I have the AOpen drive which is called the 52X24X52 CD-RW. As far as I can tell, it is the OEM version of the AOpen CRW5224. With the original firmware (1.04), the write quality was good for CD-R discs, but terrible with CD-RW discs (I tried Imation 4x CD-RW and Philips 12x CD-RW).
I upgraded the firmware to version 1.05 from AOpen's web site (it required using a special DOS updating program that you can't get from AOpen's web site, though), and the writing quality is much better on the Imation CD-RW discs. I haven't tested it with CD-Rs or with the Philips 12x CD-RWs yet, though.
All things considered, this drive is OK, but in my opinion, the Lite-On 52x32x52x from Best Buy would be a better choice because it is a better drive (check out the
review), and it is much less expensive. It certainly can't hurt to have two Lite-On drives in your system.