@ About, Writing/Reading Discs @

This disc drive claims to be a "super write master" which i think is a pretty big name to live up to and quite frankly, it isn't a super write master - its makes a hash of burning on discs, reading ID Tags on CDs and also claims to be "speed plus" when at 48x speed it cant handle the buffering errors. Burning CDs that are grade AAA+ ridiscs means you should get very few errors, i got the results back at the end of my burn it showed 6 buffering errors compared to my old phillips drive which managed less than 3 on the exact same grade of disc. Burning at 48x speed is not its most comfortable setting and it seems like just any other standard CD writer, i cant see why you pay more for this than the cheaper phillips ones.

Reading discs is where this thing earns some marks back because DVDs and games are perfect, fast and reliable with no crashing problems from the word go. With audio CDs its a little different because it will read the audio as whatever file they are, rip them or play them but sometimes misses the ID tags. I know this because there have been many occasions when i put a CD in and it would not read the tags then the next time i put it in hey presto, it had got them.

@ Build Quality, Speed @

As far as CD burners go this is quite a durable one - note the thick metal surround with multiple screws around the case to keep it all together and when you apply pressure to the casing there is no give, no indentation of the metal. The front is made from a thick plastic and the button has no play or give at all, through lots of usage mine is still sturdy and solid. The tray itself is again made of hard thick plastic and is smooth so you wont scratch discs when getting them in and out. Ive never scratched a disc throwing it in and out of the drive.

Reading discs will take about 6-10 seconds depending on what content there is. If its a massive DVD it will take much longer to read than just a few tracks on an MP3 disc. Writing speed is fast but not without a few buffering faults as explained. A 48x disc with about 19 WAV files will burn in around 3 minutes to 3 and a half minutes.

@ Overall @

This drive is just an average drive but its called a super write master and has a speed plus logo on - it may write fast but it makes mistakes like any other drive and the name is just a snazzy name really, nothing special here. Still recommended even if the name is just there to sell units. It has a lot to live up to and it just doesn't. It has excellent build quality and reading speed so for that, four stars are awarded.