This was the second optical drive for my new build the first one was a Blu-ray burner,
LG WH12LS30 12X SATA BLU-RAY BURNER - BULK, DRIVE ONLY
, this was needed because I copy discs and it is easier if you can copy from one to another optical media drive, hence got a DVD burner! Bought this after doing some research online and doing some price comparisons on Newegg and Amazon, and this one had good reviews and a great price!
I have used it considerably well for the past 2 weeks, so I can't comment on reliability yet, will update this review if something goes wrong. That said, so far this has proved to be a great buy, my Blu-ray drive is awfully noisy, it seems like the system is about to take off when I use that, but this one on the other hand is very quiet and does the job equally well, so this is my first main observation and one that I was very pleased with!
So here is the detailed review:
1) Installation: Installing the drive was a breeze, if you are familiar with computer hardware and knows what goes where and where the SATA connectors are on your motherboard, you would probably have it installed in under 5 min, especially if you have a tool-less 5.25 drive bay! It comes with one SATA cable for getting it hooked up, if you have a older PATA/IDE only motherboard, you might have to buy additional adapters!
2) Asthetics: Nothing fancy here, just like any other internal 5.25" optical drives you have seen! Got a non-glossy black bezel in front and it looks neat and clean, and fits in flush with my case, no rough edges, if you have a black case you probably won't be able to see the edges unless you look closer!
3) Noise Level: As mentioned earlier this is quiet and you won't hear the disc spinning, it won't scare you or your babies or pets (some of them do)! Both while reading and writing it is pretty quiet!
4) Light-Scribe: The drive has lightscribe support, although I haven't used it yet. So no comments on that, will edit once I have used that feature. Lightscribe lets you print disc labels on the other side of the DVD, if you have a lightscribe disc (you need to buy special media for this to work, won't work on all DVD's)!
5) Speed: This majorly depends on what kind of media/discs you are using, the drive can write at 24x speeds (the max at this time), if that kind of discs were even available, but unfortunately the max media speed caps at 16X, so for a 16X single layer disc (which is what I use mostly) this will complete the writing in 5 min, which is fast enough for me, but again this will depend on the media you are using, dual layer DVD's will take much much longer!
6) Quality: All the media burnt using this disc has so far provided excellent quality and works exactly as it should! The build quality of the drive itself is very good, no complaints there!
7) Bundled Software: It came with a NERO 9 Essentials disc, which I use now! It is not the latest form Nero out there but hey you can't argue with free, so that's worth around $10 (for OEM) -
Nero 9 Essentials CD/DVD Burning Software (OEM Version)
!
8) Registration: Registration was not as easy as it should have been, I register all my new purchases, just helps me keep an electronic record of all items, drivers, activation's etc, and it would come in handy if something goes wrong later! The documents along with the writer did not provide a site for registration, or I missed it, if it was there, so I had to search a little bit, but once I got on liteonit.com it was pretty straight forward! All the info you need to register is on the packaging itself!
So overall, so far for me, I haven't yet found any cons or negatives worth mentioning, it does what it is supposed to do and it does it pretty efficiently and quietly! So there it is - 5 stars Lite On!
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This Item  Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive IHAS424-98 - Retail (Black) |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | Currently unavailable. | $24.99 | $25.49 | $22.91 | $14.50 | -23% $26.99 List: $35.00 |
| Delivery | — | — | Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11 | Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11 | Get it May 9 - 13 | Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| Easy to install | ||||||
| Noise level | ||||||
| Value for money | ||||||
| Sold By | — | AmaMax (USA) Since 1993 l iMBAPrice® Authorized Distributor | Vinpower_Digital_Inc | Amazon.com | ALLTECH RESOURCES LLC | AmaMax (USA) Since 1993 l iMBAPrice® Authorized Distributor |
| hardware interface | cd-r | dvd rw | cd-r | sata 1 5 gb | ide, ata | dvd r, cd-r, dvd rw, cd rw |
| read speed | 24x | — | 16x | — | 52x | 8x |
| write speed | — | — | 24x (DVD), 48x (CD) | 16x | 52X | 24X |
| hardware platform | PC | PC | — | — | PC | PC |
| cache memory size | 2 MB | 2 MB | — | — | 2 MB | — |
Reviews with images
Bravo
Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive IHAS424-98 - Retail (Black)Perfect, multi purpose, affordable does not hit your pocket. This product has all that which it claims for. Unlike other costly product for the same use it even comes with sata data cable, nero 9 and how to install easy steps instruction book. Which guide you through whom cable goes where? I tried all its functions and found it quite and have the job done with no errors. If you want to install nero9 which comes with it, it's up to you. After installation and reeboot it doesn't shuff lots of bulky software by it self in your system, again it's up to you if you want to install software to support this product.Long live Liteon.
