...for $55.99 with $4 for shipping handling. I just ordered mine to replace my potentially dead BenQ DW1620A. I can't wait for it to get here, awesome deal for a drive that is "retail".

I got that drive from them late December (ordered the 22, got it the 29th - let it go on the slow boat).

Fabulous deal! Great drive! Genuine article.

No cable (have a box full of 80 pins anyway), a little software (boatloads of versions from other drives anyway), but....one great drive delivered!

Enjoy!

Retail drive will most likely have the cable and it definitely does have software included with it. I'll definitely be using the 80 wire cable with the drive assuming it comes with one. Can't wait until it arrives!

They jack up the price, it is $62 now

Saw that today. Must've been only been a one day sale. Still a good price for the drive regardless but even so... sorry if anyone missed it.

sorry if this is a noob question. Can this Drive do PO and PI tests? I know this is a rewrap of the Benq1620 but will it be able to scan disc quality....thats my main concern right now since im in the market for something that can scan my disc quality

The Benq does it, so being a rebadge of the Benq, so will this drive.

I thouth this was only possible for the OEM drives. So if I flash it to a benq1620 firmware, i'll be able to administer my PO and PI tests?

I haven't heard that...got a post on this somewhere? I have one of these drives on the way today, so I can at least tell you if it'll do scans out of the box. I haven't decided what I might flash it to, yet.

please post as soon as you can confirm these will do the quality scans. Im thinking of getting the Nu Tech drive from newegg aswell.

Flashed it to B7T9 already using the .cvt file (before finding out that you can use B7T9 to cross-flash without needing the .cvt and can use the original executable from BenQ.. /sigh). Drive is in and working fine as a normal BenQ in regards to burns and quality scans.

Crap...they just lowered the price to $57.50 + 3.50 S/H. I paid $62+4. Not a big deal, I guess...anybody know if Newegg will refund the difference? I'm emailing them to check. I'd buy now, if you were on the fence before.

I just placed my order through newegg

Answering the "Quality Scan" question.

Yep. I have the NU DW163 from Newegg (black bezel). It came with G7H9, which doesn't scan PIF, but when I flashed to G7P9, it does - and G7P9 runs the BenQ QScan utility. There's little reason to void warranty and flash to a "B" unless you really need "T9".

I'm a newb, sorry for the question but,

where can I find out about all these firmware versions for the DDW-163 ?

from what I see going with a "G" firmware doesn't void warranty, but where do I get more info on these I searched the forums but just found this post and a couple more

The company I work for has both the BenQ 1620 and the Nu Tech DDW-163. It's a long story about why we have both, short version is Nu Tech isn't doing desktop optical drives anymore and when we RMA'd some DDW-082 (8x DVD +/- RW) they sent us the DDW-163 drives for replacements.

Anyway, the Nu drive is the same as the BenQ and I have already flashed it to the retail firmware and the RPC-1 firmware from The Dangerous Brothers. 2 guys at work bought the drives since we are selling them cheaper than the BenQ drives since they are on our discontinued list and I flashed the drives for them. I have a BenQ 1620 which I purchased from work last December and flashed it to retail and RPC-1 firmware and it works beautifully.

Here is a link to The Dangerous Brothers home page, where the RPC-1 firmware is.

http://tdb.rpc1.org/

Get help from someone familiar with flashing optical drives if you don't know what you are doing. There is potential to permanently damage your drive.