Nu Tech DDW-081

     With 8X being the new norm for writing to DVD media, its hard to choose a  DVD+-RW. After doing a little homework I found the reviews of this drive to be in abundance, but just who is Nu? Nu-tech may sound like a new company to you and I, but they have actually been around for a while. Well after a little investigative work I found that their company is one of the leading manufacturers of DVD readers and writers for notebook applications. Of course my first impression was that if any company can manufacture notebook based componentry has to have the resources, knowledge, and know-how to do a good job since they have a bit more space to work with. Well I can say that the NU DDW-081 is fairly impressive considering its $100 street price. Not only can you use its DVD burning functionality but it does a good job of CD burning as well, which is not typical of drives in this price range. Lets take a look...

Specifications

Dimension 144.2 mm x 41.3 mm x 190.0 mm(cm)
Weight 965g±10g (with Bezel)
 

     The DDW-081 is a half-height internal type and an IDE/ATAPI interface DVD+R/RW recordable drive. The drive is able to write DVD+R/RW discs as well CD-R/RW discs and can perform as a regular DVD-ROM drive. The DDW-081 has 8X speed DVD+R disc writing, 4X speed DVD+RW disc writing, 12X speed DVD-ROM disc reading, 40X speed CD-R disc writing, 10X speed CD-RW disc writing and 40X speed CD-ROM disc reading capabilities. Furthermore, the DDW-081 supports all writing methods specified in industry standards and the functions of writing conform to them.

Features And Benefits

Very good retail package that includes both media and software.
Supports 8x DVD+R speed.
Supports 4x DVD+RW.
Supports 24x CD-RW speed.
Supports 40x CD-R Speed
Impressive CD-R writing quality with supported media.
Very fast writing strategy makes it one of the faster 8x DVD-Writers.
Impressive DVD+R/RW writing quality with most types DVD+R/RW media.
Many types of 4x DVD+R media are supported at 8x speed.
Good DVD-R/RW writing quality on most supported media.
Running OPC technology that works.
Impressive reading performance with almost all types of CD/DVD media.
Very good seek times.
Recognizes all types of media very quick after inserted.
God packet writing performance.
Supports DAO-RAW writing.
Supports reading and writing of full SubChannel Data.
Supports reading and writing 8cm CD-R discs.
Fast and perfect audio extracting.
Excellent performance with protected audio discs.
Supports reading and writing 99 minutes discs.
Very good build quality.
Fully supports bitsetting (supports bitsetting for all types of DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW media!).
Leading Edge Technology Mt. Rainier(F/W not ready)
Mt. Rainier, also known as EasyWrite, is a format specified by Microsoft, Sony, Philips and Hewlett-Packard to allow an optical disc to be used exactly like a floppy disk. That is, being able to read from and write to the disc from within any application you use, without the need for special burning software. Mt. Rainier differs from traditional packet writing software in that it performs most of the tasks (such as background formatting and handling defect management) in the hardware of the drive itself, making the system far more robust, and relieving the operating system from these tasks. Mt. Rainier will be a standard part of the forthcoming Microsoft Windows version, called Longhorn. Mt. Rainier capability is available for CD-RW and DVD+RW only. Look for the EasyWrite logo on the front of the drive to determine if it is Mt. Rainier compliant.

Two-way Compatibility
Two-way compatibility is the basic philosophy for DVD+R and DVD+RW. It means that existing DVD-Video discs can be played on a DVD+RW recorder (or that existing DVD-ROM discs can be read on a DVD+RW drive), and that the recordings you make on DVD+R and DVD+RW discs can be played on existing DVD-Video players and DVD-ROM drives.

Minimum Systems Requirements Basic system requirements:

PIII 450 CPU and higher, 128MB memory and higher.
Windows 98SE/ windows ME/ Windows 2000/ Windows XP

More Information on the DDW-081 can be found at Nu Tech's website located here