When we received our ND-4550A burner from NEC, it had already been released onto the market a couple of months. We therefore decided to wait a little longer for the release of the new firmware for the burner, version 1.07. We are now ready to test the very popular NEC ND-4550A burner.
- Specifications
| Product |
ND-4550A |
| Interface |
IDE/ATAPI (Ultra DMA33 compatible) |
| Speed Capabilities by Disc |
Disc |
Writing |
Reading |
| DVD RAM |
5x ZCAV |
5x ZCAV |
| DVD+R (SL) |
16x CAV |
16x CAV |
| DVD+R (DL) |
8x ZCLV |
7x CAV |
| DVD-R (SL) |
16x CAV |
16x CAV |
| DVD-R (DL) |
8x ZCLV |
7x CAV |
| DVD+RW |
8x ZCLV |
13x CAV |
| DVD-RW |
6x ZCLV |
13x CAV |
| CD-R |
48x CAV |
48x CAV |
| CD-RW |
32x ZCLV |
40x CAV |
| CD-ROM |
- |
48x CAV |
| DVD-ROM(SL) |
- |
16x CAV |
| DVD-ROM(DL) |
- |
12x CAV |
| (SL):Single Layer, (DL):Double Layer |
| Tray color |
White or Black or Silver |
| LED color |
Green |
| Support Disc |
Recommended writable media (Only DVD) |
| Dimensions (HxWxD) |
42 mm x 148.2mm x 190mm (with standard bezel loaded) |
| Weight |
Approx. 1 kg |
| Required OS environment |
Windows(R) 2000,
Windows(R) XP Home, Professional(SP2) |
Below are the main specs for the drive, as given by NeroInfoTool and DVDInfoPro:
- Nero InfoTool
- DVD InfoPro
The RPC II region control is used, allowing the user to change the drive's region no more than five times.
- Retail Package
Previous burners that we have received from NEC came in the bulk package. This time round, we received a retail version that includes:
- the white blazed NEC ND-4550A internal tray load mechanism burner
- an E-IDE (ATAPI) cable
- an Audio cable
- mounting screws
- a CD-ROM that includes documentation for the drive as well as a bundled version of Nero Express 6, Nero Vision Express 3, Nero Showtime 2, and a wide collection of Nero Utilities
These days, most of the retail packages that we receive do not include any blank media... and... NEC is not an exception here. :p
- The Drive
The front panel is no different to any other recent NEC drive such as the ND-4551A, with a typical NEC design. On the rear panel you will find the analogue and digital audio outputs (SPDIF),
the IDE master/slave/cs selector pins, the IDE connector and the power input.
- Front panel view
- Rear panel view
- Top view
We do not recommend removing the drive's cover, since this will void the manufacturer's warranty. But you can take a look inside the drive with the pictures below. Click on the image for a larger, more detailed photograph.
The chipset is NEC's "D6364", the same one that is used in the previous ND 3540 model as well as the latest ND-4551A burner. The specific chipset will also be found in Pioneer's latest burners, the DVR-110 and DVR-110D.
- Installation
The drive came installed with firmware version 1.06. We upgraded it to version 1.07. The drive was identified as the "NEC DVD_RW ND-4550A" under WinXP. Below is a screenshot of Nero Burning Rom's specs for the drive.
In order to compare the performance of the ND-4550A, we provide the results of two other latest release burners, the BenQ DW-1655 and Plextor PX-755A.
