SAMSUNG Black 8X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 6X DVD+R DL 8X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 8X DVD-ROM 24X CD-R 24X CD-RW 24X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE Slim DVD Burner

Pros: Bought to replace a CD-RW on a 800Mhz Micron Transport GX+. Reads and writes great. Gave new life to an older laptop.

Cons: Since the BEBN model firmare (SS03) is set to "CSEL/Low", I was unable to boot off media in the drive even though it read and wrote disks fine. The Samsung firmware uploader (sfdnwin.exe) will allow uploading the the SH03 firmare (CSEL High) if run from the command line as "sfdnwin.exe -nocheck".

Other Thoughts: This took a bit to figure out, so I home this helps saves someone some time. If I had known more about the CSEL settings, I might have looked for another model that worked out of the box. Part of the learning curve of updating older hardware.

Pros: Decent performance but died all of a sudden one day!

Cons: It died less than 6 months after!

Other Thoughts: I think you get what you paid for. Good thing for limited warranty!

Pros: I installed this drive in my Acer Aspire 1691. Easy install, detected right away. Out performs the original drive. The difference is night and day. The tray bezel lines up perfectly. Quiet operation and I have yet to find a disc it will not read.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: Windows initially detected the data transfer as PIO not DMA, burns took more than an hour to complete. After removing the primary ide controller from device manager, reboot brought the drive up and it now is set to UDMA 2. Burn full 4.7GB dvd in about 8-9 mins.

Pros: Easy-to-install

Cons: Everything I've burned with this drive has problems.

If it's video it plays back with glitches or shuts down my DVD player.

If it's data it has errors or won't even open in windows explorer.

Other Thoughts: I bought this on the recommendation of others here. But it looks like I got a bad one.

How did this one get by QC, Samsung?

Pros: Easy to install on the Compaq n1020v, only had to remove two torx screws directly below the DVD drive, the old drive slid out, changed the rails to the new drive, new drive slid right in, replace those two screws, and it's done. Works with all media I have tried, pretty quiet. Works perfectly with Linux and window$

Cons: The drive door/cover/bezel of the original drive does not fit onto this drive, so there is a slight gap surrounding the drive, this didn't bother me at first for testing, but I am going to modify the original and use some glue to make the original drives bezel work. If you use the bezel that comes with this drive on these laptops it will also block the IRDA port on the laptop. Also I can not find firmware that will remove the RPC code so you can only change it 5 times which is an issue if you travel and rent/watch DVDs from other countries/regions though there is some software to get around this if you travel, but I prefer a drive that can have this issue fixed.

Other Thoughts: Overall seems like a good drive, I haven't had any read/write problems with it yet, though I have only burned about 30 disks with it so far. A little bit of work to make it perfect, and I should have checked for a fix with the RPC issue before purchase, but that was my mistake.

Pros: It burns DVD's and CD's. It's cheap.

Cons: No matter what it boasts it won't burn a DVD over 6x on my Sony laptop. Half expected some issues with this brand but was too cheap to pass up. DVD burn speed sxxk though.

Other Thoughts: Does not even recognize black CD-R's.

Pros: Great drive for a fabulous price

Cons: No manuals provided.

Other Thoughts: Works great with my Inspiron 600m. It took a little while to figure out that the inspiron CD/DVD drive has a shell into which this drive needs to go. Saw a few other reviewers elsewhere that returned the drive without knowing this.

Pros: Best value for the money, I replace my old DVD player in my Toshiba Laptop, this works greeeat!

Cons: NO

Pros: Great drive for the price, has all the features of the more expensive drives. Flawless operation, burns all my media without fail.

Cons: It's not a one size fits all application, will work in some notebooks, others require modification, won't work in some models.

Other Thoughts: The drive didn't fit perfect in my Compaq N600C, when looking at the bottom there is a large gap, however from the top and side it looks fine. Best bang for the buck, the price on this can't be beat.

Pros: Works like advertised, great product. Arrived a day earlier than expected, great service.

Cons: None