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Lite-On CD-RW/DVD Drives
Author: Daniel Topler
Date Posted: April 14th, 2003
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| SLRating (Internal 52x24x52x CD-RW Drive): |
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Bottom Line:
What happens when your CD Burner breaks, or it's just not fast enough? There are many drives out there we reviewed 3 from Lite-On, but how do they perform, and what did we think? Read on to find out in our official review....
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Lite-On Internal 52x24x52x CD-RW Drive
Features
P>Let's take an overview of Lite-On's internal 52x24x52 CD-RW features, shall we?
- Half-Height Internal Design, Fastest CD-RW Drive in the world!
- Innovated SMART-BURN technology to automatically check media quality and set limit to burning speed to ensure successful writing sessions & data retainability ( *1 )
- Buffer underrun error free & automatically adjust writing strategy plus running OPC to meet various burning condition
- SMART-X supporting high-speed DAE & VCD extraction for copying and automatically decreasing speed to provide smooth & noise-free playback for CD Audio / VCD titles ( *2)
- VAS® ( Vibration Absorber System ) to reduce vibration & noise during recording & reading
- Support Fixed Packet, Variable Packet, TAO, SAO, DAO, Raw Mode Burning & Over-Burn
- Support format of CD Family, CD-R & CD-RW media ( up to 99 minutes)
- Conforms to Orange Book Part 2,3, Volume 3 : Ultra Speed & MMC2 commands
- Support Mt.Rainier
- Plug&Play Device with Emergency Manual Eject function
- E-IDE Interface, support up to Ultra-DMA mode 2
- Use FlashROM supports internet firmware upgrade
First Impressions
When I found the package containing the Lite-On 52x24x52x drive, naturally, I was excited. I ripped open each box, and found the drive packed securely in a retail box. I also found two blank CD's, on was a CD-R, and the other a CD-RW. There was also a copy of Nero 5 in the box, which is software for burning CD's. I was impressed that Lite-On included Nero, which is a more advanced CD burning program. Most companies ship with Roxio's Easy CD Creator, which is not considered to be as good of a program as Nero.
You'll also find an audio cable for the drive to hook up to your sound card. There was just one nag. Where was the IDE cable? Lite-On didn't ship the drive with one, so if you don't have any extras in your PC, you'll need to buy one.
Design
The drive looks very much like any other CD-ROM drive. It is slightly longer in the back, but nothing that should be a problem for most people's cases. I experienced no problems when installing the drive.
The front of the CD-RW unit has a Lite-On sticker (which says www.liteonit.com), which looks sort of stupid, but it's no big deal. You'll also find a sticker that says Lite-On (it's a logo), as well as text on the front of the drive saying 52x24x52x. The drive tray has a Ultra Speed CD-RW logo molded in.
The drive has just one LED light. It's green when reading, red when writing, and orange/yellow when SmartBurn is turned on. Next to the LED light you'll find the volume knob, and next to that is the headphone jack. Finally, right above the volume knob, you'll find the emergency eject button, which can be extremely important in some situations.
On the back of the drive, you'll find nothing new or exciting. There's a standard IDE port, power port, and the audio output connector. There's also the jumper switch to set the drive to master, slave, and cable select. There's also a digital audio connector, which is all the way to the left.
Installation
The process for installing the drive was exactly like how you would install any other drive. For my case, I had to clip on the Component Clips that came with my computer to put the drive in securely. Many cases do not need this, but if you do need it, your computer manufacturer (or you) should have these.
Once I secured the IDE cable and the Molex power connector, I was good to go. I put the side panel back on my computer and turned it on.
Windows detected the drive with no problem. On to installing software!
Once I inserted the Nero CD, included in the package, an autoplay menu popped up. There were various choices of things to view or install. First off was the Internal CD-RW Drive Utility. Here, you can copy drivers to a floppy for DOS use, or view the user's manual. Next up was the External CD-RW Drive Utility. Here I found drivers for external CD burners. Next on the list was to install Nero and InCD. You'll then find the Nero Quick Start Manual, Install Acrobat Reader, and finally, exit.
You can pretty much ignore all of these options, except for the "Install Nero and InCD." You'll want to click this to install the burning software. It's extremely easy to install, and after restarting your PC, you'll be ready to burn.
Documentation
Documentation was extremely weak in this package. The internal drive's manual consisted of a one page sheet of paper that didn't explain enough for the average consumer. However, you can find much more documentation via .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) files on your PC. They provide the information you need, but it's not as user-friendly.
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