Although optical drives supporting Blue-Ray and HD-DVD media standards are about to attack the market, PC users are still interested in classic devices that do not support the new formats, but cost much less money and can process ordinary and widespread discs of the ?plus?and ?minus?standards. Today I?m going to talk about one such device, manufactured by LG Electronics. A special feature of this drive is its support of the DVD-RAM media format.
Closer Look at the Drive
Our sample of the drive has a black faceplate. It has already become a tendency that DVD drives rarely have a button to browse through audio tracks and the reviewed model is an example of that trend. There's only an Eject button and a LED indicator under the disc tray on the front panel. The classic appearance of the device is somewhat enlivened by the gray-painted symbols of the supported formats and the sunken LED zone. The shortened design of the case will permit you to install this optical drive into smaller system cases where a normal-sized drive might hit on some of the mainboard's elements. The rear panel carries power and interface connectors, analog and digital audio outputs and a jumper with pins. The basic characteristics of the drive are listed below:
- CD-ROM and CD-R read speed: 48x max
- CD-RW read speed: 40x max
- DVD-ROM read speed: 16x
- CD-R write speed: 48x max
- CD-RW write speed: 32x max
- DVD write speeds:
- 16x (DVD+R and DVD-R)
- 4x (DVD-R DL)
- 6x (DVD+R DL)
- 6x (DVD-RW)
- 8x (DVD+RW)
- 3x (DVD-RAM)
- Supported DVD and CD formats: DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-R DL (Dual Layer 8.5GB), DVD-RW, DVD-RAM; DVD+R, DVD+R DL (8.5GB), DVD+RW; CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, CD-I, Video CD, CD Extra, CD-Text, PhotoCD, CD-DA, Super Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW.
- Buffer: 2 megabytes
- Average access time: 125 milliseconds (CD), 145 milliseconds (DVD-ROM), 165 milliseconds (DVD-RAM)
- Interface: ATAPI (E-IDE)
- Dimensions: 146 x 41.3 x 170mm
- Weight: 0.8kg
- Average retail price: $47
The device can be positioned vertically as well as horizontally.
