CD-Writer Plus 9310i
Written: Jun 26 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast, reliable (so far), not too expensive
Cons: Software doesn't handle MP3, speed is hard to exploit
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| alberto's Full Review: Hewlett Packard CD-Writer Plus 9200i CD-RW Burner |
This review is listed in the wrong place because epinions does not yet list the HP 9300 series CD burners, only the 9200.
The 9310i is an internal IDE CD writer with speeds of 10x for writing, 4x for re-writing, and 32x for reading.
I chose this unit because of HP's reputation for reliability and because of its speed; I was disappointed with the latter, more about this below.
Not being much of a hardware person, I was a bit worried about having to install an internal drive, but installation was a cinch. The unit comes with a nice poster explaining every step as well as an installation video (on the software CD).
Once installed, the troubles started. The main problem is that the CD writer expects a steady stream of data in order to write at a given speed, and neither my hard drive nor my CD-ROM drive can sustain the speed that is needed to drive the CD writer at top speed. After much experimenting (and many permanently wasted CD-R's) we discovered the right combination of speeds and things seem to be working fine, if slowly, now.
Of the various pieces of software that come with the unit (ACID Sonic Foundry, NEATO disc label producer, backup manager, Adaptec basic kit) I've only used the Adaptec package, that works fine and is very easy to use. One annoyance is that it does not handle MP3's, you have to convert MP3's to .wav files using a separate program of your own.
In all, I'm reasonably happy with it, although I probably would have bought a cheaper unit if I had realized that I couldn't take advantage of the speed of this one.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
alberto
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Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 17 members
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