Installation of the AOpen DVD-1040 Pro is as easy as installing any CD ROM drive. Set the drive to either master or slave (it comes set to master from the factory) then slide it into a free drive bay. Hook up the power and CD cable, fire up the comp and you're done.
I don't know if AOpen and InWin got together to do some color matching but the unit look great in my computer. The colors match up perfectly with the InWin case!
Unlike the bare drive Pioneer DVD-104S I had for testing, the AOpen DVD-1040 Pro is a retail box unit that comes with everything you need to get up and running. AOpen even included a copy of WinDVD, a very nice software DVD player.
While a slot drive has its advantages, the main one being you can't damage the tray because it doesn't have one. No open CD tray means there is no chance of breaking it. That has happened to me before. However, there is one negative point to the slot drive that I can see. The unit doesn't have a manual eject. If for some reason, your computer or the unit loses power, your CD/DVD isn't coming out.
The AOpen DVD-1040 Pro had no problem with any of my CDs or DVDs. It was able to run some damaged CDs that a normal CD ROM couldn't read. Performance was the same as the Pioneer DVD-104S. I suspect they are really the same drives with a different name.
With a estimated street price of around $125 (assuming you can find one) the AOpen DVD-1040 Pro is more than twice the cost of a normal CD ROM. Still I think this difference is worth the extra money considering how much a home DVD player would cost you. It's because of the low price that so many people are using their computers to watch DVD movies. Add in a MidiLand ADS 2000 and S4 MidiLand 7100 Surround Speakers and you've got a computer theatre system that can go toe to toe with quite a few home setups.
Overall, I really like the AOpen DVD-1040 Pro. The fact that it match the color of my InWin case puts it just a bit over the Pioneer DVD-104S. If you can find one, get it.
The Goods
The Bads
Rating: 9/10