SOHW-1673S

PC World

  • Review
  • Specs
  • Images
  • User Reviews
  • Buy Online

LiteOn drives generally cut the mustard quite well in our reviews, even though they can be loud and clumsy looking. They are often the enthusiast's drive of choice due to the availability of a utility that lets users change the book-type of DVD media, forcing DVD-R, DVD+R or DVD+R DL discs to be burnt as DVD-ROM discs in a bid to make them readable in players that generally don't accept those discs.

Pros

  • Great CD performance

Cons

  • Slow, somewhat unreliable DVD writing

Bottom Line

We recommend this drive for users who are after excellent CD based performance but aren't too fussed about DVD performance.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 99.00 (AUD)

Special Offers

If you plan to burn DVD+R DL discs with this drive, then you will require a lot of patience. Our 2.4X DVD+R DL discs took over 44 minutes to complete, even though Nero reported a 4X transfer rate during the burn. Single layer burns were also quite slow, and this drive was not capable of burning to our 8X DVD-R discs at 8X; instead the maximum transfer rate it could use on these discs was 6X. Nero CD/DVD Speed reported this drive to be using the CAV method for writing and reading. It also produced a "coaster" during our DVD+R burning test.

A test of dual layer burning produced a disc that could not be read in our old Pioneer 106D DVD burner. It was picked up without problems in our Zensonic Z330 media player, though.

It wasn't all gloom for this drive though, as it produced some of the finest CD burning and reading results in our tests.

Keep up with the latest tech news, reviews and previews by subscribing to the PC World newsletter.

Be the first to comment.

Post new comment

Users posting comments agree to the PC World comments policy.

Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.

Most Popular

Call of Duty: Black Ops II Uprising DLC coming to PS3 and PC on May 17
What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
Laser vs. inkjet printers: which is better?
Samsung’s 2013 Smart TVs: everything you need to know
How do I connect my TV to the Internet?

Best Deals on PCWorld

TabletsView all »
NotebooksView all »
Mobile PhonesView all »
Printers & ScannersView all »
Networking, Wireless & VoIPView all »