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Best Drives for Audio Use

Music lovers need a drive that has good CD-R write performance, fast audio extraction, and support for CD Text (the song title, artist name, and other information that displays on CD Text-enabled players). CD Text eliminates the need to search an online database every time you play a CD on your computer, and it's convenient if you lose the disc's jewel case.

Standouts for audiophiles are the 16X/10X/32X and faster drives from Plextor, TDK, and Yamaha. All feature fast audio extraction, and support for CD Text; Yamaha adds an audio cable you can attach to an external source, such as a tape player, while TDK offers its Digital MixMaster audio software. Plextor's AudioFS software makes it easy to extract individual tracks from an audio CD by using Windows Explorer--an enticing feature when coupled with the drive's second-place digital audio extraction time. Still, we give the nod in this category to the faster TDK 24/10/40 VeloCD ReWriter; not only is it fast, but it carries its own audio utility.

Best Drives for Backup

You have even more good CD-RW choices if you plan to use your drive mostly for backing up data. Since 10X is as fast as any current drive can write CD-RW, you can opt for a priced-to-move 12X/10X/32X drive without feeling that you're buying a hopelessly outdated model.

Our top choice for a drive to use for system backups is Sony's Double Density CRX200E/A1. Sony stands out from the pack because it includes the complete version of Dantz's Retrospect Express (which is the only program most users need to keep their data safely backed up) with its 12X and 16X drives. This software also supports disaster recovery, so you can restore your boot partition to its original state. Subtract the $50 retail price of Retrospect Express from the street price of Sony's drives, and they become an outstanding value.

Besides shipping with backup software, Sony's Double Density drive supplies 1.3GB of space on each of its double-density discs--thereby halving the disc swapping required during the backup process. Our only complaint is that the drive writes CD-RW at only 8X--though it outperformed like-rated drives. If speed is your game, step up to the 10X CD-RW rating of Sony's 16X CRX1611/82U.

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