Ok. My computer is a

1.1 Ghz pentium III
512 SD Ram
120 GB HD
Windows 2000NT Professional
Sony DRU-530a (with v2.0 firmware update)
Comp used to be a dell if you know what I mean

I was ripping at 2x and burning at 2x. I tried three diffrent program. Nero 6.0, copytodvd, and dvd decryptor. All would only burn at 2x. DVD shrink would rip at like 1.5X. I would select 4X on the three programs to burn and the drive would not copy for about 10 mins and get an error. Nero would let me select 4X speed but when I burned the disk, it would only burn at 2x. WIERD! Then the firmware upgrade came out so I upgraded and no changes. It was taking me 45 mins to rip and 45 mins to burn. I thought this drive was complete crap at this point.

I then decided to reformat my system and put windows XP professional on it. I did, and reinstalled all my software. I checked the dvd burner out, and with dvd decrypter, I was maxing out my ripping speed at 8.3X. I can burn all disks (including cheapo eb*yers brands) at 4X sometimes at 4.1X. I have yet to try 8x media, but it is expensive right now. Nero burns at 4X as well. I can now rip a dvd in 10 mins and burn a dvd in 13 mins. I was so excited! I thought that I would place my personal experience of what I did with this drive and hope people with the similar problem can relate and try what I did.

This all happened when I upgraded to xp? any ideas why? also I want to get a dvd-rom drive for ripping only. any thoughts as to a nice, fast one for cheap?