Lite-on's eHAU424 external USB2.0 optical drive gives you writing speeds as fast as 24X for DVD+/-R media. It can burn through dual layer DVD+ and DVD- media and write to CD-Rs and CD-RWs as well. While Blu-Ray media is not supported, the LiteOn eHAU424 will work with photosensitive Lightscribe media for those who want to add a graphic element to custom mix tapes (for example) by burning the label right onto the disk itself.

Since the LiteON eHAU424 is an external drive, it uses a USB 2.0 connection to communicate with the PC and a DC adaptor for power. Since we're now living in an era of Netbooks and personal computers without optical drives, having the ability to back-up or install files to/from optical media makes for a lot more flexibility and better data storage options.

The unit is pretty quick too: DVD+R writing runs at 24x and dual layer writing is at 12x, while CD-Rs can be written at 48x and CD-RWs at 32x. Authoring a disc should only take a few minutes, regardless of media. While early external drives could easily run into the $300 price range and were historically fickle and prone to buffer under-run failures, things have changed for the better in the past few years. LiteON's eHAU424 can be had for around $50 CDN ($45 USD, £30 GBP) , and incorporates a 2MB write buffer that should make it a lot more reliable than its early forefathers.

LiteOn eHAU424 External DVD/CD Writer Includes: User's Manual, Stand, USB Cable, power adapter, software

The underlying drive is native Serial ATA II, with a 3Gb/s SATA II to HiSpeed USB 2.0 bridge card powered by a Prolific PL2571 IC doing all the hard work - in other words, LiteON have sized the interconnecting hardware so there shouldn't be data bottlenecks. Writing modes for DVDs on the eHAU424 include DAO (Disc-at-Once) and Incremental Recording, as well as restricted overwriting and sequential recording. CD writing can also support TAO (Track-at-Once) and SAO (Session-at-Once) recording, in additional to mutli-session recording.

Lite-on eHAU424 Specifications

Blu-Ray

DVD-RW

DVD+RW

DVD-R

DVD+R

DVD-R DL

DVD+R DL

DVD-RAM

DVD-ROM

CD-R

CD-RW

Buffer

Read:

no

16x

16x

16x

16x

16x

16x

16x

16X

48x

48x

2MB

Write:

no

6x

8x

24x

24x

12x

12x

12x

-

48x

32x

2MB

This external drive comes in a two-tone black and white colour scheme. It has a matte finish so it won't attract fingerprints the way a shiny surface would. An eject button and status LED are the only items on the front of the drive, and at rear is the DC power input, power switch and USB-B data connector.

The casing of Lite-On's eHAU424 makes it a little bit thicker and longer than the average internal optical drive. The unit measures 168 x 57.5 x 197mm, so you shouldn't have much trouble propping it up on your desk. The casing isn't designed to be removed from the optical drive itself, so you can't swap in another 5.25" drive into it without a lot of effort.