Disc Inferno

Entrepreneur, Nov, 2000 by Amanda C. Kooser

Thanks to fast burn speeds and smokin prices, CD-RWs are charring the CD-R competition.

We're bidding a fond fare well to floppy disks. Not everybody has a Zip drive, and SuperDiscs can't be read by regular floppy drives; but you'll be hard pressed to find a computer that doesn't have a CD-ROM drive. That flat tray that looks an awful lot like a cup holder is the key to widely compatible removable storage. So, in today's CD-R-friendly climate, with prices dropping and speeds accelerating, it's time to either replace your old 2x CD-R or buy a brand-new CD-RW of your own.

While the music applications are obvious, the business potential is something to really tap your toes to. Backing up files is an often-neglected task, but CD-RWs at least offer a convenient format and 650MB of space for your important data. No mere floppy can claim that. Fast burn speeds and cheap media make it less of a headache to create several backup copies for safekeeping.

With CD-ROMs being a fairly universal medium, they can also be quite effective as communication tools. Put a PowerPoint presentation onto a CD, and you've got a customer handout. HTML documents, company information, PDF files, forms and references can be passed around in CD format. If your computers aren't networked, CD-ROMs can be a handy way to transfer large chunks of data and files from machine to machine.

ARE YOU RW OR NOT?

There used to be one choice for burning your own CDs: CD-R. Then CD-RW drives came on the scene, but you had to pay big bucks to get one. Now CD-RWs are the norm, and prices have fallen well below $300 for many models. With even the cost of the medium dropping, CD-R-only drives are becoming an endangered species. While CD-RW drives can write to CD-R discs, CD-R drives can't write to CD-RW discs. Buying a CD-RW increases your Options.

The Toshiba SD-R1002 is in a class all its own. It can 4x write, 4x rewrite, play 24x CD-ROMs and play DVDs at 4x. At $289 (street) for the Toshiba, it's clear that DVD capability doesn't add too much to prices. You can get faster write and rewrite speeds in non-DVD drives for about the same amount of money, but, well, you can't access DVDs with them.

SPEED DEMONS

One of the fastest CD-RWs in our table is the Plextor PlexWriter 12/ 10/32A. It records at 12x, rewrites at 10x and plays back at 32x. Although the Plextor has a top write speed of 12x, it can also write at 8x, 4x and 1x (handy when using discs that can't handle fast burn speeds). Using the example of a music CD, if you are burning 60 minutes of audio onto a CD-R disc, the Plextor drive would record it at 12x, taking about 5 minutes to write the disc. A drive that recorded at 4x would take about 15 minutes to burn the same disc. Speeds are always given assuming optimum system performance; actual speeds will vary with the configuration of your computer and the type of interface you're currently using.

A drive's buffer memory size can affect how smoothly the burning goes, with 2MB of memory standard. The Hewlett-Packard HP CD-Writer 9200i/e and Ricoh MediaMaster MP7080A both come with 4MB buffers. The larger size should help cut down on the errors arising from buffer problems.

Besides speed, you'll also have to decide whether you want an external or an internal drive. If you don't want to pry open the lid of your computer or pay somebody else to pry open the lid of your computer, you'll want to buy an external drive. If you like to work on your computer's innards, an internal drive offers the advantages of being less expensive and more out of the way. But you'll be able to take an external drive from machine to machine. The HP CD-Writer Plus 92100i/e comes in both internal and external versions. At $275 (street), the internal version is $124 less expensive than the external version.

Check the "Shopping List" on page 75 and you'll see that most internal CD-RWs connect through EIDE, the same as most hard drives and CD-ROM drives. Usually you can pull out or disconnect your old plain CD-ROM drive if you have space considerations or compatibility problems. There's always Velcro if you're short an open drive bay but still have EIDE room.

Probably the simplest hookup is through USB. In our chart, the $250 APS USB Pro2 offers 4x write, 4x rewrite and 24x read speeds through computers' already existing USB ports. This type of drive is an option to consider, especially for iMacs or PCs without legacy slots. For faster external drives, SCSI is the preference. Setting it up takes longer than USB and might require that you install a SCSI card. The HP CD-Writer 9200i/e is an example of an external SCSI CD-RW.

A special class of CD-RW drives has been developed for pure portability. These external drives are built to work with laptop computers and maintain lightweight profiles. The Panasonic KXL-RW10A is a good example. It weighs in at just under 13 ounces, and it measures 5.12 inches by 6.41 inches by .96 inches. Connection is through an open PCMCIA slot on your laptop. It's a good idea for road warriors that need to back up data on the go.