HP CD-Writer 8230e

Author's product rating:   

Reliability	Excellent
Ease of Installation	Good - quick to install
Value For Money	Poor

Advantages:	External and can be easily moved between computers
Disadvantages:	Low data transfer rates

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I bought this device because I wanted a CD-RW drive but diidn't have enough room to put one in my PC case. The drive is very reliable - I have written over 100 CDs with it and I haven't had any fail. Another big advantage with the drive being USB is that it can easily be moved between computers. When my friends ask me if they can write a CD on my computer, I can let them borrow the drive, which means I don't have to spend ages transferring their files and writing the CDs. The drive has a headphone socket, line out and volume control so can be used to play audio CDs.

The writer is capable of writing and rewriting at 4x, which is 600KB per second - at this rate it takes about twenty minutes to write a CD. The drive can only read at 6x, which is prehistoric in terms of speed as almost all internal drives can do 48x these days, but you probably won't ever use this for reading CDs if you have a seperate internal CD/DVD drive, I don't think I ever have.

The device is powered from a mains addapter (supplied) which plugs into the back of the writer. A USB cable is also included, as well as a stereo audio link cable - there is a line out socket on the back of the writer than can be used to connect the drive to the line in socket on your sound card - this will let you play music CDs through your computer speakers.

When I bought the writer, it came with a free standard blank CD and a rewritable CD. There was also some CD writing software included, but I never really used that as it looks a bit too hand-holdy - I prefer to use Nero as allows far more control and has a more efficient interface and loads of other nice features. Also included in the package was a Neato CD Label applicator (stops you getting ridges and bumps when applying CD labels) and some printable CD labels for inkjet printers. The software included in the package consists of the drivers, HP MusicMatch Jukebox, HP CD-Labeller, Print Shop Multimedia Organiser and Sonic Foundry's Acid Music, I haven't ever felt the need to use any of this software except for the drivers.

The drive is very quiet, it doesn't make the horrible clunky noises that some drives make. The only problem is the slow data transfer rates - it can only write at 4x which is very slow compared to internal CD writers. This is a property of the USB connection though, so you won't find any other USB 1.0 CD writer that is faster than this one.

I bought this from Jungle (no longer exists) in 1999 and it was priced at around £200.