Is the Sony 500 DRU X4 DVD-R and X4 DVD+R Writer any good?

Decided to retun my Ricoh MP5125A (have had loads of problems with it) after reading the Ricoh dvd+r problems thread. Also got mine in PC World at Christmas, hope they give me cash or I wont be getting the above...

I've read mixed reviews about the Sony all over the place, need some final consolidation...

Thanks

If you can find the Sony dru500ax then yes. It is the most up to date burner with the bugs worked out of it. The only one I won't recommend is the OEM (bare drive) version of this model (U10 I believe is the model on it) as a lot of people are having issues with firmware compatibility on this drive, A lot of trouble that you have heard about the sony comes from both the OEM model mentioned above and for those few who had trouble with the original dru500a (Not the new dru500ax which is what is carried by distributiors now). The bare bones U10 model and the original dru500a had some issues with firmware but the dru500ax is basically the same drive with the most recent firmware and it is supposed to work great. So just make sure that it says DRU500ax on the box and you should have no trouble. I hope this helps

Moving this to CoOp.