When you think of storage, think Creative. In addition to its line of multimedia kits that offer superior "Sound Blaster" audio, lightning-fast drives, high-output speakers, and... more
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A review by prestonian on Creative CD-ROM Drive May 21st, 2004
Author's product rating:
Reliability
Poor
Ease of Installation
Good - quick to install
Value For Money
Very poor
Advantages:
nice look : )
Disadvantages:
almost every thing is worthless . . . . .
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
well, as far as this drive is concerned... firstly, it looks very smart and beautiful, but when it is connected to the pc system.. then it shows it's bad performance and i'd say very bad !!!
though, it is 52x drive and the company claims that it has faster access time.... but actually, it is a guy with competition less than 32x... :(
one major draw back of this drive is it's tray's bad in n out behaviour......... it comes outwards and inwards very fast ... and it seems that it would break the spring of the back supporting tray... and in some cases... it actually did it.... when a friend of mine told me about the broken plastic parts inside the drive due to the fast going tray inwards......
second one is that it often does't read cds even the new ones... i don't know why a new cd rom drive did't read mine cds and also new ones when i tried to install different softwares......
now come to the main part that is of course LENSE... :) ... this drive's lense is composite of only one thin glass layer that means it is not a reliable partner for any user... caz smaller the amount of lense layer produces bad cd reading results...... and the lens' beneath room is not covering it properly that leads it to lack of lense protection....
the main chip ic on it's board is't professionally treated to dissipate some heat on surroundings.... most drives has a rubber type thick heat sink... but not in the case of this guy....
one thing more that you'd not consider as a major deal that is it's opening procedure... it's too difficult to open the case of the drive... like jumper handling is quite worthless.... and not working smooth.....
furthermore... when an audio cd is inserted then often, the light of the drive keeps on blinking and can't read the audio files..... and when it reads the audio cd then the song is played in quite a jerky way... like cuts in sound.......
technically, when you look inside the drive... a question appears in your mind... "is that creative's professional approach??"" like the mechanical system is almost cheap and the circut / chips protection is almost ignored..... and also the lense is of cheap quality that lasts for may be 6-7 months.....
also, there is a big room to invite dusty friends inside to make a table talk with lense for future destruction...... :)
well, i really not recommend this drive for a common user or any type of user..... there are other more reliable and cheap priced drives in market..... so stay away from this big price eating guy..... ;)
Compliant Standards: Kodak PhotoCD, CD-DA, CD-XA, CDi, Kodak PhotoCD, CD-DA, CD-XA, CDi, Video CD
Buffer Size: 128 KB, 256 KB
Supported CD Formats: CD Extra, CD-DA (audio), CD-I, CD-ROM XA, Photo CD, Video CD, CD-ROM
Access Time: 85 ms
Features: Play/skip button, volume control wheel, headphone jack
Hard drive
Type: None
Expansion / connectivity
Interfaces:
1 x audio - output - 4 PIN MPC, 1 x headphones - output - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x audio - line-out - 4 PIN MPC
1 x headphones - output - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x headphones - output - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm
1 x audio - line-out - 4 PIN MPC, 1 x headphones - output - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm
1 x audio - line-out - 4 PIN MPC
1 x audio - line-out - 2 PIN Digital Audio
Connections: 1 x storage - EIDE/ATAPI - 40 PIN IDC, 1 x storage - EIDE - 40 PIN IDC
Compatible Bays: 1 x front accessible - 5.25" x 1/2H
Manufacturer's product description
When you think of storage, think Creative. In addition to its line of multimedia kits that offer superior "Sound Blaster" audio, lightning-fast drives, high-output speakers, and hot titles, the company offers high-quality, fast and reliable CD-ROMs. Creative 52x CD-ROM is the upgrade for users who want increased power and performance from a CD-ROM drive. The internal CD-ROM drive provides high transfer rate and average access for instant data acquisition. The power and speed of 52x CD-ROM is easy to own at an affordable price.
Software / system requirements
Min RAM Size: 8 MB, 32 MB
Min Processor Type: Intel Pentium 100 MHz, 233 MHz
Min Hard Drive Space: 1 MB
OS Required: Microsoft DOS, Microsoft Windows 3.x/95/98, Microsoft DOS, Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft Windows 95/98, Microsoft Windows 2000 / NT4.0, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
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