TOSHIBA 32x CD-ROM DRIVE Reviewed by Matthew Fam Kai Liang (31/05/98)
| Drive Rated Speed | 32 x (CLV/CAV) |
| Model | XM-6202B |
| Interface | E-IDE |
| Sustained Mode 32X | 4,800 KB/s (4.8MB/s) |
| Average Random Access (32X) | 85 ms |
| Buffer Cache Size | 256K |
| Technology | CLV / CAV (14 - 32x) |
| Compatible CD-ROM Standards: |
Multisession
Photo-CD,CD-Extra, CD-ROM XA,CD-I, Video CD, CDI Ready, CD-G, MPC-3 Compliant, Red Book, Yellow Book, Plug and Play |
| Manufactured | Made In JAPAN |
Introduction
This drive comes in a OEM
package,in a plastic bag and attached driver 3.5" floppy disk & a short
instruction sheet. The drive does not come with any brackets or screws attached.And is the
common tray load-in type of drive.
The drive are a very plain beige color, nothing daring here- it'll blend in perfectly with
the average clone case. The drive's front bezel sports a headphone out jack, headphone
volume control, and an load/eject button. Conspicuously absent is the play/stop button
that's becoming more common on today's CD-ROMs.
Installation of the drive was straightforward. The ATA unit came out of the box jumpered
for operation as the master drive- no changes were necessary.Installing using the floppy
took about a fast 5 minutes to completed.
The Good
TOSHIBA drive are not
really that common in Singapore.Stocks are limited as you don't often see it appear in Sim
Lim Square's Stores. And if you ever seen one,grab this! TOSHIBA drives have long been
associated as the 2nd fastest drive in US behind Plexton (which I presume many of you must
have heard of) .And here's the Goody
Take a look at the big sticker on the drive and you will notice that there is a printed
sentence of "Made In Japan" on the label other than the usual Class 1 laser
warning notes.This is one of the rare CD-ROM drive being made in Japan.Other than perhaps
Pioneer and Panasonic.Having this is a bonus compared to the Taiwan or Malaysia made.
And,as touted.It' really perform prefectly without failed running various demanding discs
includes Quake II.On my test of over 20 OEM discs bought which includes 'FIFA Road To
World Cup 98', 'World Cup 98', 'Quake II' and 'Adobe Photoshop' all runs prefectly without
failed.This drive definately is capable of reading the poorer quality discs compared
perhaps to others brands that often encountered problems running some of these discs.
If you ever doubt it's performance compared to the common brands like ASUS 34x
drive,CREATIVE 32x or even the AOpen 36x drive.I've attached a benchmark result on this
drive running WinBench 98.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Bad
The bad point of this drive is
perhaps it's digital sound extraction capabilities.While some brands are capable of 32x
audio extraction,it's merely spin at a lesiure 12x speed.
The drive audible when spinning; the level of noise created is slightly softer than TEAC
and Panasonic 32x drives. But are still quite irrating when the system is placed near your
ear drum.
The conspicuously absent is the play/stop button that's becoming more common on today's
CD-ROMs drives.The CREATIVE 32x version offer very useful remote functions but were not as
fast as this drive.
|
||||||||||||||||
ConclusionOverall,this drive is definately a good buy
consider it's reputation as the best performance drive other than Plexton(not available
locally & cost twice as much).As said,the specification alone of having the 256k
buffer cache does speed things up by bits.Most of the others brands including
ASUS,CREATIVE and TEAC all having only a 128K buffer. TOSHIBA DRIVE RATING
Back To Reviews (Others) |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
This Product is provided courtesy of,
Copyright © 1998 by Singapore Hardware Zone , S'pore Overclockers' Group & Maxxum Interactive. All rights reserved.
No part of the above shall be reproduced,copied and modified the permission of the WebMaster.