LG Electronics released this 32x10x40x CDRW drive (GCE-8320B) late last year, and because it isn't cutting edge anymore it's now a great candidate for consumers on a budget. Having the absolute fastest burner is a nice luxury, but for most new systems something reasonably fast is just as good.

More importantly perhaps, since the LG 32x10x40x isn't the newest CDRW on the block, it's not going to cost an arm and a leg. In fact, we bought this OEM drive for a little over $80CDN, which is quite a deal.

With a top listed CD-R speed of 32X, a CD-RW write speed of 10X, and a CD-ROM reading speed of 40X, this LG drive should be good for most normal duty. After all, do you really need the fastest burner to make a back up of your MP3's, or just something to get the job done on those $0.99 cheap CD-R's we all gravitate toward? It's alright, you don't have to answer that one. ;)

LG 32x10x40 CDRW
	Ships with the following: User's Guide Roxio ECDC Manufacturer: www.lge.com

The LG drive supports Buffer Underrun Protection which is the basic component you should be looking for in any OEM drive you might be considering. After a quick trip to LG's website we managed to track down a few more details about the GCE-8320B CDRW.It uses an 8MB buffer and a so called "optimized writing approach based on artificial intelligence technology" to ensure that no disk comes out a coaster. I'm not sure about those kinds of claims, but in our tests we were able to burn quietly, quickly, and without incident with buffer underrun protection enabled.

The drive operates in either the vertical or horizontal position, writes CDR media with the Z-CLV standard, sports the usual assortment of features up front including; headphone jack, volume wheel, a few activity LED's and an eject button. As far as OEM CD burners go, the LG 32x10x40x even looks half decent thought the drive bay and bezel are two different shades of grey. Go figure.