With all of this ballyhoo about HD-DVD-this and Blu-Ray-that, it's easy to forget that regular old DVDs and even our old faithful CDs are still quite posh. Not only is your box nearly unusable without some sort of compact disc reader for software, but most forms of entertainment such as movies and music still sells predominantly on these “old” formats of DVD and CD.

Both media and players for CDs and DVDs have been getting much cheaper lately, but has their quality kept up strong? Today we're going to look at a nice SATA DVD±RW drive, the Lite-On 20x LH-20A1S, to find out. Features and specifications, from the Geeks.com website, are:


Dual-layer capabilities, very quick read/write speeds that not too long ago were unimaginable, SATA interface, all not to mention the Nero 7 Essentials disc included with the drive… all of this sounds great, but can this drive deliver on its performance? Continue on as we find out.