Inexpensive CD ReWriter

CD-Writer speeds are increasing at a very rapid pace. In May, we had reviewed 24x write CD-ReWriters, and two months later, we received two drives from LG and Asus having 32x and 48x writing capabilities respectively. In this review, we’ll look at the LG drive, which also supports 10x ReWrite and 40x read. Being an IDE drive, installing it wasn’t a problem, and it comes with Nero 5.5.7 for the CD writing and InCD for

ReWriting, 

Being an IDE drive, installing it was easy Snapshot LG CD-REWRITER 32X10X40X Price: Rs 4,900 Meant for:  Home/office users Feature: 32x Writer speed, 10x ReWrite speed, 40x Read speed, SuperLink buffer underrun protection  Pros: Cheap Cons: Average Performance Contact: LG Electronics India, New Delhi. Tel:  0120-4560900 extn 431.  E-mail: ravigulati@lgezbuy.com

We used Imation 24x media for testing the drive, because of poor availability of higher speed media. This was incidentally the same media, which we used in our CD-Writer shootout in May. At 24x, its performance was average compared to the other drives. It took 5:15 to burn a CD-R, compared to an average of 5:02 given by other drives. In doing a CD-to-CD copy, it took 7:18, as against an average of 6:38 given by others. Finally, to create an audio CD, it took 5:41, more than a minute from the rest that took about 4:29. In ReWriting, it took 18 mins to fully format a CDRW disc, which was quite long as the average time was 12:19. Finally the drive took a minute and 24 secs to transfer 100 MB to a CD-RW disc, which gives it a throughput of 1.19 MB/Sec, which was at par with the rest.

The Bottom Line: Overall, this drive was average on performance at 24x, but this might change with the availability of faster media. The best thing about this drive is its attractive price tag. At Rs 4,900, it’s a great buy if you’re not a performance critic, and can live with slightly longer burning times. 

Sachin Makhija at PCQ Labs