Comments: Be sure to note, as mentioned in the description above, that this card requires a PCI 2.2-compliant motherboard. Motherboards that only have PCI 2.1 support (like, unfortunately, my Asus P2B) *cannot* use this card. Check your motherboard's specs before you buy!

Pros: The drive has performed all the basics just fine so far - reading, burning, playing movies, etc. Lite-On drives have served me well over the years, and this one is working out well so far.

Cons: Unfortunately, Lite-On has taken a step backward by switching from Nero Express 6 (which used to come with all their retail drives) to Nero 7 Essentials. Nero 6 Express was a reasonably small, well-designed suite of tools that did the job of burning, LightScribing, and label-designing admirably. In contrast, Nero 7 Essentials is a hugely bloated (well over 1 Gig, probably closer to 2 Gig) suite of programs, most of which are crippleware or trialware that expire after a few days unless you upgrade to the full Nero 7. True to its name, it will do the essential part (burning discs) but just about everything else will cost you extra. It will still happily go ahead and install all the trialware on your PC, though.

Overall Review: Even worse is the lack of DVD playback software! Older Lite-On drives used to come with PowerDVD. But not anymore. Nero 7 Essentials includes "Nero Vision" to play DVDs, but it expires 30 days after its first use. After that, you have to pay to upgrade to Nero 7 or get a license to continue using its MPEG-2 decoder. When I chatted online with a Lite-On representative, he acknowledged that Nero 7 Essentials worked exactly the way I described. All he could suggest was that I get some other DVD software, like VLC or a trial version of PowerDVD. It's ridiculous that Lite-On ships a DVD drive without the means to play a DVD movie. And it's annoying to have to install over a gig of nearly worthless software just to get Nero burning capabilities. I hope Lite-On changes these poor decisions with their next generation of drives.