Noise and Cooling

While writing to a DVD at 16x the Samsung drive is pretty much silent and is the same with normal read operations. However, during the 48x DVD writing process it was clearly audible above the case fans and coolers within.

The write speed can be adjusted in nero's settings so you can choose a good mix between speed and noise level should you so wish. You can also use Samsung's Magic Speed software which allows you to adjust the drive's firmware so that it automatically runs at 40x. However the only choices are that and 48x so software alterations definately give you much more flexibility.

Cooling seems like an odd thing to discuss with a DVD drive. Although it doesn't exactly contribute to cooling your hardware, its slim SATA cable is much less obstructive to airflow than those large IDE ribbon cables. While testing I did not notice any temperature differences in my case, but then again, my cable management was fairly good anyway; in a cluttered case, the reduced obstruction would help airflow greatly.

Cost