Today's daily hardware buys

USA
Another good place to shop in the United States when it comes to refurbished goods is consumerdepot.com. In our quest for the cheapest DVD writer around, we stumbled on a Verbatim DVD Writer. The VBTDVRW1A is DVD+R/RW only which means that you will have to use more expensive DVD+R/RW media. It has a 2.4x/2.4x DVD Write/Rewrite speed with a 12x/10 CD Write/Rewrite speed. Nothing to write home for but at USD 45.99 at consumerdepot (around GBP 28, EUR 36), you could get much worse. It is a new, factory sealed product and apparently, it carries manufacturer's guarantee. Moreover, it seems to be a kit rather than a bare drive. More photos of the product can be found here while the consumerdepot page is here; the only review I found is here. Sadly, Verbatim's own website has no single clue about any DVD writer manufactured by this brand... µ

France
At €59.80 (Approx $72, £40), France's cheapest DVD Writer is the second least expensive of the lot. Like the Verbatim writer, it is a DVD+R only burner but with a slightly better perfomance (4x DVD write and 24x CD Writer). It offers a 2Mb Buffer cache, Justllink buffer underrun protection as well as some technological advances like background formatting of a DVD+RW or lossless linking technology which keeps the physical gap between data written at a minimum. Note that it is an OEM version with 2 cables and a software CD containing NeoDVD, WinonCD, Drag2disc and WinDVD. A translated german user review is available here. Unlike Verbatim, Ricoh seems to fully support its product; the official product page is here and the latest firmware (v 1.19) is available on this page. The Ricoh DVD writer is on sale in France here. µ

UK
In the UK, the best DVD writing deal is found at ebuyer.com. The Toshiba SD-R5112 has collected rave reviews from ebuyer users with around 90% of positive reviews. With black and beige colors available at GBP 46.99 (around USD 84), this DVD writer has got loads of sex appeal. Furthermore, unlike others, it is a DVD-R/RW burner which allows it to use cheaper DVD-R media. Like the Ricoh DVD writer, it offers a 2Mb Buffer cache, a proprietary buffer underrun protection and 4x/24x writing speeds. Tons of reviews are available here, here, here and here. The official product webpage is here while latest drivers/firmware is here. The Toshiba SD-R5112 is on sale at this ebuyer's page. µ

Singapore
Finally, Singapore prices are far from being expensive. The cheapest writer found is a 8x BenQ (ex-Acer Multimedia) DVD Writer named DW800A. Granted it is only 8x, it does provide with an absolutely first class performance for only SGD 149 (around £49, $87). It is available at The HardwarePlace (+65 63345090). Officail product webpage is here. Reviews are available he re and here. Firmware is available here.

However, if a dual format is your preferencem then Unlimited Electronic offers the TDK AID+440N, a 4x DVD+R/-R writer for the same price as the DW800A. You get the best of both worlds with a slightly lower configuration with some nice software bundled: Pinnacle InstantCD/DVD 7.0, InstantCopy, Expression and InterVideo WinDVD 4. Reviews are here, here and here. The product's web page is available on TDK's website. µ

If you do know about any special offers in any of these countries, please let me know.