Top 5 CD-RW Drives

Never mind the sky--look out for falling prices on CD-Rewritable drives, as exemplified by our new Best Buy, the $230 TDK 16/10/40 VeloCD ReWriter. Just as PC prices have plummeted in the past months, so too have the street prices on CD-RW drives. However, the explanation for this downward price trend leads not to the usual incremental speed increases that drive down prices for older technologies. Credit good old-fashioned supply and demand instead.

According to industry experts, the supply-demand situation in the CD-RW drive market is similar to what the CD-RW media market experienced last year: Manufacturers overestimated demand, causing a glut of product and pushing prices to new lows. Plus, more manufacturers are now in the hunt for consumer dollars, making competition fierce and profit margins slim. In many cases, drives are being priced below cost just to keep them moving through the retail channel.

How could manufacturers have so miscalculated the demand for drives this year? Blame the economy and its effect on PC sales. Manufacturers increased drive production to meet the needs of PC vendors, but with system sales down, those vendors are ordering fewer drives than expected. In addition, many in the industry didn't anticipate the quick jumps in drive speeds--just as 16X drives are getting into mass production, the first 20X drives are around the corner, and 24X drives are hot on their heels.

The resulting market saturation means this is a good time for consumers to get deals on drives. Many vendors are offering rebates to make the prices of older, 12X/10X/32X drives more attractive, so keep an eye out for advertised specials. ( PC World does not take such specials into consideration when determining street prices.) However, analysts predict that prices on drives will stabilize later this year--just as CD media prices are expected to normalize this summer after a tumultuous year. So enjoy the price war while it continues.

On the Chart: Jockeying for Position

TDK's $230 16/10/40 VeloCD ReWriter--which has dropped $20 since our previous chart and a total of $70 since its debut in February--takes the top spot this month, thanks not only to price drops but also to its edging out all other drives in overall performance.

Close behind is AOpen's CRW1232A/Pro, which debuts in second place with a low $145 price tag. This model, an update of an earlier 12X/10X/32X model we tested, adds Ricoh's JustLink buffer underrun compensation technology.

In third is Plextor's PlexWriter 16/10/40A, which sells for $20 less than the TDK 16X/10X/40X model. This drive lacks the TDK product's installation-assistance video, but it does feature Plextor's own AudioFS drivers, which enable you to extract individual songs from audio CDs using Windows Explorer.

Solid performance and a lower street price of just $180 put Iomega's CD-RW 12x10x32 on our chart for the first time. Rounding out the Top 5 is LG Electronics' $150 CED-8120B, a 12X/8X/32X drive that has dropped $10 since its appearance on our previous chart.

In addition to the new AOpen drive, this month we tested the Teac CD-W516E 16x10x40 CD-RW drive. This $200 model was a steady all-around performer, but its digital audio extraction speed fell short of that of other drives. Teac's lack of a toll-free support number also helped keep this drive off our charts.

New Testing Methodology

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. If something seems different about this month's chart, that's because something is different. We've made some tweaks and alterations to the PC World Test Center methodology for evaluating CD-RW drives, and we've updated our test bed to a Dell Dimension 4100 PIII-933 system. We're now evaluating drives' CD-Recordable capabilities using a 650MB test file, which represents a full 74-minute, 650MB CD-R. Read more about our test methodology on the next page.

Hold the CD Titles--For the Moment

Roxio, the software company that spun off from Adaptec this month, has announced that its Easy CD Creator 4.0 software--which continues to be bundled with CD-RW drives under the name Adaptec--can no longer access the online music information databases of Gracenote. (Gracenote has a pending lawsuit against Roxio.)

Formerly known as CDDB, Gracenote maintains links by which software can identify audio-CD album names and track titles. Meanwhile, Roxio is planning to use Freedb.org, an open-source, royalty-free music-CD information database. The company already uses Freedb.org for its Easy CD Creator 5.0 and is working on an update that will allow 4.0 users to access Freedb.org as well. Check Roxio's Web site periodically for more information.