Keep ON Keeping ON
Written: Nov 01 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: 24X10X40 with 40X rip speed - cool coloring - great functionality
Cons: not impressed with NERO 5.5
The Bottom Line: this bruner rocks until the 32X is cheaper and more widely available
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| artic00cat's Full Review: TDK veloCD ReWriter 12/10/32 |
All right I will start this off by saying that I have been away from epinions for a long time now and have just decided to return to the scene. With that I will go on with the intentions of this review. Although this section is dedicated to the 12 X 10 X 32 VeloCD I will actually be reviewing the 24 X 10 X 40 and there was no dedicated spot to place this, so I chose the most reasonable and comparable area for placement.
The Basics:
24 X write speed
10 X re-write speed
40 X read speed
40X rip (audio extraction)
Burn proof technology
2mb data buffer (with buffer under run protection)
Minimum Req:
· 233 MHz Intel Pentium processor or equivalent
· 64MB RAM
· 160 MB available hard disk space for software installation
· 700 MB available hard disk space for temporary CD-image files (optional)
· Available standard half-height drive bay
· Microsoft Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/NT 4.0
This Unit the 24 X 10 X 40 I bought as a direct replacement for the 8 X 4 X16 that had become way to slow to accompany the tasks that I ask of it, Both unit are the TDK VeloCD . The unit was purchased form the local BestBuy because I was in a hurry to obtain it and cost $149. I was more interested in the speed than anything else and to be honest was a little concerned about the replacement of my faithful Adaptec EasyCD with Nero burning ROM 5.5, but figured I would give it a shot and see how it was. Besides I could always replace it later with EasyCD if I so desired.
After purchasing the unit and returning home, I immediately commenced in the disassembly of the case and removal of the old CDRW unit. To me the exchange of one CDRW for another is an easy task due to the fact that I build my own computers. However after thumbing through the instructions they appear to be well though out and provide adequate text descriptions and good diagrams for even the beginner. And if all else fails TDK even included an installation video for those still not to sure about it. TDK has even put together diagrams of multiple system configurations in the instructions for those who may want to for example add the CDRW and keep the existing CD or DVD drive as well. Instillation was a breeze and would be for than feasible for anyone with the instructions supplied by TDK.
So at this point I have the new CDRW in place and the it is time to turn it on to see if WindowME is going to cooperate (housing of case was left off in case need arose to adjust something). I booted up and Windows ME detected the drive right away and properly without any hesitation or associated problems. So the next step was to install the new Nero software and see where I stood. The software installed as painlessly as any other and also was tuned well to accept the new CDRW(although it should be anyways because it is packaged software). At this point instead of rebooting I shut the computer down in order to put the housing back on the case. After the housing was installed , the computer was rebooted and it was time to see how Nero and the new burner was going to perform.
First off I want to say that the Nero software is not real user friendly , especially to the beginning user ( I will leave that for another review of Nero itself though). Basically the software works and works well for what it is designed for , however it just wasn’t my faithful EasyCD. After spending about an hour or so trying to understand exactly how to use the new software it was time to do some real testing. I decided to try and burn a few audio CD’s, a data disk, and test the RW feature,
After figuring out how to use the software I started to extract the digital audio from a few CD’s to the hard drive. There is not a whole lot that I can say about this except the 40 X rip speed is a wonderful and great thing. The only real thing I can say is according to the time read out form the software I never actually hit 40 X but it was in the 30’s most of the time. It took approximately anywhere between 1 – 3 minutes to extract a 14 track CD. The burning from the hard drive to the CD went equally as simple and produced a exact replica of the original in approx 2 –4 minutes at 12 X and about 2 –3 minutes at 24 X. As far as burning a data disk goes the stats are exactly the same as burning the audio disk, so the need for a separate paragraph is non-existent.
As far as the CDRW function goes as always the image is burned to the media in question and then can only be read by drive that are RW compatible. I personally only use the RW function as temporary storage until I either burn it to a CDR or put it back on the hard drive. The benefit to the RW is that after copying data to it you can go back erase it and reuse the disk. The CDRW function of this drive works as expected form TDK just as beautiful as the record function. Typically a CDRW burn of a 650mb duplicate of a takes about 15 – 20 minutes. The erase feature takes about 2 minutes for a quick erase and about 10 – 15 minutes for a full erase. Please note that these are estimates and note exact times.
I did not test the TDK Digital MixMaster software as I have not had a need for yet but will update this review when and if I do use it. The only software I used was the Nero Burning ROM to accomplish all my needs. I have to say that I was not impressed by the actual Nero software, it is a more complex program then EASYCD and requires a lot more time to learn how to properly use it. I will in my case be upgrading to EASYCD 5 shortly as it to me seems to be the easiest and most effective means of copying. Those of you that already have EASY 4.X will not be able to automatically just use that software without updating it first as it does not recognize the new drive.
Overall this CDRW drive is so far perfect in every way. It has not acted up once or given me even the slightest sign of trouble. It appears the burn proof technology does a good job at preventing buffer under runs and makes excellent copies possible. I would recommend this drive to anyone with the note that there is going to be a 32 X 10 X 40 drive soon introduced if not already to the market by TDK. But if this drive fits into your pocket book you will not be unpleased at all. TDK has done it once again and produced a beautiful and functional CDRW drive.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
artic00cat
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Location: New York
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