All four candidates perform well compared to the drives from traditional makers, proving that they need not fear established names like Pioneer, Sony and Teac.

The Asus burner had no surprises in store, since it copied the proven hardware design from Pioneer. Its performance is solidly middle of the road except with CDs, where other devices are faster. Asus provides all the needed installation material standard - that should be the case with all manufacturers.

Once again, Gigabyte came through the rematch with its W0404A without raising any eyebrows. While the unit has no marked deficiencies, it doesn't have any marked strengths, either. Its CD reading performance is the only thing that lets it stand out somewhat.

MSI can only take the midfield with its DR4-A, too, although the device has decent extracting and ripping features. Better to go with the MSI DR8-A . Not because it can write DVD+Rs at 8x speed, but because its performance data looks good all around. The only thing missing in the retail bundle is the requisite installation material.