OEM & Retail

[KQFan]

I see alot of advice steering you toward a retail version of a DVD RW drive. I'm guessing because of included software?

Well, I want to go all-SATA and I am waiting for an auto-notify on a Lite-On. Meantime all my other parts are in and I want to get my box running. If I'm going to put XP on it (for now), then I'm thinking about getting:

LITE-ON Black SATA CD-ROM Drive Model LTN-52S1S-10 - OEM

...as I'll have a spare bay in my case anyway. And seems to make sense to have the 52x speed for playing kids CD games and for ripping CDs to HDD?? Then get the DVD drive when they become available.

My question is, Is OEM fine in the case of this CD-ROM drive? I'll be able to pop the XP disc in and it will format and install just fine on my HDD?

[flanzig1]

For just a ROM drive, OEM is fine. It's only with burners that retail is suggested, for the burning software.

[freakitchen]

You don't necessarily have to wait - I've found this Lite-on SATA DVD Burner at ZipZoomFly, with free shipping:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=175510

FK

[KQFan]

I'd be worried with what I get. The 16A7S is what I'm waiting on at Newegg but ZZF lists it as SATA then as IDE/ATAPI in the 2nd bulleted point under Features & BEnefits.