A Delightful Device
Written: Sep 15 '02 (Updated Sep 15 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Reliable, price, easy to use
Cons: There are newer and more faster ones on the market now.
The Bottom Line: A cheap but highly valued CD-Rewriter. Perfect for budget-conscious users who want a good deal.
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| nozzle42's Full Review: LG GCE-8160B CD-RW Burner |
The LG GCE-8160B internal drive allows you to read, write, erase and replace files easily. Everyone knows that soon floppy disks will be out of business as the growing trend of CD Re-Writers are coming into business. The GCE-8160B from LG electronics makes it even simpler to share large files that floppy disks cannot handle.
I was most impressed with how easy it is to use this device. Also, the speeds are not too bad, although there are faster drives on the market nowadays.
Whats in the Box:
Internal CD-RW Drive, Recording Software (Easy CD Creator, Audio Cable, Mounting Screws (x4) and manuals for the drive and software.
Appearance:
The LG GCE-8160B has a headphone jack, volume control, an eject button, and two LEDs - one for read and one for write. The orange coloured READ LED is displayed when the spindle motor begins the Spin up operation: accessing data, reading data, playing audio and loading up tray. The green-coloured WRITE LED flashes during disc writing sessions. There is also an emergency eject hole, in case you need to manually remove open the disc tray.
The drive looks quite solid and simple. It is not overly exagerated with buttons and flashy lights that seem to turn on even whilst not in use. It looks clean and uncluttered.
Height: 1.63 inches
Width: 5.75 inches
Depth: 7.44 inches
Weight: 2.01 lbs
Ease of installation:
If you are actually installing the drive yourself, i.e. you have bought it as a separate drive to your CPU, please note the following:
1) You must turn off all peripheral appliances, and the computer itself, and remove their power cords from the wall sockets.
2) Discharge any static electricity on your person by touching the computer covers, etc.
3) When installing the drive, be careful of sharp edges inside the computer.
The owner's manual (different from the software manual) describes exactly how you should be installing the drive, and has some useful diagrams.
Also, although it says this device is 2000/ME/98/95/NT compatible, it works fine on my XP machine.
Software Installation:
The software that comes with this drive is Easy CD Creator and Direct CD.
Easy CD Creator allows you to make music CDs from other CDs and MP3s. You can also make data CDs for sharing and archiving data in the most compatible format. All you have to do is find the files you want to copy, and click the add button. You can also preview music before you add it on. There is a bar at the bottom showing how much of the disc space is used up and how much is left, for added convenience.
Direct CD lets you make data CDs effectively and easily. You use this feature in the same way as you would a floppy disc, or other removable drive. Other features include ScanDisc to attempt to recover unusable discs, and UnDelete which tries to recover deleted items. I have never used these features yet, so I cannot tell you if they work well or not, but one of my friends who also has the same drive said it is very helpful.
CD Copier allows you to make backup copies of our music and data CDs. There are options on what speed you would like to write at, so you can go slower than the maximum 10X.
I used the CD to install the software in minutes. It was a clean and smooth procedure. Unlike some installations, you do not have to click on about fifty different buttons before it even begins to start installing.
The software runs well, and is simple to use. There are also links on the side for websites where you can upgrade your software or for new products on the LG and Roxio Easy CD Creator websites.
I was also impressed with the software manual that LG provided. It was very detailed and included information from how to install and uninstall to how to create CD's with the Easy CD Creator and Direct CD. Also, usually manuals have about 5-10 pages per language - this one has at least 30 pages for each language! And although it is detailed, it is easy enough for a beginner to work out what to do.
Features:
The GCE-8160B has a 16X record speed, 10X Rewrite Speed and a 40X read speed. If you just look at these figures, they seem quite good. I know there are some faster drives on the market, but LG focus on the budget conscious consumers, rather than the users looking for hardcore performance. And the small price definitely compensates for the minor decrease in speed levels. The value is certainly good.
A slight note I would like to mention was that the drive was fairly loud when reading a CD. It isn’t the loudest you can ever get, but it was quite far from quiet. However, it was bearable and didn’t really disturb me.
Conclusion:
This is a very good drive to purchase if you only plan to use it every so often, although it might not be up to scratch for the hardcore users out there. I have been impressed with it so far, and I have, to date, never had a problem with my drive. It has been reliable, and it is actually one of my pieces of hardware that I think was a good buy.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 80
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
nozzle42
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Location: London, UK
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 6 members
About Me:
I have stopped writing because even after 6 months, I only have 84 cents...
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