The Taiwan Connection: 4 DVD Burners From Asus, Gigabyte and MSI

MSI DR4-A

Firmware: 2.3

The DR4-A is basically already outdated, since MSI recently started offering the faster DR8-A (see below). Nonetheless, that could mean that the DR4-A will become a good bargain.

Both models come with the same stuff - and both unfortunately omit a data cable. Both also feature good extraction capabilities for digital audio and SVCD. MSI scores very respectably in this area. But when burning DVDs of any kind, the DR4-A consistently lags a few seconds behind the competition. That shouldn't present a real problem in practical use, though.

At just under 14 minutes, the device doesn't take an inordinately long time to read out a complete DVD, either. The faster successor model and the burners from NU and LG are speedier. Too bad we had to deal with a DOS utility for the firmware update we installed before we ran the tests.