Conclusion

Gigabyte has without a doubt produced a real performer here. The results pretty much speak for themselves. The unit sped through both the CD and DVD read speed benchmarks for all medias hurled at it without signs of hesitation. For a 4x DVD writer, it’s just plain amazing. We have no complaints except perhaps, for the fact that they could have bundled a newer Nero version 6 as the writing software.

As far as we are concerned, our review unit from Gigabyte did require us to install their bundled version of Nero in order to perform writing of DVD-RW medias on the drive successfully. So should you head on out to purchase this drive after reading this review, our advice is to keep the bundled Nero Burning Rom CD away safely for possible future installation. On the operation side of things, we found the Gigabyte Go-W0404A to be extremely quiet during spin-up, reading and writing. A definite plus for consumers who use their PC to listen to music or watch DVDs, but couldn't stand the irritating high pitch whining that are common in most modern high speed optical drives.

Our final take on this product? A 4.5 stars out of 5. Why not 5 you say? Well, we have our reasons. The main purpose of a consumer forking out a large portion of their savings for this product is to be able to write on both DVD- and DVD+ medias. The drive is clearly capable of writing both formats alright, but the rather disappointing write time of 28 mins 4 secs at 2.4x for a DVD+RW hindered us from awarding it a perfect score. The timing is just not comfortable enough to be accepted for a drive that proclaims a 2.4x DVD+RW write speed. Hopefully future releases of firmware for this product might improve the drive’s DVD+RW writing efficiency. In the meantime, if you're on the lookout for a reliable and a good all-rounder in terms of reading and writing speeds, the Gigabyte Go-W0404A should fit the bill perfectly.