Het volk van cdrlabs.com brengt ons een review van de GCE-8160B brander van LG. Deze drive schrijft CD'tjes op 16x, herschrijft ze op 10x en leest ze in op 40x. LG gebruikt bij deze brander een buffer underrun technologie genaamd Super-Link, die gebruik maakt van een controller chipset van MediaTek. Helaas is er geen info bekend over de werking en over de grootte van de gaatjes. Het werkt in ieder geval goed en is niet softwarematig uit te schakelen. Het apparaat beschikt over een buffer van 2MB en heeft een access time van 110 msec. OPC (Optical Power Calibration) is aanwezig om de optimale schrijfsnelheid te detecteren. Uit de CD Winbech 99 benchmark-resultaten blijkt dat de drive uitermate goed presteert en sneller is dan de 16x branders van Plextor en Lite-On. Hieronder een hap uit de conclusie:
So is this the new top dog when it comes to 16x drives? If not the top dog, it comes very close. In my tests this drive had one of the highest CD Winbench scores I've seen... and I've tested a lot of drives. While it couldn't top the Lite-On drive in our other CD reading tests, it was able to beat Plextor's 16x drive. Along with the good CD reading speeds, LG's new GCE-1860B showed some very good seek times and a peak DAE speed of over 40x. Super-Link was also a pleasant surprise. It worked quite well to prevent coasters and did not need to be supported by the software to work. Not bad for a drive under $100.
One thing that irked me about this drive is that LG says that this drive supports UDMA 33. I could not get anything other than PIO Mode 4 to work. The drive also does not support any writing speeds under 4x. Unless you're doing some types of audio editing that require writing at 1x, you probably will not miss those speeds anyway. And then you have the included Easy CD Creator 4.0 software. You know this software has never been my favorite. This software is really starting to show its age by the lack of features, but will suffice for people only needing to do basic tasks. People looking for more will probably go out and buy or already own a copy of Easy CD Creator 5.0 or Nero Burning Rom anyway.Highs:
- Very good pressed and CD-R read speeds.
- Excellent DAE speeds.
- Low seek times.
- Features LG's Super-Link technology to prevent coasters. Software support not needed.
- Includes good manuals for the drive and included software.
- Very affordable.
Lows:
- Only supports PIO Mode 4.
- No recording speeds below 4x.
- Includes Easy CD Creator 4.0.
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