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Disadvantages: Outdated and discontinued model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: Can practise your test like it is the real thing
Disadvantages: Mouse pointer on hazard perception

..., road signs, hazards, driving safely e.t.c... In addition to this part of the test, the government introduced a second part known as 'hazard perception'. For this you are shown 14 video clips filmed from inside a car. On each clip there is one hazard, except on one clip where there is two. The cd rom which is made by a company called Focus and costs £9.99 from a number of retailers including W.H. Smith and Waterstones, really helped me with my theory test, in particular the hazard perception. On the CD rom there are the following features.... -The entired DSA driving theory question bank (1000+questions) -8 official hazard perception clips, along with an additional 50 clips - 280 video and photograpg questions on observation and common driving mistakes -a progress monitor which tells you how ready you bare for the exam -virtual... Read review

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Advantages: Very fast and reliable and a very long lasting battery
Disadvantages: Changing/upgrading the memory

...’t buy it, for this amount of money you can buy an even more powerful desktop !! And now the specs: Specs Technology - type : Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology including Intel® Pentium® M processor, Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 network connection and Intel® 855PM chipset - clock speed : 1.70 GHz - front side bus : 400 MHz - 2nd level cache : 1 MB System memory - standard : 512 MB (my laptop came with 1GB memory) - maximum expandability : 2,048 MB - technology : DDR RAM Hard disk - capacity : 80 GB (mine has 120GB) - certification : S.M.A.R.T. CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive - maximum speed : 24-speed CD-ROM, 24-speed CD-R, 10-speed CD-RW, 8-speed DVD ( I had a CD-RW/DVD combo) Display - size : 14.1 " - type : TFT color display Graphics adaptor - manufacturer : Trident - memory : 32 MB - graphics... Read review

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Advantages: Small, looks very cool
Disadvantages: Noe really, does what it says it does

...Toshiba External USB 2.0 Combo Drive INTRO Along with my recent office purchase of the R200 laptop and seeing as it was minus a CDROM I bought an external CD unit. I originally made the mistake of buying the DVD ROM version and at £85 that was next to useless. So I returned that and got the Toshiba External USB2 Combo Drive. There are a few different ones out there, this one wrote CD's and read DVD's. IMPRESSIONS When you open the box up your greeted with what first looks like an MP3 player. Size wise its not much bigger than a CD. The finish of this one was brushed aluminium to match the R200 laptop. Quality is easily very high, just like Toshiba's other offerings. If nothing else the Combo drive looks cool. CONNECTION The combo drive is connected up with a standard USB 2 cable. Not external power supplies are needed... Read review

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Advantages: Great laptop
Disadvantages: none yet

...(Double Layer) compatibility : CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-R(DL), DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+R(DL), DVD+RW, DVD-RAM maximum speed : Read: 24x CD-ROM, 8x DVD-ROM/ Write: 24x CD-R, 4x CD-RW, 10x HS CD-RW, 10x US CD-RW, 8x DVD-R, 4x DVD-R (Double Layer), 4x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R, 4x DVD+R (Double Layer), 4x DVD+RW, 5x DVD-RAM type : DVD Super Multi (Double Layer) drive Display size : 17.1 " type : Toshiba TruBrite® WXGA+ TFT display internal resolution : 1,440 x 900 Graphics adaptor manufacturer : Intel® type : Intel® GMA 950 memory : up to 256 MB total available graphics memory with 2 GB system memory memory type : shared Internal video modes resolution : 1,440 x 900 maximum number of colours : 16.7 Million Max External Video Modes Max Resolution : 2,048 x 1,536 Max Colours : 4.3 billion Max Refresh... 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: Compact, good hard drive space and processing speed
Disadvantages: Its durability, and has become out-dated

...of the home, as its durability is awful. As it’s a few years old now, it looks outdated to newer models around, and doesn’t have the newer features such as a CD/W. I think the moral of my tale is cheap price = cheap quality. When I do eventually replace this thing, I think I’ll stick to a desktop! And it won’t be an ex-display model; just in case! Full List of Specifications ***Processor*** An Intel® Celeron™ and Intel® Pentium® III processor up to 1.1 GHz ***Memory *** 128 MB and can expand to 512 MB if desired using SDRAM technology ***Hard Disk *** HDD storage up to 20 GB. ***CD-ROM drive *** 24 Speed with a Transfer rate of 16.7 MB/s ***Diskette drive*** Storage capacity: 1.44 MB ***Display*** 13.3" TFT active matrix colour display with an internal resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, and a colour palette of 16... Read review

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Advantages: screen size, overall features
Disadvantages: price

...with features, nice to use and has style. Specifications Pro M30 Satellite Pro M30 Technology Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology including Intel® Pentium® M processor Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology including Intel® Pentium® M processor (1.60GHz, 400MHz Front Side Bus, 1 MB 2nd level cache), (1.70GHz, 400MHz Front Side Bus, 1 MB 2nd level cache), Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 network connection and Intel® 855PM chipset Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 network connection and Intel® 855PM chipset Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional Edition Hard Disk 40GB Memory 256MB 512MB Display 15.4" TFT 16:10 widescreen colour display Drive CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, maximum speed: DVD-R/RW drive, maximum speed: read: 24x CD-ROM, 24x CD-R, 24x 24x CD-ROM, 24x CD-R, 24x CD-RW, 8x DVD-ROM CD-RW, 8x DVD-ROM, 4x DVD-R, 4x DVD-RW, 1x DVD... Read review

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Advantages: Easy to use, actually looks like the real thing
Disadvantages: TIme consuming and not much fun

...Currently I am a student so I am more than comfortable with taking exams, in the past four years I've taken, literally 40 exams for one thing and another, but the most nerve wracking by far was my theory test. I found the idea of a CD to teach me everything I needed to know I found really appealing, whats more it only cost me £10 from Woolworth's so I hadn't got a lot to loose, and I was not disappointed at all, I passed my theory first time with 100% on the theory and 84% on the Hazard Perception. The biggest advantage that the CD ROM had was it was exactly like the actual test even down to things like the font and text colours, and when I saw the real thing it did look really familiar, however in replicating the real test it did make it seem quite cold and uninviting. After doing three of these tests in a row you really want... Read review

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Advantages: Sound and video!
Disadvantages: Keeps breaking, recommd getting a 2 year warrenty

.... Overall: Its a lovely laptop for enterainment, i love sound and video quality. Toshiba did a good job designing this laptop but i would not under any circumstance recommend this as a notebook for serious gaming, regular carrying around... pretty heavy and might damage it - dispite the fact it has anti-shock features. Full specification Processor Type Intel Core Duo T2300 Processor speed 1660 mhz Memory Size 1024 MB Memory Type DDR2 Hard Drive Capacity 100 Gb Optical Drives DVD SuperMulti Dual Layer CD-ROM Speed 24 x CD-RW Speed. 10 x DVD-ROM Speed 8 x Screen Size/Type 15.4" WXGA Graphics Card Type ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 Graphics Memory 256 MB TV-out Sound Type 16 bit Stereo T Modem Type 56k Wireless Enabled No. of USB Connections 4 T No. of Firewire Connections... Read review

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