Optiarc SATA DVD RW Burner Drive with DVD+R DL Overburn up to 8.7GB, Black (5280S-CB-PLUS)

Nice drive, esp. for burning accurately. Bought this in Sept '14 for $31. Since then, I've probably burned 800 discs, usually simple 4gig DVDs with data. Data on nearly every disc verified error-free. No problems using media of any retail brand sold at [popular nationwide office supply retailer] & . 8gig duel-layer DVD-DL no problemo. But, if you're gonna buy this GET THE 3-YEAR or 4-YEAR WARRANTY PLAN. After 600 discs or so, I began experience a slacking-off, slowing of the tray opening, occasional error burn which I attributed to mass-production of blank media in India using huge machines probably operated by pre-teen children in 14-hour shifts in hot factories. The frequency of these bad burns was low enough to my satisfaction and I'd give this drive a healthy four (4) stars. (Only missing a five-star grade because it's bland, ugly, boring-looking in appearance.) Then it became ene month before the 3rd anniversary of my purchase of this drive, and I'm having problems with the tray drive not opening. Eventually had to buy an approximate sized O-ring from [popular nationwide hardware retailer], disassemble the drive/replace the tiny belt drive. The drive now opens and closes, at least. But, had I paid an extra eight or ten dollars for the optional warranty, I'd be able to replace it. Therefore, minus a star for durability. Replacing it now costs $68, more than twice what I paid for it three years ago. If I don't find a suitable, durable replacement, I would purchase this again plus the warranty.

Optiarc was a joint venture between Sony and NEC, but Sony closed the Optiarc division in March 2013. NEC optical drives had good user reviews and the one I owned lasted a long time so I bought this Optiarc SATA optical drive. Installed it and Windows 7 automatically loaded the driver for it. Tested reading CDs and DVDs and burned one DVD and it works fine. I expect this drive to last a long time like my previous one.The drive came with a SATA cable which has straight (not "L") connectors on both ends and is 16 inches long. The 16 inch cable was too short to reach from the SATA connector on my motherboard to the the top drive bay in my tower PC. Luckily I had an 18 inch cable that has a straight connector on one end and a "L" connector on the other end and it's long enough to reach.

I got this drive because I was tired of having to go buy a new game every time my little brother broke one of my disk. So far it has worked flawlessly and have not had one bad burn yet! Also I use memorex disk with this drive because it seems to handle well with them, even though they are not "high quality verbatim disk". Since this drive already came with an overburn feature I didn't have to flash any firmware and you just plug it up, put in a dl disk and it goes to work! I am worried about the possibility of a burn out though, as I have to use and adapter that plugs into a wall since I am using a lab top, and I hope that it doesn't break it. Even if it does I will buy another one since these drives are not all that expensive! But so far it seems to be going strong!

I don't usually leave reviews but since I wanted to clarify a few questions I had I decided to do so.So this is more intended to answer a few questions than praise the product (which is excellent btw)First off even though the picture does not show it the drive does have holes in the sides for mounting in a 5 1/4" slot in a pc chassis.What comes in the package:This drive is OEM which means there are no bonus materials, games etc with it and it comes in no frills box in bubble wrap.In addition there was a 16" sata cable (tip to tip) in mine which means you get about 14"-14.5" of length once plugged in. I didn't need this myself which is good because it would have been too short for my slightly over-sized Cooler Master HAF tower. So be aware of that.Lastly there was a Power Digital cd with burning software and a UDF driver both for Windows XP.The UDF driver allows you to treat a re-writeable cd (maybe dvd too - not sure) like a disk on your pc. I used to do that years and years ago but found that other people couldn't access the data (only me) so I stopped. Plus back then it wasn't very reliable.The dvd drive itself installed in minutes in my case and was recognized by windows 7 once it booted up. Nothing else to do. It would I'm sure be the same for XP or Vista if that is your OS.So basically unless you need the burning software you won't need to do anything except put in in your case, plug in the power and sata cables and boot up.It's only been a few hours since I installed it but it is working fine as I would expect.Lastly,Kudos to Amazon which shipped the drive under the 2 day shipping I selected and still got it here in 1 day. I expect this drive will last as long as my previous Sony which was basically an earlier version of the same drive. It would still be working (after 4 years) if I hadn't ripped the drive door off it Friday trying to get to the living room to find out why the grand-kids were fighting (again :)).

DVD drive works wonderfully! Burns all of the ISO's that I bought it for. Yes, it's compatible for what you're looking to buy it for. I later on ended up just RGH'ing my box and now have no use for it but it's still nice to know that for any other software that I need to overburn, I have that capability. Make SURE to get the correct model and to double check or you're settiing yourself up for failure. I would highly suggest just paying someone in your locale to do the hack for you instead of going this route but sometimes it's just easier to do, so I can definitely understand that.

Yes. A lot of people buy these for 1 reason. These Optiarc (2 kinds made by Sony) can burn YOUR Xbox 360 BACKUPS without any flashing or anything straight out of the box! I don't use the settings many people recommend on forums and let these things burn default out the box AWS (Automatic Write Speed). It only take 19:15 seconds the longest! Rounded to 20 is the longest you'll have to wait for any backups to burn. I have had no problems so far besides my PNY 8GB RAM giving me the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) when I did burn. So if you get the BSOD when you burn, check your RAM first!