, an audio cable, an 80-minute CD-R, an 80-minute CD-RW, a CD containing Nero Burning Rom and the instruction manual (useless till you install the drive of course!), and a slip of paper containing basic installation procedures. No IDE cable is included with this drive, so unlike some manufacturers, Lite-On expect you to be replacing another CD drive, or have a spare connector already available. Installing the drive is no hassle... Read review

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