WHAT'S HOT: Sony's CRX1611/82U's CD-R performance when writing on the fly was on par with comparably rated CD-RW drives--the unit took 5 minutes, 36 seconds to burn our 650MB folder of files to CD-R on the fly. It also excelled at packet writing to CD-RW, taking 1 minute 21 seconds--the third fastest time on our chart--to write our 100MB test file to CD-RW.

The drive's digital audio extraction speed was right in line with the rest of the pack. In addition to CD-mastering and packet writing software from Japanese-based BHA (B's Recorder Gold 1.99 and Clip, respectively), Sony includes the full version of Dantz Development's Retrospect Express Backup for backup, archiving, and disaster recovery tasks; separately, the software retails for $50.

WHAT'S NOT: When copying an image file, this Sony's mastering software (B's Recorder Gold) creates a temporary image before it starts writing the disc, lengthening the overall burn time. In contrast, other mastering programs let you copy the image file directly without requiring a separate temporary image file point.

The drive took nearly a full minute longer to burn from an image file because of this approach. The drive's Microsoft Office 2000 SBE (disc one) installation time was sluggish, the second slowest of the drives in our current crop.

WHAT ELSE: Sony provides a one-year warranty and toll-free tech support for 12 hours on weekdays and Saturdays.

UPSHOT: The Sony CRX1611/82U ranks as an adequate overall performer--in spite of its sluggish times installing Microsoft Office and writing CD-R to an image. As a bonus, it includes back-up software, making it a good choice for data backup tasks.

SUMMARY

Sony CRX1611/82U 16X/10X/40X, IDE, internal, 2MB buffer, B's Recorder Gold 1.99 and B's Clip; one-year warranty, toll-free support for 12 hours weekdays and Saturdays. $130 800/352-7669 www.sony.com/spressa