Top 5 CD-RW Drives

Making Sense of the Xs

All CD-RW recorders also offer CD-R writing and CD-ROM reading capabilities. The typical rating nomenclature (for example, 4X/4X/20X) indicates the vendor's expected CD-R and CD-RW write performance and CD-ROM read performance. Hence, a 4X/2X/16X drive writes CD-R at 4X and CD-RW at 2X, and reads CD-ROM at 16X. Occasionally a company uses a different sequence in its product name, like Hi Val does with its 4X24X4, so look carefully to make sure you're not misled.

Although CD-RW's triple-threat functionality lets one drive replace three, in practical use most writable drives will join an existing CD-ROM or DVD-ROM reader. Having three different speeds on one drive can also lead to confusion about which model is right for you. In this review alone, we tested two 4X/2X/8X drives, a pair of 4X/4X/20X drives, a couple of 4X/4X/24X drives, one 6X/4X/16X drive, two 6X/4X/24X drives, and an 8X/2X/20X drive.

What's your best choice? Unfortunately there's no pat answer. The two 4X/2X/8X drives we tested happen to be parallel port and USB models whose main strength lies in their portability, but neither makes the chart. If you're going to write a lot of CD-RW, look for a 4X CD-RW rating--the fastest currently available. If you plan to write mainly CD-R or CD audio, then the CD-R write speed is paramount; the current top end is 8X. In our opinion, 6X/4X drives offer the best combination for most people, but drives that write both CD-R and CD-RW at 4X now sell at bargain rates.

More Speed, Less Time

For the most part, the drives we tested showed marginal variations in write performance--each was close to its rated speeds. But surprisingly, Micro Solutions' Backpack parallel port drive beat the Pacific Digital USB drive by a good margin. Though both drives sport 8X read ratings, the Micro Solutions drive garnered a 5.2X CD-Tach rating and the Pacific Digital drive earned a mere 3.8X score. All the IDE and SCSI drives read CD-ROMs at acceptable speeds ranging from 13X to 16.3X.