By the time we write these lines, Optiarc has released a new firmware for the AD-7260S drive. Although the company has not provided details on the enhancements and the improvements the firmware Ver.1.02 is offering, our initial thought was to run some extra tests with the new firmware installed, especially those related to the areas where the drive needed some further tweaking. However, the AD-7260S looks already appealing even with the firmware Ver.1.01 installed, as the weak points of this drive are very limited compared to other DVD burners.

Right from the beginning, it was obvious that the AD-7260S is based on the company's previous generation of 24x DVD burners, the AD-7240S, Both drives are based on the same NEC chipset. So our main interest was to see whether Optiarc has corrected the - not very important - issues that we had noticed when we tested the very capable AD-7240S drive.

The results were really encouraging. According to our findings, the AD-7260S managed to burn all the CD and DVD discs of our test without uncorrectable errors. This applies to CD / DVD recordable and rewritable discs (SL and DL). The drive's will burn at speeds of up to 24X, a performance translated to a just 4-minute burning task for each DVD R SL. However, the media list for 24x recording remains limited to a couple of high quality discs from Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden. That's has always been the case with DVD discs and it is not expected to change now, at a time where optical storage in its sunset. Nevertheless, we liked the fact that the drive burned even these couple of discs at 24x with high reliability.

The AD-7260S also proved to be a good reader, performing all tasks at speeds that match its specifications. As a super-multi reader/writer, the drive is compatible with any disc format on the market including 12x DVD-RAM.

As far as error correction is concerned, the tests showed us that the drive has could be further improved when it comes to reading defected CDs and DVDs.

Prices for DVD burners are very low and the the Optiarc AD-7260S retails for less than $25 (bulk version). Despite its low price, the drive packs great technology and has been optimized to offer exactly what it is supposed to. As such, it is a highly recommended DVD burner for everyone.

Pros

• Super-all-write DVD/CD burner
• Fast CD/DVD reader
• Fast CD/DVD burner
• Supports Book Type
• Great CD and DVD writing quality
• Overburns DVDs
• Compatible with CD/DVD scanning software

Cons

• Average reading performance with defected CD-R and DVDs