This is a very cheap, versitile, quiet and fairly fast writer. Worked great for me as a replacement where I could just reuse the old screws to fit it. No instructions, no frills, just good value - just what I wanted. Recognised first time by my PC running XP.
Performance wise seems to work fine on all cds and dvd media that I had to hand - but I don't have dual layer so haven't tried that. I like the optimum speed feature where it works out for itself based on the particular media. Buffer under run works fine too.
If you can live without lightscribe (and it is kind of tempting to be able to easily label your CD using the burner) this is a good value option. Loses a star becuase the tray looks a little flimsy to me.
Software is an essentials version of Nero 7. Not that useful to anyone buying this as a replacement drive - likely have burning software anyway.