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All-in-one drives that read from and write to CD media and can read DVD-ROMs and play DVD movies are certainly appealing, especially if you're running short of drive bays or IDE connectors. But first- generation combination CD-RW/DVD-ROM drives were expensive and slow. Ricoh's new MediaMaster MP9120A, however, couples record-setting 12X/ 10X/32X CD-Recordable/CD-Rewritable speed with 8X DVD-ROM performance in one device.
Debuting at number two this month, this $349 CD-RW drive costs little more than what you'd pay for a 12X/10X/32X CD-RW drive and a separate high-quality 8X DVD-ROM drive, and it takes up only one drive bay. Plus, the drive features Ricoh's new JustLink technology. As does Sanyo Electric's Burn-Proof technology (found in our repeat Best Buy, the Plextor PlexWriter 12/10/32A), JustLink promises to solve the problem of CD-R discs being ruined by buffer underruns. With the protection offered by such technology, you should be able to get away with doing other things while burning a disc--such as checking your e-mail--without worrying that the disc will be destroyed by an interruption in data flow before it has been completely written.
The other two new Top 5 contenders this month, TDK's $299 veloCD 12/10/32 and Sony's $299 Spressa Professional CRX160E-A1, promise 12X/ 10X/32X performance. However, both failed to deliver in least one area.
The TDK wrote to CD-R as advertised at 12X, but it wrote to and read CD-RW at speeds more in line with an 8X/8X drive. The prime suspect was the drive's bundled Ahead InCD packet-writing software. When we switched to Prassi's abCD, the drive turned in times commensurate with other 10X CD-RW drives. According to TDK, the...