The CD-Rewriter Shootout

Asus’ CRW 2410A



What gave this drive the top seat was a good combination of performance, features, and price. In performance the drive gave the second best score, after Sony, with a performance difference of just 5 points. It did well in most of our tests, taking 4:53 mins to burn 650 MB of data and 4:24 mins to create an audio CD. The drive’s rewriting
capabilities were also good, with an average throughput of 1.2 MB/sec. 

On the features front, the drive comes with the most feature rich CD-writing software, Nero 5.5, along with Adaptec InCD for using CR-RWs. The software bundle could have been improved, as the only thing we found in the pack was Nero Media Player. The drive’s competitively priced at just Rs 7,500, making it a pretty good deal. 

The drive also comes with a rich set of drivers. Besides standard Windows drivers for Win 98/Me/NT/2000/ XP, it also comes with drivers for SCO Unix, Linux, and NetWare. Other than that, it supports a wide range of CD-formats. Besides standard audio and data formats, it also supports CD-ROM/ XA, CD-I, Mixed Mode, Photo CD, CD-Extra, Video CD, CD-Text, DVCD, and CD-G. 

External USB

Iomega’s

CD-RW 9602



There
were only three drives in this category, with two drives from Iomega. Both these drives had more or less similar features and the price difference between the two was also a mere Rs1,000. So what got this drive to the top was its overall

performance score, which was just a point below the Plextor drive, the third drive in this category. The Iomega was the fastest in burning 650 MB of data, and also gave better throughput at 1.2 MB/sec compared to the Plextor’s .9 MB/sec. While the Plextor was a little better in the remaining three performance tests, it lost out due to its high price. 

The Predator works on all Windows versions, including the latest XP. The model supports the latest USB 2 technology that’s 40 times faster than the older USB 1.1 technology. Your motherboard must support USB 2.0 to make use of the drive’s full potential. That’s why the drive ships with a USB 2 card. Being

USB, installing the drive is quite easy. You’ll need to plug-in the USB 2 card into a free PCI slot, install the requisite drivers and you are ready to go. 

CD-formats supported by the drive, besides the standard data and audio include CD-DA, CD-Extra, CD-ROM

XA, Photo CD, CD-I, CD-G, CD Text, and Video CD. 

Neelima Vaid