The DVD Writer

The LITE-ON SOHW-1693S looks just like any other 5.25" DVD or CD drive.

It comes with a standard light beige faceplate. The faceplate has a generic look to it. Not even the LITE-ON logo is present. This kind of generic design is probably due to LITE-ON's long history of producing OEM drives for other companies.

The back of the drive has a full complement of digital and analog audio headers, a jumper block, the IDE connector and the power socket.

By default, this drive is set to Slave. You can leave it at that or set it to Master if it's the only drive on the IDE channel. But if you are pairing it up with another drive, it's better to set both drives to Cable Select.

The top of the drive is where the labels are located. Without them, you will never know that this is the LITE-ON SOHW-1693S DVD writer without installing and trying it out yourself.

The labels also show the date and place of manufacture, as well as its serial number. In this case, the drive was manufactured in China in April 2005.

The underside of the drive is completely devoid of anything interesting.