Drive for ripping - is this drive suitable for ripping CD's?

[KieranAPB]

I'm new to the world of secure CD ripping and I'm looking to purchase a CD drive that will make the process as pain free as possible.

I've been using the DAE Drive Features Database (http://daefeatures.co.uk/search.php) to find the best drive to use for this purpose. I found the DVD A DS8A5SH to be a suitable candidate.

If anybody knows of any other drive databases please could you provide links. Or if you know of any suitable slim line drives can you provide details (has to be slim line as needs to be Bus powered).

Here are the details about the drive:

Manufacturer: SlimType
Model: DVD A DS8A5SH
Type: DVD±R/RW
Firmware: XAA4
Accurate Stream: Yes
Catching: No
C2 Errors: Yes
HTOA: Yes
Over read: None
Sample Offset: +6
Write Offset: N/A

As you can see from the data above the drive entry has no manufacturer listed. After doing some research online I found the drive manufacturer mainly shows as Philips/Lite On, however is also shows up as a Dell, Samsung, Lenovo and Asus drive.

Does anybody know if these are the same drive simply re-branded as OEM hardware?

If the drives are re-branded OEM products would this effect the features of the drive (for example with customer firmware)?

How easy would it be to check the drives firmware or re-flash it with the firmware listed above?

Is it likely that two completely different drives would share the same model number?

Once I have the drive how can I check it to make sure it has all the above listed features (Mac/PC user)?

[Spoon]

Re: Drive for ripping - is this drive suitable for ripping CD's?

All modern drives are suitable for ripping CDs, and all can give 100% identical results.