Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7203S

Advantages: Portable, CD-RW/DVD Combo, everything I needed!
Disadvantages: None, yet!

...I am a software developer and I have a desktop computer at home. Due to daily train travel and my starting a University course in my spare time I decided that I also needed a laptop. My budget was £1500 including VAT. After looking at various makes including Dell, NEC, Toshiba, Tiny IBM and Compaq I settled on the Sony Vaio PCG-FX503 (£1300 including VAT). Standard spec: Intel P-III 1.00 GHz Processor 256 MB SDRAM 20 GB Hard Drive CD-RW/DVD Combo 14.1" Screen Windows XP Home There are other models in the FX500 series based on AMD Athlon or AMD Duron chips but these suffer with less battery life (2¼ hours compared with 3½ hours of the FX503). The FX503 is the only model in the range to use the Intel processor. Why the Sony? Why did I discount the other makes (in reverse order!)? - IBM & Compaq - price, price, price and price. Too... Read review

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Advantages: Reads practically everything. Writes to TWO formats (+RW and -RW)
Disadvantages: None so far, but disk costs make it more important not to waste any

...-copies of my own home movies shot on a digital camcorder. The previous VCD video disk standard tended to waste the camcorder’s ability to record around 500 lines of picture detail by squandering it on a mere VHS-quality 280 lines output. A DVD recorder redresses this balance by producing a final product that is as clear as the raw material. To kick off with, I used the two disks supplied to confirm that the machine works OK. Being Verbatim brand, and supplied by NEC, it was only to be expected that they’d work and they did. It was shortly after this that I began to wonder whether I shouldn’t have waited for the Sony model, however long its delivery was. What was the problem? Well, none that you could pin on NEC, but the general consensus of opinion on technical websites was that the NEC was fussy when it came to record-able media... Read review

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Advantages: Quick burning and access time
Disadvantages: Poor build quality

...I purchased this drive early last year to replace a failing sony cd writer I had in my pc at the time. I had heard good things about this drive as it was supposed to be the fastest on the market at the time for burning both cds and dvds. After installing the drive in my pc the drive was picked up fine by the bios and windows detected it as the correct drive. The first thing I did was test the burn speed of both cd and dvd. I was not disappointed as this drive burnt cds in only a few mins and dvds were not much slower. Unfortunately as this was my only dvd writer I cannot compare it to other drives in the dvd writing department. In terms of cd burning, it was around 20 seconds quicker than my sony drive which was rated at the same burn speed (this may be due to newer firmware etc as the drive is about 2 years newer than the sony... Read review

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