Dual Layer (DL) DVD-rewriteable technology is at the cutting edge for optical drives, allowing users to record up to 8.5GB on a single DL media disc. NEC's new ND-3500A is one of the speediest of these drives, burning to DVD+R DL media at 4X.

As an added bonus, the ND-3500A is also one of the fastest drives on the market in other categories, writing to both normal DVD+R and DVD-R at 16X and to CD-R/RW at 48X and 24X, respectively.

The ND-3500A is available in either beige or black, so check the box or website before purchasing to make sure you get the color that best matches your computer tower. Installing the drive was a standard operation; we powered down our system, replaced our existing drive with the ND-3500A, connected the cables, and were back up and running in about five minutes. As with most current DVD-recordable drives, there aren't any audio controls on the front of the unit, so you'll need to listen to movies or music through your system.

The software bundle included with the ND-3500A features Ulead's DVD Movie Factory for compiling and burning video to CD and DVD, as well as Movie Wizard SSE for editing movie files. There is also NovaStor's NovaBACKUP for scheduling backups to CD or DVD media or other destinations such as a removable hard drive or a second PC. NEC even tosses in a blank DVD+R to get you started burning.

We were pleased with the ND-3500A's performance on burns. With 4X DL media, we were able to burn a full disc in less than 30 minutes. While this is still quite slow compared to the 16X speed of DVD+/-R (which ranges from five to nine minutes, depending on the media and the files), it's a vast improvement over the 45 minutes or so that it takes a 2.4X DL drive to burn a full disc.

Add to that the fact that the drive can burn to CD faster than most other DVD-recordable drives, and we were inclined to give the NEC NC-3500A our Best Buy rating. It's available for under $100, it burns to the latest media as well as older formats at the fastest speeds possible, and it ships with a robust software bundle. What more could you want from your DVD-recordable drive?

Pros: Fast speeds all around, good price
Cons: DL media still quite expensive