CompUSA has the Norwood Micro Internal 16x DVD burner for $30 after rebate. I was in the only CompUSA store in Indianapolis last Sunday and they were all rebadged BenQ DW-1650 drives. Flashing them to an actual BenQ drive is a snap with the BQ Flasher utility found on these forums. I've done this on two of them.

Also Fry's has the NEC 3550A 16x OEM bare drive for $28 with free shipping. I know that this is not a very popular drive for CDFreaks gurus, especially in beige. I have one but haven't played around with it enough to comment on it.

Thanks a lot, Morbius!

I went to my CompUSA today and picked up one of the Norwoods. It wasn't marked as being on sale at all. They had to look it up on their web site and found the $20 instant rebate. The $30 MIR printed when the they scanned it, though.

I was hoping for a BenQ 1650. I was elated when it turned out that it was a 1640!!! It was the last one in the store!

Now I just need to figure out how to flash it to the B series. Any idea what the best firmware is?

SCORE! Use BSLB.

I was hoping to find a 1640 as well but the only ones I've seen in Indy are the 1650 models. They were all clearly marked DW-1650 on the back of the box near the UPC code.

Flashing these drives is a snap using the BQ Flasher utility. A search should pull up a very detailed thread. The great thing about the BQ Flasher is that you can use the executable flash file instead of having to search around for a binary, which seem harder to find.

Hey Doc, have you received any of your CompUSA rebates yet from your previous purchases? I've got one still outstanding and wouldn't mind getting an extra DW1650, but I want to make sure that the CompUSA rebate is on the up and up before getting another one.

Here's my current rebate status:

Received:
$30 rebate from CompUSA for a 500w SmartPower 2.0 PSU
$25 rebate from Fry's for a 400w Ultra V-Series PSU
$50 rebate from Fry's for a 500w Ultra X-Finity Titanium PSU

Still waiting on two $30 rebates from CompUSA for a couple of Norwood Micro DW-1650 burners. They were purchased about 6 weeks later though.

Thanks again, fellas. I just used BQFlasher to flash my Norwood to a BenQ DW1640. I couldn't be happier!

Time to do some serious burning.

Well, after doing some burning, I'm delighted with the 1640! I've had great luck for years with my 1620, but the 1640 is even better. My first couple of burns are possibly better than anything my 1620 has produced--and the 1620 is a great burner itself.

Yeah , tell me about it ! I've tried NEC 4571A and LG 4267B plus Pioneer 108 , 109 , 110 and now Pioneer 111L and I always comeback to burn with my 1640 , awesome drive . Enjoy

I am building a system for a friend, BenQ 1650 under Norwood brand, good burner but the damn rebates spoil the deal. So I am getting a Samsung drive for $30. As long as the burnt DVD plays fine then thats all matters for my friend, he is not so technically into it so he will never know about the error scanning or learn of it

Is the DW1640 really better than the DW1650? If it is what makes it better? My local CompUSA has a bunch of the DW1640 left along with the DW1650. They even had a Northwood Micro branded Aopen with the same stock number. It included a copy of Power DVD with it as well as the Nero cd.