Samsung SH-S223Q

Bought this drive to pair with another(Samsung SH-S203N 20x DVD-Rom Burner SATA Drive with LightScribe (Black) DVD burner in a new computer build. After about a month of using this drive, I'm very happy… with performance and reliability. The 203N and this drive are virtually the same drive, 20X versus 22X max burn (you'll never see that difference). A person would be very hard pressed to tell the difference between these two drives. So I would buy based on price. Typical single layer DVD burns are around 16x even on 8x certified media. Double Layer burns are very fast, bumping that 2.4x certification. Burns play in just about every computer or DVD player I've tried (huge range from Panasonic portable to PS/3 to standalone players). The drive is fairly quiet, but no quieter than other brands. The drawer mechanism is better than the Sony's I have used, but not as solid as external stand alone burners (although I've never seen an internal drive that is that good). The drawer does not have that heavy and hydraulic sound that is so pleasant, it sounds fairly plastic. It fits in a 5 1/4 bay like any other optical drive. Do remember this is a SATA interface. If you are slim on SATA connectors on your motherboard, be very careful about this purchase. My old Sony Vaio with a Micro ATX motherboard only had 4 SATA ports. My new build Asus motherboard has 10, so no problems. Just check to be sure you have the ports and the power supply connector. Have never used the Lightscribe function. And can't comment on the retail bundled software, but that is usually not worth extra money.

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