PLEXTOR Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IEEE 1394 / USB 2.0 External DVD Burner Model PX-740UF/SW-BK

Pros: This is a very quiet unit, my laptop makes a lot more noise. It never seems to get warm either so you can just copy and copy. I've only copied a few dvds, but a lot of cds & I haven't had any problems at all. The Nero program that comes with it seems like it will be good, but I haven't used it yet. I just use dvd shrink & windows media player for my copies. Everything copies fairly quick too so that's a plus.

Cons: I can't think of any.

Overall Review: I bought this unit because the drive in my dell laptop bit the dust & they don't make any for my model anymore (it's not even that old).

Pros: Superb performace! Lightning fast! One of the best drives I have ever owned, plus being an external to boot! It is not particular about media types,and works flawlessly with any software. Comes with a great software bundle too, if you don't already have software!

Cons: You will want to buy an extra one! The only down side is dual layer media is still expensive, but with regular single laye media being lower in cost, who cares!

Overall Review: You can't go wrong with this one!

Pros: This drive fired right up right out of the box without a problem. The drive is working as advertised. I own 6 plextors and this USB Drive is par for the course. For a hundred bucks you can't beat it. I use it with Roxio EZCD/DVD Creator and Clone DVD and it writes flawlessly.

Cons: None

Overall Review: The Fifty Dollar Instant Rebate and Free Shipping from Newegg make this a Great Deal.

Pros: reasonably fast, can be coaxed to work reliably.

Cons: extremely picky about media and software. failure rate is extremely high unless you use the recommended media (verbatim) and a good burning program (on the mac, this is toast).

Overall Review: absolutely will not work with built-in or free burning software on the mac (hdiutil, DiskUtility, Finder, cdrecord, etc), and no mac software is included, so don't buy unless you already own toast or are willing to shell out another hundred bucks or so for it. the included nero software works well enough on windows. mac users will also have trouble with respect to firmware upgrades - you'll have to find a windows box to upgrade the firmware (and you'll probably have to upgrade the firmware to get good results). after upgrading the firmware, getting the recommended verbatim blank media, and switching to toast, I've been able to burn very reliably, but it was a pain to figure this all out for myself....

Pros: good unit. works first time. easy install.

Cons: none, really.

Pros: Worked right out the box on OSX

Cons: could have at least come with a demo of toast or at least 1 blank dvd....

Overall Review: worked right out the box with OSX (Tiger) the only thing i had to do was install Toast. Other then that works like a charm.

Pros: Works as advertised. Reads and burns CDs and DVDs. The Ahead Nero software included is easy to install and use.

Cons: It took a while to realize that I needed to enable recording on this drive in WinXP to get CD writing to work. I have to do this every time I restart or reconnect the drive. Not a big deal.

Pros: Reads through scratched CDs and DVDs well. Burns quickly and dual-layer support works well. Easy to set up and use. I've been using it successfully for a few months now on Mac OS X 10.4.7. I'm also using it occasionally on a PC with Linux kernel 2.6.16 and it works beautifully (using K3B as the frontend).

Cons: USB connection to Mac is spotty in anything but Toast (though it works somewhat with PatchBurn installed). I found that using it on Firewire is much better for Mac. Works just like having an internal Superdrive then.