Hi-Val CD-ROM Drive

Advantages: Quality and reliability of drive
Disadvantages: Outdated and discontinued model

...The Teac 532 cd rom drive is an cd-rom reader that is designed to be fitted internally into a PC. I had this unit in my PC for about 2 years before I decided to upgrade the whole system. I paid about £120 for this drive and at the time 32x read speed was about the industry standard. How times change as now we are looking up to 72x read speeds on cd-rom drives, which make this unit look positively tortoise-like! Specs This cd-rom drive is compatible with operating systems up to Windows 98. It has a 32x read speed and needs to be fitted into a IDE interface inside the computer. The drive measures, (W) 5.75” (H) 1.65” (D) 7.56”. It weighs 2.65lbs. Overall these are the standard measurements for a cd-rom drive, otherwise it wouldn’t fit into your computer! On the front panel of the unit, from left to right there are... Read review

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Advantages: Aztech and Delta drives, as an example, are much cheaper than bigger names
Disadvantages: If you buy cheaper CD ROM drives expect lower performance

...I have mixed feelings about Aztech CD-ROM Drives – and other cheap makes. Everything seemed fine until the speed's started to increase to 24x and beyond. I was used to slower drives and wonder quite why anyone would need a CD-ROM to go so fast – but who am I to know? I have never had any problems with CD-ROM running at around 10 to 16 speed. Anyway, I found on a 32x Aztech drive that it couldn’t get up to full speed without cutting off before it could read data. It was a never-ending loop of stopping and starting, making installation of any program a long drawn out affair. Eventually I had the unit replaced with a Delta CD ROM. It’s better, but still seems to suffer from its high speed at times. I would recommend, and it’s only my opinion, that you spend a bit more and purchase a Yamaha, Philips, Teac or any other well... Read review

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Advantages: nice look :)
Disadvantages: almost every thing is worthless.....

...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... Read review

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