AOpen CRW 9624

Worth a look for its fast write times if you're on a budget.

AOpen is a company that produces almost every component that makes up a PC. Probably most recognisable for its array of motherboards, AOpen has also been producing optical drives for quite some time. Unfortunately, the CRW 9624 is getting a bit long in the tooth now with a specification of six-speed CD-R, four-speed CD-RW and 24-speed CDRom performance. That said, the drive put in a decent performance and even beat the eight-speed Philips in the CD-R writing tests. CD-RW performance was commendable, but the CDRom read tests saw the AOpen consistently at the bottom of the graph, hindered by its 24-speed read specification. Build quality was a little below par, with the drive casing noticeably more flimsy than much of the competition. In fact, the casing on our review model was a little loose on one side. Nero Burning Rom software takes care of CD writing, offering an easy-to-use interface. You also get an MP3 encoder and a copy of Norton Ghost for imaging your hard disk. In its favour, the CRW 9624 is very cheap at £135 ex VAT. It's worth a look if you're on a tight budget, but we'd suggest saving a bit more cash and looking elsewhere.