Awesome 8x CD Recorder - Fast, Fun and Easy to Use
Written: Nov 16 '99
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast! Easy to Use. Handles just about anything.
Cons: My not have all the bells and whistles.
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| skadar's Full Review: Smart Storage Solutions Smart and Friendly CD Rock... |
I purchased the Smart & Friendly CD Rocket 8x CD Recorder about 6 months ago and have been extremely happy with it. The best feature of this CD-R is its speed! It writes flawlessly at 8x and reads at a nice 32x.
My CD Rocket does not look like the picture supplied by Epinions.com, it's an internal drive that looks like a standard CDROM drive. It came in a small retail box with a picture of a Space Shuttle launch on it. My reasons for choosing the S&F CD Rocket were two-fold. Number 1, the Smart & Friendly brand was recommended to me by a trusted computer expert friend... and Number 2, it was on sale at CompUSA for a too-good-to-pass-up price.
I remember that installation was fairly simple and straightforward. It's easier than installing a hard drive. The only real "problem" that I remember was this. My original CDROM drive was drive F:, and for some reason Windows 98 chose to bump my CDROM drive to G: and make the CD Rocket drive F:. Although I would not have preferred this, it has only caused one problem that I know of. Rainbow Six: Rogue spear will only play successfully from the first lettered CD drive. Therefore, I play Rogue Spear from my CD-R which is no big deal. Other than that, I've had no problems.
The CD Rocket comes with Adaptec's Easy CD Creator, but if you're at all serious about making various types of CDs, you'll download and use either Nero Burning ROM or CDRWIN which is my personal favorite. Correctly burning a CD is, honestly, sometimes a tricky process... but it's rarely a function of the CD Recorder. My CD Rocket has supported just about every recording option that I've thrown at it.
Because the CD Rocket burns at 8x, you can complete a full CD burn (approx. 650 megs) in under 8 minutes. Generally, your CDs aren't completely full though, so the average burn time is about 5-7 minutes. Music CDs seem to go even faster. Generally I set up the burn, play a quick game on the Dreamcast while the drive cranks away, and then retrieve my completed disc.
I would recommend this drive to a friend without hesitation.
Additional tip: I've found that you don't have to purchase special 8x blank CDR discs in order to write at 8x. This is a marketing gimmick that steers the consumer into buying the (generally) more expensive "premium quality" 8x discs. You can easily burn at 8x using most other CDR discs labeled at 6x, 4x, or 2x.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
skadar
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Location: Connecticut
Reviews written: 158
Trusted by: 168 members
About Me:
As a charter Epinions member, Skadar has contributed many trusted and highly rated reviews.
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