That's the time we were able to hit with ASUS' fastest burner on the market, their 52X/24X/52X CRW-5224A, an internal drive that, while a bit noisy, offers great burn and suitable rewrite speeds at an excellent price. Some other drives on the market can rewrite at 32X, so if backup speed is a priority for you, you might want to spend a little more for those extra X's.

Installing the CRW-5224A took only a few minutes. The drive manual contains a decent installation section that walked us through the basics of setting the drive's jumper, mounting it in an open bay, connecting the cables, and getting our system back up and running. If you're not afraid to open your PC's case, installing the CRW-5224A is a straightforward task.

ASUS opts for Ahead Software for the burning and packet-writing software bundle. The excellent Nero Express with its user-friendly interface makes it simple for even beginning users to create their own audio and data CDs. InCD handles the drag-and-drop packet writing to CD-RW discs without you having to think about what you're doing. And Nero Media Player can be used to encode audio tracks (although you can make only 30 MP3s without upgrading to the Pro version of the software).

Unlike some drive manufacturers, ASUS includes a variety of controls and lights on the front of the drive. With LEDs for both writing and reading, you can keep tabs on what the drive is doing at a glance. There's also a headphone jack and volume control with buttons for play and stop, so you can listen to audio CDs directly through the drive.

ASUS also includes a blank CD-R and a blank CD-RW with the CRW-5224A, making it even more of a bargain. If you need a high-speed burner for a great price, look no further than the CRW-5224A from ASUS.

Pro: Bargain price, fastest burn speeds out there.

Con: Only 24X RW, a bit loud.