Web DevelopmentNEC has not only managed to up the burning speed with its latest drive, it’s also flogging it at a really low price. And we like that.
With the twinkly blue lasers of high density DVD and Blu-ray glimmering on the optical-drive horizon, it’s easy to imagine that manufacturers might not be fussed with further developing the last generation of DVD writers. Not so with NEC.
For starters, the ND3540 can write to every kind of disc bar DVD-RAM – which very few of us really use anyway; DVD-RAM may be a hit in the Far East, but for some reason, it never really took off here. And for every kind of writable DVD disc, the current standard write-speeds have been improved. Dual-layer burning gets a full-on turbocharge, as the ND3540 boosts minus-layer write speeds from 4x to 6x, and actually doubles plus-layer write speeds from 4x to 8x. It even increases CD burning speeds from 24x to 32x. And all this for a piffling 34 quid. That’s economies of scale at work for you – with fabrication plants set up to knock out squillions of units per run, the price, to you sah, is massively reduced.
The drive also comes in a selection of colours – beige, black and silver, depending on the colour of your PC chassis – though it doesn’t actually come with an IDE ribbon-cable, as it’s assumed that you already have one of these. It’s hard to see why you’d plump for anything else, given the abilities of the ND3540; purely and simply, it’s the fastest DVD and CD writer on the market. And it’s $88. If you’re looking for an upgrade or a new disc drive for any reason, this would be our first and only choice. Highly recommended.
NEC 3540 $88 
Verdict: The DVD writer that does it all.