Setup and Usage
Getting the SDRW-08D1S-U setup is really easy. Since I talked about using it with a netbook I went ahead and used it with my Lenovo S10-2, which does not have an optical drive. I just went ahead and plugged in the USB cable and the SDRW-08D1S-U was automatically recognized by the S10-2, no drivers to install or anything. Once you have the drive installed you can go ahead and put in the included CD. It includes the Cyberlink suite that makes it easy for you to burn and rip CD’s. Also there is ASUS’s turbo engine drivers, which increases the connection performance between the USB cable and the external drive, although the drive will work fine without the turbo engine drivers.
After getting everything installed I went ahead and used the drive for about a week with the netbook, even taking it places with me. I watched quite a few DVD’s with the drive and installed software from the drive without any problems at all. I did not notice any lagging or skipping when installing programs or watching DVD’s. I also burned a ripped a DVD and everything worked fine.
To test the speed of the drive I went ahead and used Sandra’s optical disk drive benchmark. As you can see the drive is made more for style than performance, but you shouldn’t expect the best speeds because it is a USB drive not a SATA drive.
Final Thoughts
The SDRW-08D1S-U would make a great addition to any netbook, especially ASUS’s Eee PC’s or the Eee Top line of computers. Optical drives are a necessity still and with many netbook’s not coming with optical drives it’s great that ASUS has come out with a nice slim drive that not only looks good, but works great too.
I really like the thin and slim design. That makes it easy to take with you places and it can easily fit in your computer bag. Also since there is no power cable you only have 1 cable to carry with you, the USB cable. That also makes installation easy, just plug it right in and your good to go, nothing to install.
At the time of writing this I found the SDRW-08D1S-U at my favorite online retailer for $59.99, which is a little high, but you are not really going to find a small drive like this that looks as good. Overall ThinkComputers gives the ASUS SDRW-08D1S-U External Slim DVD R/RW Drive a 9 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Easy to install / use
– Slim and thin
– Sleek design
Cons:
– $10 more than other drives
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