Model: Samsung SH-B083
Rating: 9 out of 10
Price: $120 inc. GST (street)
Web: www.samsung.com.au
The SH-B083 is the cheapest Blu-ray/DVD combo drive on the market at around $120 street price (although if you search hard enough, you’ll actually find it for under $100).
During our testing, we were unable to get a burn that was within ECMA specifications using our Sony 16X-speed DVD-R media with a PIF peak of 13 (maximum within spec allowed is 4) on both test burns we carried out at the rated 16X-speed. Burn speed however at that nominal 16X-speed rating was good, taking just 5mins55secs to complete our 4.38GB test burn.
However, the good news is that the underlying error trend was low and similar to other drives we tested, suggesting it should create good-quality burns.
The SH-B083 will handle DVD+/-R DL media at 8X-speed, DVD+/-R media at 16X and supports DVD-RAM at 5X.
Although the drive does not burn Blu-ray discs, it will play them, including Blu-ray movies via the accompanying CyberLink Power series software.
As with all Blu-ray-capable drives, this one is only available with a SATA interface.
If you’re building a new system and you’re on the lookout for a drive capable of playing Blu-ray movies, they don’t come any cheaper at the moment than this SH-B083 from Samsung.