Portable CD-ROM Drive Delivers 16X to 24X

$289 device bypasses slower port connections by using its own bundled SCSI PC Card.

No matter what the label says, most portable CD-ROM drives can't transfer data faster than about 4X. The bottleneck at the connection point--typically the parallel port of your notebook PC--slows software loading.

But I-O Data Device's CDPS-PX24, a $289 CD-ROM drive, bypasses poky ports by using its own bundled SCSI PC Card interface. Used with its AC adapter, this drive zips along at 16X to 24X--it's the fastest portable CD- ROM drive we've used. When running on six AA batteries, it delivers a respectable constant speed of 10.3X. I noted the performance when loading software during my review of a shipping version of the drive.

For the more news and reviews, see the upcoming September issue of PC World magazine.

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