My Favorite Turtle
Written: May 25 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Stable, works every time. Complete kit available.
Cons: Now outdated and slow
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| bwestman's Full Review: Ricoh Internal CD-RW drive |
I call my Ricoh MP6200S CD-RW drive a turtle because the poor thing is old and outdated and slow (2x write speed); but, like the turtle of the fabled race, it wins everytime. It might be slow, but it is steady as a rock and at this stage of the game, I am almost afraid to trade it in for a faster model because of the fragility of the drives in this category.
When I first got my drive, I really didn't know anything about, other than that I wanted one. I watched prices for a little while and bought what I could afford at the time. What I got for my money was a very nice, reliable little CDRW drive, a CDR disk, a CDRW disk, all the software and cables to get me up and running, an Adaptec SCSI card (my first ever) and a sparse but adequate instruction manual.
I consider my upgrade skills level to be in the upper middle range. I am not afraid to enter the dark regions known only as "the inside" but I am constantly looking around in wonder when I get there because I still know so little of how that stuff in there works. Given that, the installation of the SCSI card (an ISA model), the physical set up of the internal CDRW drive, and the software installation took me just under an hour.
Since that fateful day, I have created literally hundreds of CD's. Yes, I've made a few "coasters", but the large majority, if not all of them have been due to my error rather than that of the drive. The first thing I learned about my new drive was the pitch the software that came with it. Adaptec's EZ CD Creator is barely adequate for anything more than making a "favorites" CD out of your collection. And while the concept behind Direct CD is good -- it allows you to use the CDRW drive just like any other removable media (floppy, ZIP, etc.) or even a hard drive, reading, writing, and deleting without any other user interface software -- the software itself is incompatible with nearly everything. I spent days tyring to find out what was wrong with my computer after I installed that program. I unstalled it and everything was magically "fixed". Just for torture, I reinstalled it again, and sure enough, everything belched, hiccuped, and locked up.
The second thing I learned was that I didn't know jack about "burning" CD's. For this, I turned to my ISP's news server and subscribed to alt.comp.periphs.cdr newsgroup. Here, people were talking about various software they use, hardware problems they've had, conflicts they've encountered, etc. It was one of the most useful newsgroups I've ever participated in. From it, I learned that I had possibly the only stable CDRW drive around at the time. There were complainers from every court except the Ricoh group. (BTW, I highly recommend this newsgroup to any new CDRW owner.)
Now the newer, faster, better, bigger, etc. drives have hit the market. And they all cost WAY less than the $500+ I paid for my drive. However, armed with the knowledge of all the complaints people have had, I'm keeping my Ricoh. And when I DO upgrade my drive (which will probably only be when it dies a horrible, smoking death) it will surely be a Ricoh.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bwestman
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 - Top 1000 |
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Location: Maine
Reviews written: 240
Trusted by: 45 members
About Me:
I am hopelessly impulsive. I admit it.
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