HardwareZone has a review of the Iomega 16/10/40 USB2.0 CD-RW drive. This drive is able to write at 16 speed, rewrite at 10 speed, and read at 40 speed.
The drive has a 2 Mb Buffer and bufferunderrun protection. The drive is a little big and hasn't a very good performance, but overall the reviewers are quite happy with it.
In all honesty, the Panther drive is a wonderful piece of device. It may not be the fastest 16x recorder our there, but it is one of the best external drive performer we have seen to date. By incorporating a Burn-proof protection into the Panther, Iomega have also insured users against buffer-underruns. Add to the fact that it's capable of reading sub-channel data, and the eye-popping discovery that it can do 99 minutes overburning, the Panther is a pretty versatile drive, especially for an external one. |
The bundling of Iomega's HotBurn Software, instead of the usual Nero burning rom may not appeal to some users who want the extra features. But HotBurn's simple interface will not intimidate newbies or people who just simply want to burn a CD without the hassle. Iomega didn't scrimp on their purse, and have added a lite version of MusicMatch software as well, for MP3 lovers who like to rip their tracks onto a CD.
Overall, what we didn't like however, is the bulkiness of the Panther drive. It is heavy in weight, and its huge size may not be the ultimate portable drive. Then again, Iomega did carefully named this drive as an external drive, not a portable one. So if you just lack that 5 1/4 bay in your casing, the Panther may be an option to consider. But we figured a lot of users will be attracted by the pricing of the drive, which is at an ERP S$379. Plunk in a free USB 2.0 PCI card that comes together with the package, which is valued at around S$80-plus courtesy of Iomega, and we do find it hard not to like the Iomega Panther.
Source: HardwareZone
