LITE-ON USB 2.0 External Slim 8X DVD Burner with LightScribe Model DX-8A1H-01 LightScribe Support

Pros: Slim, light, excellent for travel. I'm giving it a 5th star because it does run on USB power if you use a Y cable, allowing it to draw power from two USB ports. (Western Digital has one designed for use with their USB-powered hard drives which works fine with this baby; it's available for ten bucks from the WD website.) I would still plug in the power adapter for burning, but if all you need to do is read a CD-ROM or play a DVD, you *can* leave the power adapter behind.

Cons: fragile construction; treat with care

Pros: Slim, and light. Neat mini USB cable. The drive is bootable. Lightscribe is neat!

Cons: I've only owned this drive for a few hours now, so let me just share my first impressions. When I first took this drive out of the box, I was disappointed that it looked so cheap. The plastic would probably get scratched if you look at it funny. Don't even dream of putting the drive in the same backpack compartment as the power brick, unless you want it to look real abused real quick. The drive is very loud; louder than a house fan, in fact. Under rare conditions, it can perform disk read operations powered solely by the USB cable, but in most cases it needs the power adapter to even spin up. No power switch. The drive will attempt to operate even if the power adapter is not plugged in, which means that you have to unplug the USB cable AND power adapter to shut this thing off. Drive is considerably slower, and slightly more expensive, than if you were to purchase an internal DVD/R drive and put it into an external USB enclosure.

Overall Review: Some people will probably like this drive for its form factor. I plan to return it immediately.

Pros: I love the design and color. It works perfectly out of the box. I've been able to burn about bunch of CDs and maderecovery/ backup dics for my thinkpad X61 and HP DV6000t

Cons: USB is too weak on its own.. have to use an adapter to power up

Overall Review: Great service and Great delivery! Got the item in 2 days! I would recommend this website to friends and family. Will buy from Newegg again

Pros: Lightweight, somewhat sturdy. Bootable!

Cons: Needs external power -- USB power is not enough.

Overall Review: The product description didn't say whether or not this drive could boot a computer, and whether it could do so with just USB power. While I'm pleased the drive boots fine (loaded Vista with nary an issue), the drive audibly tried to work under just USB power when I unplugged the AC adapter but couldn't get going. So, it's a good drive (and the AC adapter is smaller than most I've seen), but not ideal.

Pros: Size, weight, price and it works as advertised.

Cons: 1) Poor quality construction (the plastic on the drive I received was bent even though it was brand new!) 2) Requires separate power adaptor. They should provide a USB Y power cable. It was luck that I had a USB Y cable from another external hard drive that worked.

Overall Review: Next time, I would buy another one that is bus-powered and doesn't require an external power.

Pros: The Drive is Really Small. It's the size of 10 Christmas cards Stacked Together. Burns-Reads really well. Its Also Quiet for something this small. My other Slim Drive is heard across the room.

Cons: The only problem I have with this is that it isn't USB powered. I brought this as an addition for my laptop that does not have a Internal Drive. You need an outlet to power this drive.

Overall Review: My other External Drive for my laptop, which is USB powered, broke. So I was looking for another one. Other than that, this drive definitely do its job really well.

Pros: ability to be USB powered. Compact. Recognized in the BIOS.

Cons: Hangs and makes a weird noise. It was hard to tell if it was working while installing windows. It was slow. I had it plugged into the ac adapter and it still was inconsistent.

Overall Review: Unless you absolutely need a portable DVD solution, avoid this

Pros: Excellent burning and Lightscribe burning, fast. Read and write as fast and no coasters anymore. Compact, works perfectly with my notebook and desktop.

Cons: They are out of stock on this item

Overall Review: Thanks to Newegg shipping and handling got it lightning fast. Wish they would get them back in stock, 3 workmates are drowling over mine all the time and want to get them back in stock so they can buy one.