AOpen CRW1632 CD-RW

Review Pages

1. Introduction
2. Data Tests
3. RW reading tests
4. DAE Tests
5. CDR Tests
6. RW Writing Tests
7. Conclusion

AOpen CRW1632 IDE CDR-W - Page 7

Conclusion

Positive (+):

Negative (-):

- Supports 16x writing (CLV) speed
- "JustLink" anti-coaster technology
- "JustSpeed" media quality detection system
- Very Good data reading performance
- Very Good Seek times
- Very good packet writing performance!
- Supports HS-RW standard (10x re-write)
- Supports DAO-RAW
- Very Good CloneCD reading performance
- Supports reading/writing of SubChannel Data
- Supports CD-Text (reading/writing)
- Supports Overburning (up to 99mins)
- Supports Ultra-DMA 33 connection interface
- Retail package includes Nero 5.5
- Looowww price (91$<=)

- Supports only 32x reading speed, which makes the drive not direct comparable to the competition...
- Fair DAE ripping performance (with CDR media)
- DAE quality is not perfect...
- Failed to backup SD2 protected CDs
- Very small eject button

AOpen's latest CD-RW drive proposal comes at a very strange timing...The 16x writing speed has been around from January of 2001 and already 20x and 24x recorders have already hit the market. The only change for AOpen was to ship a low priced recorder with good features that will attract the non-power user's eye. The drive supports 16x writing speed among with "JustLink" and "JustSpeed" technologies. The drive's overall performance was very good with various CDR media, and for getting the maximum speed you will have to disable "JustSpeed" sacrifice the quality for the less recording time.

The drive biggest disadvantage is the 32x maximum reading speed, since automatically cannot compete to the other 16x recorders. The DAE quality also needs improvement the lack of SD2 support will not make users happy.

Let's see if the drive can compete it's rivals at the area that is supposed to: "Price". A quick look over Pricewatch shows that LiteOn 16x lowest price is 91$, Teac 516EB 115$ and PleXWriter PX-W1610A 162$. As we said the drive estimated to cost around 91$ which makes it very attractive for users who wish to enter the recording area, with a stable and 'fairly priced' recorder.