Hardware

Introduction

The world of writable and rewritable storage has gone through many phases over the years, starting with the initial foray into CDR and CDRW devices. These opened up a whole new avenue of data storage and replication, and have essentially rendered alternative hardware - such as ZIP and high-density floppy technologies - virtually obsolete. This was a market shift that many foresaw, but few understood how deeply it would be felt, and an entire market segment disappeared in short order.

Soon after its introduction, the CDRW drive became a de facto ingredient on high-performance systems, and we rapidly moved up the CDR speed chart, from the initial 1X and 2X drives to today's powerful 52X and even 54X drives. It was the same story with CDRW speeds, with technology moving quick from 1X up to our current top-end of 32X CDRW. Prices also moved opposite to drive speeds, and became so affordable that even the low-end system market adopted basic CDRW drives as virtually required equipment.

The rewritable storage market fell into somewhat of a funk during the 48X CDR to 52X CDR speed increase, as consumers had really hit the apex of their performance needs. Shaving a few seconds off of write speeds didn't have the same allure as previous incremental jumps, and drive manufacturers really needed new technologies, and new formats to existing ones, to really capture consumer interest once again.

The advent of DVD-R/RW and DVD +R+/+RW technology supplied the first ingredient, and after an initial foray of high-priced, low sales units, manufacturers have now moved to a price-point more attractive to mass market consumers. The other important shift was to take an all-in-one approach to CD and DVD storage, and produce Combo Drives that not only handled the CDR/RW duties, but could also take charge of CD and DVD reading as well. The benefits are clear, as buying a single Combo Drive is less expensive than two devices, and these single-drive units are also much more conducive to small form factor PCs.

The AOpen Candidates

To illustrate the various devices available in the market, we've assembled a trio of AOpen drives. These cover the gamut of rewritable storage features, technology and requirements, and each serves a specific market segment. At the high-end, we've got the AOpen DRW4410 DVD+RW/+R writer, while the mid-range and entry-level buyers are covered off by the AOpen COM4824 Combo Drive and CRW5232 CDRW drive. This not only gives us an opportunity to evaluate the actual hardware, but to determine each where each device fits in, compared to system architecture and budget requirements.

Test System

Each of the drives has been tested in various writing and rewriting modes, with verdicts given in the areas of performance, compatibility, ease of use, and ambient noise. The system configuration consisted of a standard INWIN tower case, along with the following system components.