LG Electronics GSA-4040B

It was inevitable. With Sony, Pioneer, and others offering up drives that support DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW formats, some company was bound to take the next step and add DVD-RAM to the mix--hence, LG Electronics's GSA-4040B. Why DVD-RAM? Many digital-video recorders, such as Panasonic's DMR-E20, use the niche media for its ability to record and play back simultaneously, and the GSA-4040B makes it fairly easy to transfer DVD-RAM files to your computer. While it turned in an uneven performance in our tests, it is priced very competitively, and despite a few gripes, the GSA-4040B is the most versatile, capable optical drive you can get--at least for now.It took us about 10 minutes to install the GSA-4040B--about the same time as for any drive. Unlike many vendors, LG Electronics includes all three of the major installation accessories: mounting screws, an IDE cable, and a drive-to-sound-card audio cable. The illustrated, multilingual setup guide describes the install process sufficiently, but it has nothing about the bundled mastering and packet-writing software. The GSA-4040B is compatible with both PCs and Macs, but the drive ships only with software for Windows 98 SE onward--nothing for Macs. The drive does not support Microsoft's Mount Rainier technology.

The company bundles reliable software with the GSA-4040B: two titles from BHA, B's Recorder Gold 5.02 for CD/DVD mastering and B's Clip 5.02 for packet writing; NeoDVDplus 5.0 for producing VCD/DVD movies; and CyberLink's PowerDVD XP 4.0 for DVD movie and file playback. You have to install each application separately, but it's a fairly quick process.

Sony's DRU-510A and other comparable drives now write +RW at 4X. DVD-RAM fans, take note: The GSA-4040B won't accept DVD-RAM's protective cartridges, which contribute to the media's 100,000-rewrite potential. Separated from its cartridge, a DVD-RAM's rewrite rating drops to about the same as DVD-/+RW media's--around 1,000 rewrites.
	Write a movie to write-once media

TDK InDVD 440N (4X DVD+R) 4.94

Plextor PX-504A (4X DVD+R) 4.65

LG Electronics GSA-4040B (4X DVD-R) 4.16

Sony DRU-510A (4X DVD-R) 3.15

TDK InDVD 440N (4X DVD-R) 3.13

LG Electronics GSA-4040B (4X DVD+R) 2.75

Note: Compression rates vary depending on the drives' bundled software.

Data write tests (MB/sec)  (Longer bars indicate better performance) Write a 383MB file to rewritable media    Write a 500MB directory to rewritable media

LG Electronics GSA-4040B (4X DVD+RW) 3.10  2.15  TDK InDVD 440N (4X DVD+RW) 2.98  3.03  Plextor PX-504A (4X DVD+RW) 2.90  3.65  Sony DRU-510A (4X DVD-RW) 2.64  2.61  LG Electronics GSA-4040B (4X DVD-RW) 2.36  2.10  TDK InDVD 440N (4X DVD-RW) 2.33  2.16  LG Electronics GSA-4040B (3X DVD-RAM) 1.68  1.53

Data read tests (MB/sec)  (Longer bars indicate better performance) Copy a 383MB file from rewritable media to the hard drive    Copy a 500MB directory from rewritable media to the hard drive

LG Electronics GSA-4040B (4x DVD-RW) 6.42  3.73  Sony DRU-510A (4x DVD+RW) 5.28  3.80  Sony DRU-510A (4x DVD-RW) 5.26  3.16  Plextor PX-504A (4x DVD+RW) 5.26  3.02  TDK InDVD 440N (4x DVD+RW) 5.20  2.61  TDK InDVD 440N (4x DVD-RW) 4.46  2.97  LG Electronics GSA-4040B (4x DVD+RW) 3.12  1.41  LG Electronics GSA-4040B (3x DVD-RAM) 2.54  2.73

Note: Due to an error in our calculations, we originally published slightly innaccurate data-read results in this review. The scores have been corrected.

All write tests are run with both the drive's recommended media submitted by the manufacturer and with Verbatim media, rated at the drive's maximum speed. Find out more about how we test optical drives.

Online support for the GSA-4040B hadn't been implemented in time for this review. If LG Electronics's support for the GSA-4020B is any indication of what's to come, information will be elusive--but worth the search. Once you locate your product on the Web site, LG Electronics offers a good collection of firmware updates, manuals, and tech help via e-mail. LG Electronics backs the GSA-4040B with a one-year warranty. Lifetime, toll-free telephone support is available Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT.