Lite-on: Best Budget Burner, Period.
I am very partial to lite-on dvd writers and have used them for at least a decade now in the vast majority of my PC builds. Not only because their build quality is among the best but the price is among the lowest - a company that manages to do both of those right in this day and age is bliss. This particular lite-on drive is no exception: the Lite-on iHAS224-06 burns extremely fast at up to 24X speeds to DVD-R's, DVD+R's, DVD-RW's and DVD+RW's, meaning you can burn a complete DVD-5 disc in under 7 minutes. It also burns to CD-R's and CD-RW's with the same ease and at fast speeds (48X), taking just about a minute and a half to complete a CD burn. This drive also features Lightscribe support which allows for "printing" directly onto the label-side of the disc using just your DVD-writer - no ink or messy labels to worry about! The only caveat is that you need to use Lightscribe-compatible media which do carry a premium over your standard DVD / CD discs.
onelastspin
Pearl, MS