Hewlett-Packard CD-Writer Plus 9510i

WHAT'S HOT: HP's $199 12X/8X/32X 9510i offers excellent overall performance. The drive wrote 430MB of data to CD-R on the fly in a mere 4 minutes, 56 seconds, and wrote 100MB to CD-RW in only 1 minute, 46 seconds. HP's one-step software installation provides plenty of hand-holding for neophytes, as do the new HP MyCD mastering software and HP Fast Format, a version of Adaptec's DirectCD packet-writing software. Fast Format takes about 2 minutes to prepare a small portion of the CD-RW disc, after which you can start writing to the disc while the utility continues to format the rest in the background; you can't write to portions of the disc that have not yet been formatted. The company also bundles with this drive HP Disaster Recovery and HP Deluxe Multimedia Organizer.

WHAT'S NOT: MyCD's step-by-step wizard approach becomes cumbersome after the first few procedures, and you can't bypass the wizard. Worse, the software offers no way to create disc images or to write an image to a disc. Tech support is available only on weekdays, and a toll charge applies.

WHAT ELSE: HP supplies a one-year warranty. The 9510i is the same drive as the company's 9500i model, except that in the 9500i software bundle Corel Print Office replaces Sonic Foundry's Acid.

BEST USE: The 9510i certainly provides ample hand-holding, making it a great choice for beginners to CD writing. However, more-experienced users will find the MyCD software limiting in the long run.

SUMMARY

Hewlett-Packard CD-Writer Plus 9510i 12X/8X/32X, IDE, internal, 4MB buffer, HP MyCD and Adaptec DirectCD 3.01c; one-year warranty, 12-hour weekday toll-call support. $199 800/752-0900 www.hpcdwriter.com