Lite-on ETDU108 slim DVD drive

Peak reading speed hits 8x for DVD-Rom and DVD±R, dropping to 6x for other DVD formats, including dual-layer media. Copying a 2GB file off a DVD-R burned in UDP format took 6m 27s. Copying a 1GB folder containing 100 10MB files took 4m 20s. That's 5.29MB/s and 3.94MB/s, respectively.

Dock the cable in the base of the drive

Using the Opti Drive Control test software, the Lite-on yielded a cross-DVD read speed range of 1.68x to 4.11x, with a random read speed of 152ms and a burst throughput of 13.1MB/s.

By comparison, a similarly 8x-rated LG GP08NU10 - reviewed here - scored from 1.04x to 2.53x, 209ms and 15.6MB/s, respectively. Not so fast at reading, but it will burn discs for you.

The LG costs between £42 and £51, depending on who you buy it from, which isn't so very much more than the Lite-on. And that's the point: wouldn't you rather pay £20 more and get a drive capable of burning too?

Verdict

Lite-on's ETDU108 isn't a bad little drive and it's cheap enough not to trouble the netbook buyer's budget - and certainly not anyone who's opted for a thin'n'light notebook. But make sure before you buy that you really don't need to burn discs. ®

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