ASUS 8x External DVD/RW Slim Drive (SDRW-08D2S-U/B/G/ACI)

Works well. Easy to install. Relatively quiet drive when in use. I'm a bit disappointed that the drive did not come with the stand that is pictured. There isn't even a slot for a stand to snap on to. It's as if a stand was never designed for this drive. The included instructions even shows how to attach and detach the stand. I know it's not an older model because the sticker on the bottom of the drive states that it was built on Aug. 2014 and the drive was purchased Nov. 2014. It's not a huge deal but a bit disappointing as I have a small work area and was anticipating the stand to free up space. If it's not a big deal to you, the drive is fine.

My new laptop no longer has an optical drive so this serves the purpose just fine for the rare occasions I need it. It's a little thicker than I was hoping for which is why I didn't give it 5 stars. The included software works fine for recording files on a DVD-R/RW or CD-R/RW. However if you are using Windows 8 & above and want to play DVD movies, you will need to install external software to do this. The included software will not allow you to play movies on your windows 8 computer. I located software on-line to do this at no cost. Here's the name of the file: Combined-Community-Codec-Pack-2014-07-13

I bought this to use in the evening or night to watch videos of an educational variety at night on my computer. I installed it and found out that although it says that it has closed captioning capability on the menu it gives no ability to turn on the closed captioning, even though the instructions come in 35 languages there is no mention of how to actually work thru the menu to turn the functions on or off. But they certainly are proud of their shimmering diamond embossed top surface!!! Also it was shown with a stand but when it gets here you find out it's optional!! THANKS A LOT!!!!