The ASUS CRW-5232A-T is a CDRW drive with a SATA interface aimed at users who still burn a lot CDs. This can come in handy with many recent Intel 9xx chipset based motherboards which have only one IDE port but plenty of SATA.

The drive is a fast reader with low seek times. Its error correction capability is very good according to our tests, since it managed to read all the five tracks of our CD-Check Audio Test Disc, something we don't see with many drives, while with the ABEX TCD-721R and TCD-726 test discs, it reported excellent performance.

The ASUS CRW-5232A-T supports 52X CAV DAE speed and offers features such as cached DAE, accurate stream and C2 error information. It received a score of 100 (perfect) in the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test with an average reading speed of 38.98X. Key2Audio/CDS200 protected Audio discs are not a problem for the drive which will read/rip flawlessly. It supports 99min reading Audio CDs but has problems with 90min Audio CDs.

Ripping game CDs is something that proved easy for the ASUS excepting perhaps Safedisc protected discs, where the drive reported only average behaviour. PSX and SecuROM protections however are not a problem. The drive will produce working backups with the newest v3.1 builds, something very important for a CD-RW.

The maximum 52X writing speed uses the CAV strategy, as does the drive at 48X. The drive will fully burn a 700Mb CD in 2:35min. All the tests were done with the only firmware revision currently available. The writing time is highly dependent on the disc since in our tests, 52X certified media were burned at 48X. The writing quality is good with most media, even at high speeds although once again it seems that it is safer to burn at 16X.

We didn't manage to locate a price for the drive on the e-market. The ASUS CRW-5232A-T is relatively new on the scene and might not be available yet.

- The Good

• SATA interface
• 32X US-RW support
• Fast writer at 52X
• Fast reader/ripper with PSX and SecuROM protected media
• Compatible for backup of SafeDisc2 v3.1x protected discs
• Good CD error correction
• Can overburn up to 99mins
• Supports Key2Audio/CDS200 protected Audio discs
• Supports Mount Rainier

- The Bad.

• Average reader/ripper with Sefedisc protected media
• Failed to read/rip our 90min test disc

- Like to be fixed

• Writing quality with specific media