Adaptec AAA UDMA

Advantages: Good value, seems solid, quick enough, 2MB Buffer
Disadvantages: The Black & Gold finish looks odd on a beige tower!

...I bought this Drive as a bare package, but had no problems installing or setting it up. I've tried it with a number of different CD writing packages and although I had problems with CDRWin, now I've settled with Adaptec EZ CD creator my problems seem to have finished. The 2MB buffer means that out of all the CD's I've made, I've only made one coaster, and that was when I was learning... The Drive opens and closes with a satisfying noise, and it seems better built than my budget CD drive - it certainly rattles my case less. I would recommend this drive to any prospective buyers as long as you get it for a good price. I paid £95 for mine some 9 months ago, so you ought to be able to pick one up for quite a bit less now. Update: in response to kfingleton's comment. I've only made 1 coaster. I'm running the philips drive (it's a 4x4x32... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Fast, Overclocks easily
Disadvantages: UDMA66 support is a bit dodgy

...After reading someone else's opinion on the Abit BE6 I felt compelled to write with my thoughts. I bought a BE6 (original version) in October of last year as an upgrade to my BX6 mainly due to it supporting udma66 and have to say had no problems with it's stability, overclockability or anything else with just one exception - the udma66 support. As the BE6 is configured to use different connectors whether you use udma33 or udma66 things can get quite confusing if you're using more than one hdd. I personally had my triple boot (win98, winNT & Linux) system set up with one udma33 drive & one udma66 & found that strange things happened when using either NT or Linux. NT was awkward to install & gave different letters to all of the drives than the ones Win98 gave them & Linux (due to it not supporting udma66) simply wouldn't see that drive... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average not helpful

Advantages: Works well out of box; captures video as MPEG-2 flawlessly
Disadvantages: Stopped working after a Microsoft update - Adaptec will not offer free fix.

...Product served me well for transferring several piles of VHS tapes to my Media Center 2005 machine. Then - Microsoft came out with some software update and product only works for a limited time. Pause it while recording and the PC freezes. restart the PC and it no longer detects the device. Remove device - uninstall drivers and uninstalling WinDVR 3 all temporary fixes - problem reoccurs. Doing the C++ registry hack worked very limited, now does not. Adaptec - with this known problem - can not even be contacted outside of their "pay" support. Adaptec has not updated their searchable database with the "fix" - they apparently demand their customers to pay them before they assist. A sad state of affairs within a once-great company. Shame on you, Adaptec!... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful