Author: HQH
Released: November 23, 2001
Updated: November 26, 2001
|
Bought Digital Research Technologies (will starting using DRT for shortness) 16x10x40 CD-RW drive at Best Buy on Friday,
November 23, 2001. It was on sale at Best Buy for $29.99. Although I had to slap down $79.99 + tax, and get $50 mail in rebate to
drop it down to $29.99. Not a bad deal. Anyhow, I had to get up very early on Friday - 6:35 AM and head over to Best Buy to make it
to the 7 AM opening. Best Buy had a special sales going on after Thanksgiving day from 7 AM to noon, and quantities are limited to
stock or a certain amount. I got there about 7:04 AM, and what do I see? A long line backed up with lots of people waiting to get
through Best Buy's entrance. So, I go park my car and I find a spot close to the store, so I don't have to end up parking miles away
from the store. I got out of the car, waited in line and then got into Best Buy finally. I head over immediately to the CD-RW drives
section, and sadly, the shelf with the DRT 16x10x40 was not there. Okay, so I didn't panick, and started to wander somewhere else,
looking for the 110 pack CD-R packs that they were on sale. I couldn't find that either, but then I wandered to a another CD-ROM
drives section and lo and behold, one more DRT 16x10x40 drive left on the shelf. So I grabbed it. The guy behind me wanted one too,
but too bad. I saw it first and it's mine. Hehehehe. But as I walked away, the sales man put up a few more drives, so this wasn't
the last one. It's all good.
Waited in line and paid for the product. The checkout line was backed up. I was the 5th person waiting in line. The waiting
took forever. Two people finally checked out there stuff, until someone opened up another checkout line next to the line I was in.
One person went for the opened line. I felt like not going, but I decided to go, since I would be 2nd person in line (would be
stupid not to). After I went, everybody then followed me through. Paid for the product and got out of Best Buy. Only took me about
25 minutes or so just to buy one thing.
Got home, picked up a screw driver out of the tool box and headed up into my cousin's room where I would install this new
spanking CD-RW drive. I opened up the box to check the contents first.
The contents:
- 16x10x40 CD-RW drive
- 1 blank 10X CD-RW disc, by Ritek
- 1 IDE ribbon cable, analog cable (CD audio cable), 4 screws
- NTI's CD-Maker 2000 CD Plus v5.0
- Manual/notice
About the contents: DRT just bundles I/O Magic's
MagicWriter 16x10x40 CD-RW drive, but it's actually
BTC's (Behavior Tech Computer Corp.) 16x10x40 CD-RW drive, so DRT isn't really the manufacture (nor I/O Magic), but a
distributor instead (this includes I/O Magic). I checked out BTC's website,
and it's a Taiwanese company. Currently, BTC's fastest CD-RW drive is this 16x10x40 drive that I got. As for the NTI CD-Maker 2000
Plus CD, I won't be using it, since I have Ahead Nero v5.5 software. Also, on
DRT's website, it said that Nero v5.0 is included,
but instead, NTI's software is included. I'll have to e-mail them about this (even though I already have Nero v5.5).
Here are a couple of pictures of the CD-RW drive:
CD-RW drive from the front:
CD-RW drive from the back:
I checked out the manual briefly and the contents to make sure everything is there. I then unplugged everything (power, mouse,
etc...) from my cousin's computer and slide open both sides of the mid sized ATX tower case covers. Unscrewed four little screws
that held the old 2x2x6 CD-RW drive. Replaced it with the 16x10x40. The 16x10x40 is on the second IDE channel, and there's nothing
else attached to the second IDE channel. So it's all good. I checked to make sure that the drive setting is in place. It was set to
slave. I didn't bother to set it to master, so it doesn't matter much. Although what conflicts with this is that the manual says
that master is set on default on page 10 in the manual. Oh well, I'm not a computer newbie, so to heck with this little conflict.
Won't hold me back using the new CD-RW drive anyhow if it was set on slave since my cousin's second IDE channel will only contain
the CD-RW. This time, instead of using the four little screws that held the old CD-RW drive, I used the one supplied with the
16x10x40. They have a bigger head, so in they go, and out with the little ones. I then put everything back together, replugged
everything and booted up the computer.
After getting into Windows Me, I went to Device Manager, set the CD-RW drive to DMA mode and unchecked the auto-insert
notification feature. Rebooted Windows Me and then went on benchmarking with Nero CD Speed v0.84 beta. But first, let's take a look
at the CD-RW drive's specifications.
Specifications
|
|
|
