When a company tells me it has the "only" or the "fastest" product available in a specific geek genre, my heart naturally starts beating faster and I start to drool. But I also become a bit suspicious.

The folks at Samsung have been letting me play with their new Writemaster TS-H552U dual format, double-layer DVD burner ($59.99) and I'm still drooling.

This new burner leaves other double-layer models in the dust, burning new 8.5 gigabyte DVDs at a blazing 5x, the "x" representing some finite number computer gurus have yet to define.

Other drives I've played with can only muster a meager 4x when burning these disks.

The drive itself was actually developed through a cooperative effort of Samsung and Toshiba, which has become known as the Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corp. or TSST, so expect to see more innovative products bearing the TSST brand name. I also wouldn't be surprised if Toshiba starts marketing the drive under its own name.

Also, a word of warning for those of you who don't know which end of a screwdriver to use --- this is an internal drive, which means you have to pop the top off your computer's case and install it. It's actually a fairly easy process, but I've found some folks are daunted by the task.

Some of the features include:

• Write speeds of 16x for DVD-R, DVD+R discs; 4x for DVD-RW and +RW; 40x for standard CD-R; 32x for CD-RW and 5x for DVD+R DL (double layer).
• Read speeds are 16x for DVD-ROM and 48x for CD-ROM.
• It comes with a full suite of Nero software, including Nero Express, Nero Backup, InCD4, Nero Showtime, Nero Recode and Nero Vision Express.
• A 2 megabyte internal buffer.
• Buffer under run protection from PowerBurn.
• You have a choice between a beige or black model to match your case.

This drive is definitely worth a look and you can't beat the price. But a word of caution here:

A quick glance at the Samsung Web site reveals that there are several drives that have the TS-H552 model number, so check the specs before you lay down the cash. Also, Nero's DVD Copy utility won't work on systems running Windows 98 or ME.

More information on this and other Samsung products can be found at www.samsung.com.

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