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As mentioned in the Iomega review, this NEC drive is the same as the Iomega Dual DVD. Just a quick look at the fascia shows that the two drives are physically identical. You’ve got a single eject button, a headphone socket, a volume wheel, indicator light and a manual eject hole. Very much a basic optical drive set up.

However, what sets the NEC apart from all the other drives is that it’s only available as a bare drive, rather than as a retail package, or at least that’s the only way that we could find it. Part of the reason that we couldn’t find the NEC in a retail box, could be the existence of the Iomega Dual DVD, but of course that’s just speculation.

Since you’re just getting the bare drive and nothing else, the price of the NEC is lower than the competition, making it the only drive on test at under £80. Of course to consider a bare drive you’ve got to be sure that you have everything you need to mount and connect it as well as some burning software with which to use it. That said, with a price of £76.91 you could buy the NEC and a full Burning suite and still have change from what the Iomega would cost you.

Specification wise the NEC will write DVD+R at four-speed, DVD-R at four-speed, DVD+RW at 2.4-speed, DVD-RW at two-speed, CD-R at 16-speed and CD-RW at 10-speed. This is all pretty much par for the course and the results are also average. Unsurprisingly the NEC and the Iomega show incredibly close performance scores, but then none of the drives are too far apart in performance, with the exception of the BenQ which sports four-speed DVD+RW writing.

There’s not a whole lot else to say about the NEC. It’s a decent enough DVD writer that holds its own with the majority of the competition these days. Although, there are already drives on the market with faster write speeds than this.

Ultimately, if you’re not that bothered about super-fast write speeds and already have all components and software that you’d need to get a DVD writer going, buying a bare drive like this NEC makes a lot of sense. It’s still worth remembering though that the LG GSA-4040B can also be bought as a bare drive for only £10 more than this NEC.

Verdict

The NEC is a decent enough drive and won’t break the bank if you’re on a tight budget. You’ll need to make sure you have everything else you need if you’re going to invest in a bare drive though.

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