Nice solid case covered with what seems to be a sort of thick rubberized paint coating.  The actual drive inside is a Lite-On 8x DVDRW Slimline DS8A3S.  Mine reads and writes at a decent speed from what I can tell.  According to the manufacturer, it writes DVDs at 8x and CDs at 24x.  I tried several RWDVDs I've had problems with using in other drives, but in this drive they worked fine.  No drivers are required (none are provided) whether using XP, Vista, Windows 7, Snow Leopard or Lion. (If it isn't recognized by your computer, you should ensure your OS is current, with all the recent updates applied.)