The Samsung SH-B083L Blu-ray combo drive will do the job and will definitely do it fast. The drive is a reliable CD/DVD/BD reader, it will burn your CDs and DVDs and it's stylish front panel will match pretty well to to your new PC case.

First of all, the drive proved to be a good CD reader, performing all tasks with speeds according to specifications, and being able to complete them successfully. DAE tasks will be performed fast enough at approximately 20x, while the CD error correction is more than the average, with the drive to sport good error hiding capabilities.

Next on, are DVD tests that we performed. The drive was fast and reliable, even when the DVDs we tried to read were not at a perfect physical condition.

The drive is also faster than most of the BD-ROM drives currently sold out there, offering 8x max speed for 25GB and 4x for 50GB Blu-ray discs. In addition, it will playback your BD-ROM and BD-R/RE disc smoothly enough for a great HD viewing experience using the CyberLink's PowerDVD software bundled with the package. CyberLink's PowerDVD is also supporting the 'TrueTheater' image enhancing technology, which will make your DVD videos look greater using up-scalling agorithms.The drive was also responsive to any navigation and FF/RW test we did while playing the movie.

Besides reading, the Samsung SH-B083L is able to burn CDs and DVDs. Our tests showed that the drive can reliably burn on CD-Rs and DVD-R discs. This does not mean that you will not be able to use our favorite DVD+Rs. The drive burned them well with some exceptions, as it always happens with the majority of DVD burners. On the weak side, the drive needs some work in the way it burns DVD+R/-R DL discs. The measurements we took on the burned discs showed high digital error rates.

With all these in mind , the choice is yours as always. With the optical drive market to be stalled, it's nice to see Samsung deciding to finally release new drives, especially when these support Blu-ray disc reading. The SH-B083L can be tracked online at a retail price of around €100 - a reasonable price for a BD combo drive if you ask me. If you need to spend less, you should look in other BD-ROM solutions which, however, lack the CD/DVD burning options. But it you need to replace your DVD burner and add your PC BD capabilities, the Samsung SH-B083L could be a great choice.

Positive

• Fast and reliable CD/DVD reader
• Strong with defected CDs/DVDs
• Fast Blu-ray reader
• Generally good CD/DVD writing quality
• BookType support
• Overburns CD-Rs
• Great software bundle

Negative

• Writing quality of DVD-R/+R DL and specific DVD+Rs