DVD-ROM drives have appeared in the local market for quite some time now but the response has been quite bad. Consumers weighed down the possibility of getting a DVD-ROM drive because they believe that it possesses no more capability than a standard CD-ROM drive other than the fact that these drives can play DVD movies. Some even claim that the overall cost of getting one of these drives is absurd and that it demands high-end hardware on the PC.

Then, there's the issue on region coding on most DVD-titles which only allows the drive to play movies of a specific region as encoded on the disc itself. So, why buy a DVD-ROM drive? Read on and I'll enlighten you on my journey in exploring the wonderful world of DVDs! :)

Now, these drives have evolved dramatically since the introduction of the now primitive 1X drives a year ago. Today, DVD-ROM drives are capable of transferring data up to 16X. However, are all these figures really significant to the performance of running a DVD-capable application such as a movie or game? I will answer you that later.

First, let's see what we get in the box of the ASUS E612 DVD-ROM package.

Here's what you should expect to find in the box :-

1. ASUS 12X E612 DVD-ROM Drive
2. Analog audio cable
3. 4 mounting screws
4. Installation disc
   - Includes ASUS2000 DVD software player
   - Intel's update for ATA 66 support (Supports only Win95 and 98)
5. Windows 3.11 Driver disk (Hmm.. watching DVDs on Win 3.11?)
6. User manual