More hardware news today as
CDRLabs.com has wrapped up a review of the AOpen CRW5232 CD-RW recorder. The drive supports
52x recording speeds and 32x re-writing speeds. Reading of CD media can be done
at speeds of up to 52x. Here's part of CDRLabs.com's conclusion:
 The CRW5232 is one of better 52x writers
we've tested. Affordably priced, AOpen's new CD-RW offers a good mix of
performance and features that anyone on a budget will appreciate. While
not the fastest reader we've tested, the CRW5232 had no problems holding
its own in our tests. With its "Speed Boost" enabled, the drive was able
to read pressed discs at 52x and CD-RW media at an impressive 47x. This
level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the CRW5232
ripped audio CD's at speeds as high as 51x. It also handled scratched
discs surprisingly well.
When it came to writing CD's, the CRW5232 performed very well. The
drive turned in some of the fastest writing times we've seen, coming in a
second or two behind Lite-On's new 52x writer, the LTR-52327S. Better yet,
AOpen's new writer was able to do this with a wide variety of media, while
keeping the writing errors to a minimum. Unfortunately, the CRW5232 did
not as perform quite as well in our rewriting tests. While the drive
rewrites at 32x, it was not as fast as some of the other drives due to its
CAV recording mode.
Lastly, you have the CRW5232's features. To prevent buffer underruns,
the drive has a 2MB buffer that is backed up by Ricoh's JustLink
technology. The buffer might seem a little small to some, but this system
had no problems preventing coasters caused by buffer underruns. The
CRW5232 also offers a good number of writing and rewriting speeds as well
as support for the Mt. Rainier format. On the other hand, I was a little
disappointed to see that AOpen didn't include any blank CD-RW media with
the drive. However, it does come with a nice software bundle from Ahead
Software. |
CDRLabs.com's reviewer adds that the best thing about the AOpen CRW5232 drive
is its price as it can be bought online for less than US$
40. Since the drive performs very well and it's affordably priced, it gets
CDRLabs.com's Best Buy Award. If this has made you interested in reading more,
check out the complete review here.
Source: CDRLabs.com
