BTC 5224IM IDE CD-RW RECORDER - Page 1

- Introduction

Behavior Tech Computer Corporation was established in 1982 in Taiwan. The company is mainly engaged in optical storage solutions and optical electronics such as CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives but lately has expanded the product range to digital cameras, GPS systems and desktop accessories. The latest CD-RW drive from BTC is the BTC 5224IM 52/24/52 IDE recorder. The drive is manufactured in December 2002 and challenges a part of the 52X recording market.

- Specifications

The official specifications of the drive are illustrated below.

The 52X CAV CD-R and 24X RW writing speeds among with the 52X CAV reading speeds are possibly the most interesting features of the drive. The maximum audio extraction speed is set to 40X and the supported cache buffer is 2MBNero Info Tool confirms the specifications above among with some more detailed information:

The installed firmware version is v0012. BTC 5224IM supports the SuperLink Buffer Underun Protection, (based upon MediaTek chipsets), and the Mount Rainier format. The drive can also retrieve C2 error information. The following pictures show the available reading/writing speeds:

- Recording Technology

The drive supports the 52X recording speed with the use of CAV recording technology. As Nero CD Speed graph shows, the drive starts writing at 23.24X and accelerates to 52.24X by the end of the disc. That gives an average theoretical writing speed of 39.58X with 80min CD-R media.

- The package

We got the European retail package an application software disc, containing Nero Burning Rom v5.5.9.1.6, Nero InCD and manuals for various BTC drives. The package does not include any CD-R or HS-RW media. The drive is priced at only Euro60-70. The latest firmware is 0012 and can be downloaded at http://www.btcusa.com/cdrw.html

- Looking at the drive

On the front panel of the drive there are the eject/stop and play/skip buttons used for audio CD playback. The volume selector and the headphone jack are placed on the left side of the front panel. In the picture below you can also see the "52x24x52" logo and the operation status LED.

On the rear panel of the drive you will find the IDE connector, the configuration jumpers, the analogue and the digital audio output connectors and of course the power connector.

- Inside the drive

After removing the bottom screws we can see the internal of the drive. Note that by doing this the warranty becomes invalid. The drive uses Mediatek chipsets as well as many other 52X writers (ASUS, CyberDrive).

- Installation

The BTC 5224IM was installed as a Master device in the secondary IDE channel of our test PC, and worked at Ultra DMA mode. After booting, it identified itself as a "CDWRITER IDE5224". We used Nero v5.5.10, CloneCD v4.2.0.2 and Ahead InCD v3.51.91 for the recording tests. In the test sections the BTC drive is compared to three other 52X writers from Aopen, CyberDrive and Asus.

In the test sections the BTC drive is compared to three other 52X writers from Aopen, CyberDrive and Asus.