Installing the DRW-1612BL in our test computer took only a couple of minutes. I took the drive out of the box, left the jumper set to master and installed it on the secondary IDE chain by connecting the IDE cable and power connector. When I turned on the computer the BIOS detected it as a drive supporting UDMA 66. After making sure that DMA was enabled in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.
Software Installation:
As I mentioned earlier, the DRW-1612BL comes with a CD full of software from Nero. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu pictured below will automatically come up when you insert the disc.
By now most of you should be pretty familiar with this menu. From here you can choose to install Nero 6, Nero Media Player, or ASUS DVD. Simply click the name of the application you want to install, and its setup program will start up automatically. Once you reboot, you'll be ready to start burning your own discs.
The Documentation:
The DRW-1612BL doesn't offer much in the way of documentation. The closest thing to a manual is the drive's "Quick Installation Guide". This small, fold out guide is broken up into 20 different languages with each language getting about a page worth of instructions. While these instructions take the user step by step through the installation process, the small size of the diagrams keeps them from being very useful. Also, if you're looking for things like the DRW-1612BL's specs or system requirements, you'll have to check the back of the box or visit ASUS's website. You won't find that information in the guide.
Like the other ASUS drives we've looked at, the DRW-1612BL was very easy to install. There were no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working correctly. However, the less than stellar documentation might not be user friendly enough for those new to upgrading their computer. With this in mind, I give the installation a 7 out of a possible 10.
