Keeps getting better
Written: Dec 26 '03 (Updated Jul 02 '04)
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Pros: Stable and quiet, tolerant of ALL brands of media
Cons: Nero Express, not full Nero package
The Bottom Line: The Most Bang For The CDR Buck Currently! Stable, quick and quiet on all media.
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| digitaldoc's Full Review: Lite On LTR 52327S CD-RW Burner |
I use this drive in my Shuttle small form factor pc.
"http://www.epinions.com/content_138039561860"
Circuit City had this drive for $19.99 after rebates. At this price, it was cheaper than the cdrom drive, and I went with the rewritable. I also have a unique perspective on this drive as I also own the 52x24x52 model from LiteOn
"http://www.epinions.com/content_108293426820"
as well as 2 other drives, all evaluated on this site.
The out of box experience was standard. The drive was packaged with an audio cable to connect to the sound card. There was no ide cable, and I reused the cable from the existing drive. A 52x CDR and 24x CDRW were included in the box. There was also an instruction manual for the installation, a setup flyer, and a registration card. All was quite clear and above average, but nothing spectacular.
The hardware installation went easily. This drive is about 2 cm less deep than the 52x24x52 model. This makes the installation that much easier when working in a smaller case. The drive would be more than ideal for use in one of the newer "small form factor pc's" that are gaining in popularity.
The software included is Nero Express. My last LiteOn drive, and my Verbatim both included the full Nero burning suite, version 5.5. This drive included only Nero Express, and furthermore it was based on the 5.5 version of the software, even though the 6.0 version was introduced at the end of the summer. The manual for the software was in Acrobat form on the disc. Nero Express did install without a problem on the first try. It reminds me of the "dumbed down" Roxio Easy CD Creator. That said, it can be used to accomplish all the things I do such as cd to cd copying, recompiling music cd's, data cd's, and even video cd's (which I have no experience with). The interface on Express while less optioned, was simpler and easier for the novice user.
After a reboot, we were off and burning. I ran the included cd speed utility. It benchmarked almost identically to the 52x24x52 drive. The read speed was 23-48x on audio, CAV, and 36.56 average speed on a 74 minute audio CD (Star Wars: Attack of the Clones). The digital audio extraction was quality=10, with 0.00% errors with an accurate stream. Interestingly, the burst rate was 12 mb/sec, the 52x24x52 was only 3mb/sec; this was the only significant test they varied on.
The drive burned all media very well. I upgraded to the latest firmware from the LiteOn website. It also has the buffer underrun, as well as Smart-Burn technology to ensure no coasters. It burned to Verbatim, Memorex, Sony, Optimum, EWorks and silver tops with no problem. Also, it burned to the EWorks cd's that the other drive limits to 16x, at the full 52x with Smart-Burn enabled. The drive's LED glows green for reading, red for writing, and orange when the buffer underrun kicks in (it worked flawlessly). The drive burns to all brands at full 52x speed and makes great audio backups.
The drive has a 32x rewrite speed and is Mt. Ranier capable (standard on the fly formatting), I don't have media of that speed to test it on.
In comparison to my older LiteOn drive which I still use, I feel that while the performance numbers are very similar, this drive is much more refined and polished. I've moved up from a Viper to a BMW. Both are fast, but this one clearly benefits from the improvements. It is nearly silent when both reading and writing at maximum speed (the other sounds like a 747 taxiing down the runway- you definitely know it's working). Also, this drive features the more durable gears for the opening mechanism (as opposed to the cheaper rubberbands and pulleys), but it opens much quieter and smoother than its predecessor.
All in all, I'm pleased with the purchase. LiteOn has created a great product. I would have liked the full Nero package, but I can overlook the simpler software for the outstanding hardware. Finally, there are so many LiteOn users out there, if you ever have a problem, there is an active community at www.cdfreaks.com where there is a forum just for LiteOn drives that can solve most problems. The drive is still working well at 6 months with no sign of slowing down.
While this is a great drive, consider a dvd burner instead reviewed here.
http://www.epinions.com/content_145685450372
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 19.99
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
digitaldoc
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Location: New York
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
Men don't outgrow their toys, they just get more expensive.
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