ASUS USB 3.0 12X Blu-ray Burner Model BW-12D1S-U/BLK/G/AS

Pros: Seem to work well.
USB 3.0.

Cons: The tray open/close button feels cheap.
The power button is a a cheap sliding switch.
The units do not have a flat top, and so are not stackable.

Other Thoughts: Bought these for backups. No coasters yet.

Pros: Works great with DVD-R's, I have not tried blue-ray yet, But this thing is well built. There is really no reason to buy any other external ROM drive.

This can also be used as a RAM drive. Run a Linux live CD from blu-ray and watch it fly.

Cons: None really...

I think this was completely made in China, but China has been coming up in the world as a dominant manufacturer. Unfortunately the US has outsourced itself way too much and is losing its grip as an economical superpower.

Other Thoughts: Get this drive, you won't regret it.

Pros: So far no coasters . Burns fast , in fact it has burned a DVD at a higher speed than it was rated at . A great looking burner , the stand is a good idea , no room for the burner without the stand. Just wish it had lightscribe like the 12 B1LT

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: Great burner , looks good , fast burns

Pros: Where the USB 3.0 is nice to have is if you are going to be burning Bluray discs, because the 12x BD-R write speed is 54MB/s - faster than you could achieve using USB 2.0 (i has an effective throughput of ~35 MB/s). Even 10x is faster than what USB 2.0 could do.

It works without needing a CD/DVD for drivers, at least under Windows 7.

Can sit vertical or horizontal.

Looks nice, slightly larger than a Nintendo Wii I would guess.

You get what you pay for.

Cons: The power cord is long - PLENTY long, but then they skimped on the USB 3.0 cord.. I can sit this external burner on the left side of my 17" laptop and it barely has any slack connecting to a USB 3.0 port on the right hand side. So just beware that the USB cord itself is NOT very long.

Perhaps the price, it does feel sturdy and well made, but it is pricey.

Other Thoughts: USB 3 is pointless for DVD/Bluray drives if all you're doing is playing movies. 16x DVD-ROM read speed is 22MB/s, 8x BD-ROM/BD-R read speed is 36MB/s. Again, with USB 2.0's effective throughput of ~35 MB/s, the READ speed of both DVDs and Bluray discs is the same using USB 2.0 and 3.0.

I would definitely buy it again because ASUS makes great products.. their support is total crud but their products are top notch.

Pros: Good at what it does.

Cons: Initial Spin up is slow and takes a while to get up to max RPM.

Pros: The specs on this drive are pretty good, which is why I bought it. That and the confidence I had that an Asus product would be good quality.

Cons: This drive is encased in a weird plastic housing with a big flip down door in the front. If you pry that door open, inside is the real unit with its own eject button and tray door. The exterior eject button is this weird, mushy panel on the right front corner of the housing. It only works sporadically and there is no tactile feedback to let you know the button has been properly pressed. I just use the operating system software eject to open the tray door, it's less frustrating. It's also possible to open the housing door and try to reach the real eject button inside, which does work correctly, but it's slightly difficult to reach. Also, the housing isn't level on top, it's slightly beveled, so it's not practical to stack multiple drives.

Other Thoughts: Not having a working eject button is really poor design and surprising for an Asus product. I definitely would not have bought this drive if I had known about the defective button. I'm very tempted to try and pull off the cheap plastic housing to see if the unit inside has its own enclosure and could be used by itself. I usually buy Plextor drives and this will be the last time I don't.

Pros: 6 discs, no coaster yet. Also I figured out how to get it to write at 16x. And since it's burning as it's advertised, there's really no need for a firmware update yet so...

Cons: none

Pros: So quiet that I'm burning a dvd as I'm typing this and can't hear it at all.

Cons: I'm unable to update the firmware on the ASUS website. After I select the optical drive, I'm prompted to select an OS, but the drop down menu is empty so I'm stuck. Also I'm hooked up to a USB 3 port and the DVD burning speed is stuck at 4x, not 16x as advertised.

Other Thoughts: If I can resolve the above issues I'll definitely add 2 eggs since this thing is literally silent. Hopefully an Asus rep can assist me hear because I'm having no luck on the website and the customer service like is busy.

Pros: Amazing design, great performance, feature packed blu ray player with GREAT software included

Cons: None so far

Other Thoughts: At first I thought was a little high until I received it. The list of great things this blu ray burner can do is absolutely amazing

Pros: Fast, reliable and excellently priced!!!!!!!!

Cons: Not applicable.

Other Thoughts: This thing does work just fine with DVDFab 8. I have been using it for months without troubles on a laptop and desktop. Burns dual layer disks in about 23 minutes as USB 3.0 speeds. It can get loud but it's not any louder than any other drive. If you have a reasonably good computer, this thing will NOT let you down. That as well as media that works well. I've used TDK, Verbatim, SONY and no troubles. The only CON if it is a con is that I've lost the software that came with it, really not wanting to spend $100 on PowerDVD.