2. Rodzone A11-SU3

The Rodzone comes with the codename A11-SU3. There is nothing special and the design is very typical as well as build quality.

Opening the drive unveils that the drive is "taken" from a Lenovo laptop (probably) and the actual manufacturer is HLDS

The manufacturing date is January 2012...

At this drive a different SATA->USB is being used but with the same chipset.

After connecting the drive with our test system, we saw that the drive is called GT50N with LT20 firmware.

We searched around the Internet and we found a newer firmware revision LT22 (search google.com for DVDRAM_GT50N_Lenovo_TPG_LT22.exe). which was used to update the drive to the LT22.

There isn't any manufacturer website with the name (Rodzone) so if you need any help/support you will have to contact the Amazon Seller. As was expected, despite the fact that the drive is advertised as USB3.0 (and has the corresponding cable), in reality its connected with USB2.0 (high-speed).

Using the latest EAC (Exact Audio Copy) software we are able to detect important drive features, especially concerning Audio CD Ripping. The drive does seem to support C2 error info and doesn't Cache Audio which will result higher ripping speeds.

The drive doesn't support C1/C2 and PIE/PIF error scanning with OptiDriveControl and other similar software.

We found around the web the product specifications, mostly for the inner drive (HL-DT-ST GT50N):

• Read Speed:
  DVD-ROM 8x (max. 11,000 kByte/s)
  CD-ROM 24x (max. 3,600 kByte/s)
• Write Speed:
  DVD-R: 8x max. DVD+R: 8x max.
  DVD-RW: 6x max. DVD+RW: 8x max.
  DVD-R DL: 6x max. DVD+R9: 6x max.
  DVD-RAM: 5x max.
  CD-R: 24x max. CD-RW: 24x max.
• Access time: DVD: 180 ms CD: 150 ms
• Mechanism: Tray-load DVD- and CD-media-load
• Interface: S-ATA
• Burst transfer rate: 150 Gbit/s
• Cache: 2 MByte
• Media supported:
  DVD-ROM, DVD-R (DL), DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R9, CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-RW
• Modes supported:
  DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, CD-I Ready, CD-Bridge, PhotoCD, VideoCD, CD-DA, CD Extra, CD Text
• Writing methods: DAO, SAO, TAO with zero gap, variable or fixed packet, multisession
• Compatibility:
  MultiRead, MS Windows® XP/Windows Vista®/ Windows 7® compatible
• Weight: 170 g
• Dimensions: 12.7 mm x 128 mm x 129 mm
• Special features: Dust protected enclosure, buffer under run error prevention