MP9060A is great! (after finally getting it up and running)
Written: Jun 08 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Writes in 12.5 minutes, as promised; full-screen DVD playback smooth; writes perfect discs reliably; CD-ROM/R/RW/DVD in only one bay; Tech support was knowledgeable
Cons: Long install time; Difficult to find updated drivers/firmware for the Ricoh drive
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| chipchop's Full Review: Ricoh Internal CD-RW drive |
I bought the Ricoh MP9060A CD-R/RW/DVD about a month ago and, after finally getting it up and running, am very happy with it. I have been able to write a direct CD copy in about 12.5 minutes as promised, play DVD at full screen smoothly, as well as read discs of multiformats. The audio discs I have written have no pops or hisses and wrote perfect discs reliably (on the most generic media) in under 13 minutes.
About Tech Support:
Initially, from Ricoh's American website, tech support for this drive was apparently non-existent. The latest drivers were not even available. However, once I did some searching and found some tech support phone numbers, I realized that the drivers ARE in fact online, but on the Taiwanese version of the website! Be prepared to do some upgrading to your drive's firmware and also to get the latest patches to the software in order for everything to work the way it's supposed to.
In any case, once I finally found the tech support phone number, I found the support staff was very responsive and knowledgeable. They pointed me to the right website for firmware/software upgrades and even helped me solve a more nebulous problem with ASPI drivers (I'm still not sure exactly what those are, but my drive is working with the ASPI patches I downloaded).
Software:
The software bundled with the drive was Adaptec's Easy CD Creator and DirectCD and Software Cinemaster DVD software by Ravisent. I've found the software easy to use, if maybe a little bloated. But, I use it and am happy with it.
Installation:
People who are new to installing internal drives may need some help with installing this drive. Terse instructions are included, but there are no descriptions about how or why you should set your jumpers as master/slave/cable select, etc... Also, you should know where your secondary IDE controller is on your motherboard (or primary if you want to connect it to your primary). If you don't know what these things mean, you will have to do some learning on your own, or get a friend to help you install the drive. This might be true for all internal drives.
The DVD-ROM:
The DVD-ROM plays smoothly in full-screen with an ATI Rage Pro 128 (w/ 16M memory). Buyers should be aware that this drive's DVD uses partial software and partial hardware decoding. There is a minimum requirement on the processor speed in order to get smooth playback. Also, the software works best with video cards that support "motion compensation", available in some older ATI cards and most of the newer (and more expensive) video cards.
SUMMARY:
Overall, I would definitely recommend this drive. I think it is a great value to have a cd-rom/R/RW AND DVD all in one and it's nice that it only takes up one bay in my mini-tower. Novices should be prepared to put in some time installing this drive. Make an effort to locate the tech-support phone numbers, they are very helpful.
Note: by the way, in order to write disc-to-disc for the 12.5 minutes copy speed, you will need a fast CD-ROM also installed. Otherwise, you will have to write to the hard drive first, then switch discs, then copy - this is much slower, depending on the speed of your hard drive.
Note2: I installed this drive in a brand new computer with fast hard drive, cd-rom, etc... Older or slower systems may not get the fastest speed out of this drive.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
chipchop
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Reviews written: 1
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