AOpen
52x32x52x CRW5232/ARR CD-RW Review
I
remember when I bought my first CD-RW drive many years ago... I was the
envy of all my "geeky" friends because I could burn CDs. The times have changed significantly, and now these
days CD-RW burners are considered standard equipment when it comes to computers. It's rare to
find a new computer without one in fact. Data requirements have long
since outgrown the old 1.44MB floppy drive, so
if you need a universal way to backup data, you're going to want to put it
on a CD burner that can handle all types of recordable optical media, fast.
In this
review, PCstats is testing out the a 52x CD, 32x CD-RW, 52x CD-R burner made by
AOpen,
the "CRW5232/ARR". Maximum CD-R write speeds have hit their limit
at the 52x burn speed, and this standard has been around for well over a year
now. That shouldn't be much of a surprise though, after all, a 52x burner can
fill a regular 650MB disc with information in just over 83 seconds, and a 700MB
disc in just under 90 seconds!
Of course
there's more to the AOpen 52x32x52x CD-RW than speedy burning; one innovative thing AOpen has done is include
three coloured face plates with the drive! Those of you with aluminum or
fancy black cases will like the option of choosing a matching silver or black face plates
for your PC. And hey, if you're using a regular white box PC, the beige
faceplate works just fine too.
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AOpen
52x32x52x CD-RW |
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| Includes: |
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Installation Guide, Audio
Cable, Four Mounting Screws, Nero Express, Two additional
Mounting plates, Speed Boost sheet.
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The AOpen
CRW5232/ARR 52x32x52x CD-RW is compatible with TAO (Track at Once), DAO (Disc at
Once), SAO (Session at Once), Multisession, Packet Write and Mt. Rainier Write
writing methods. The drive has 2MB of onboard cache, which isn't really
necessary since the drive does support "Just Link" buffer under run error
prevention technology.
It's nice to see that the AOpen 52x32x52x CD-RW is
a compact 5.25" drive, measuring in at just under 19cm long. If you have a
cramped case, you will surely appreciate that.
The CRW5232/ARR drive can be mounted in both
the horizontal and vertical positions, but if you stand the drive up on its side
make sure you push out the CD retention clips first!
The rear of the CRW5232/ARR drive looks like a normal
optical device except for the unnamed six pin header on the
very left.
After that starting from the left to right we have
the two pin digital audio output, four pin analog audio output,
Master/Slave/Cable Select jumper settings, IDE port and power
connector.
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