Know your numbers
Nov 11 '01
The Bottom Line It's too bad you can't take a burner for a test drive.
There are three important factors in buying a CD-RW drive: How fast it goes, who you're buying it from, and where you're buying it. I'll tackle those issues in that order.
Speed
A CD-RW will have three numbers that indicate speed. The first is how quickly it reads CDs. The second is how quickly it will write a CD-R. The third is how quickly it will write a rewritable CD. Usually, the second and third numbers will be the same but not necessarily. When we got ours many years ago, our CD drive was (and still is) 24x. (I'm still not exactly sure what 1x is when it comes to reading.) The CD burner is 6x 2x 2x, meaning that it reads at 6x and burns both writable and rewritable at 2x. To figure out how quickly a burner will burn, divide the length of the CD in terms of audio capacity by the speed of the burner and add two minutes. CDs come in 74-minute and 80-munute sizes. My burner will burn an 80-minute CD in 42 minutes.
Speed may not be important for you. Yes, a fast burner may be a novelty, but fifteen minutes may not be that long a time if you're only burning one CD a week. Read a newspaper article or something. A rewritable CD drive is best for backing up information, anyway, so I doubt you'll be making dozens of copies anyway.
Brand
When it comes to burners, especially rewritable ones, there are good manufactures and there are bad ones. Rewritable CDs tend to go for $3 each, so you probably don't want too many failures, especially since that $3 is supposed to last you for a while. See to it that you're getting a reputable brand and that it can take a lot of use. Brand does matter here. You should also get decent software with the burner. You may laugh, but people get burned this way and I don't mean in the rewritable sense.
Point of sale
This makes a big difference for several reasons. First, you'll probably want someone to install the drive for you. If not for my brother, I'd probably have had to have the store do it. Also, you'll need a warranty. Even the best brands fail the day after the warranty expires and many electronics stores offer policy extensions. If you need to return the drive, you need to have some place to return it to. Many places will allow for this, but policies vary.
Other factors
Compatibility will be an issue. Just make sure that the drive you buy will work on the computer you have. Laugh now, but don't say I didn't warn you. There are external drives that may not be able to hook up to your computer because you have the wrong slot. You may buy an internal drive only to find out that you have no slots left.
Price will be a factor. See if you can get rebates and/or discounts. Most major stores have sales, especially around the holidays and burners always go on sale.
Beyond that, there isn't much else to consider. It's too bad you can't take a burner for a test drive.
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Member: Brian Kuhl
Location: Biscayne Park, FL, USA
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About Me:
I'm saving up for a D300.
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