CD-ROM Roundup Vo1

Review Pages

1. Introduction
2. Data Tests
3. CloneCD reading Tests
4. DAE Tests
5. Conclusion

CD-ROM Roundup Vo1 - Page 5

Conclusion

CyberDrive 52x
Positive (+)	Negative (-)
- Fast reader with pressed/cdr/hs-rw media - Faster DAE speed than competition - Can rip scratched AudioCDs fast and with low errors - Supports CD-Text - Good PSX ripping speed - Supports Ultra-DMA 33 connection interface	- Noisy when reading at full speed - Low CloneCD reading performance - Recognizes only Key2Audio protected AudioCDs - Failed to correctly read SD2 protected CDs - Does not support 90/99min media - Access time higher than competition

Mitsumi FX5401W1A
Positive (+)	Negative (-)
- Supports 54x reading speed - Faster reader at 54x speed with pressed/cdr - Low seek times - Can "handle" some protected AudioCDs - Supports CD-Text - Supports Ultra-DMA 33 connection interface - Supports 90min media	- Makes lot of noise when reading at full speed - CloneCD reading performance could be higher - Cannot recognize CDS100 protected AudioCDs - Failed to correctly read SD2 protected CDs - Two many errors in the scratched AudioCD test - Reading of hsrw could be better - Low PSX ripping speed - Does not support 99min media

Samsung SC-152L
Positive (+)	Negative (-)
- Fast DAE speed - Working image of SD2 protected CDs - Low seek times - Supports reading up to 96min CDs - Supports CD-Text - Supports DMA 33 connection interface	- Reading performance could be better - Makes lot of noise when reading at full speed - CloneCD reading performance could be higher - Rip of scratched AudioCDs with errors - Cannot "handle" any protected AudioCDs

This time the decision is really tough to make. All the drives we tested do not share the same advantages and disadvantages, so the final choice is definitely up to your exact needs.

Starting from the reading speeds, Mitsumi FX5401W1A has the lead in advance since it supports 54x speed and the other two drives stay at 52x. Between CyberDrive 52x and Samsung SC-152L, Cyberdrive gave the higher average reading speeds with CD-R media.

DAE performance is another important issue for a drive. Cyberdrive was the fastest DAE reader and produced the lower amount of errors in the "bad medium" rip test. Mitsumi was slower and Mitsumi performed badly, since it gave a more than 50% error rate in the same test.

The Audio protected CDs will not be a problem for Mitsumi FX5401W1A. (Except from Cactus Data Shield 100). Cyberdrive 52x will rip only the "Key2Audio" CDs and Samsung SC-152L cannot handle any protection.

The CloneCD tests showed that only Samsung can produce SD2 working backups, although it will take some time to rip the image to the HD.