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La Cie DVD-RAM Drive: Tons of Removable Storage

It's not cheap, but it can read just about any CD- or DVD-ROM format--and its cartridges can store up to 5.2GB.

By Jon Jacobi, PCWorld   

Funny how small the capacity of CD-R and CD-RW discs seems today--especially considering how roomy their 650MB appeared just a couple of years ago. If you're finding the capacity of CD-R and CD-RW media a pinch, consider buying into DVD-RAM instead. With media that can hold 2.6GB per side and the capability to read virtually every CD and DVD format currently available, it's also a candidate to replace an aging CD-ROM drive. I currently use CD-R in my work; to see how viable DVD-RAM would be as an alternative, I decided to try out the new La Cie DVD-RAM drive.

Big Storage, Big Cost
If you're in the market for a DVD-RAM drive, your biggest immediate obstacle is cost. Priced at $799, the external SCSI model I reviewed is no impulse buy--and that price doesn't include a SCSI host adapter. (Add $100 or more for a good SCSI card.) If your budget is tight, consider Creative Labs' $499 DVD-RAM kit (includes a SCSI adapter).

After the initial expenditure, DVD-RAM's cost per GB plummets. I've seen 2.6GB single-sided cartridges for less than $20, and dual-sided 5.2GB cartridges for about $35.

An Avid Reader
If you're replacing an older drive, read compatibility with your existing media is key. The La Cie handled every disc format I threw in it without a hiccup. I installed several programs from CD-ROM, played two CD-based games, read from CD-R discs written by several different makes of CD burners, and transferred data from a CD-RW disc without a hitch. The drive also easily kept up with the high-bandwidth demands of DVD movies, played audio CDs smoothly, and allowed digital audio extraction. Though I didn't have a chance to test this feature, La Cie claims the drive can read and write Panasonic's PD format as well.

Of course, any current-generation DVD-ROM can read most of those formats; the real payoff with a DVD-RAM drive is the vast amount of rewritable storage it provides. Though the La Cie reads data quickly, and you can use it transparently like a hard drive, I found its write performance somewhat disappointing.

Big Files Demand Patience
In my informal tests, copying about 650MB of files took a bit less than 40 minutes--almost exactly the amount of time it takes to burn a CD at 2X. (My 4X CD burner takes only 18 minutes.) But because of La Cie's generous 2MB buffer--and SCSI's ability to offload commands--its performance is almost equivalent to a hard drive's when it is writing 20MB of data or less. The drive also multitasks well--it performed large write operations in the background while I wrote this review.

La Cie bundles Software Architect's Write DVD device driver, which you must install in order to access DVD-RAM cartridges. La Cie includes the same company's Format UDF for formatting blank DVD-RAM media, as well as a copy of Seagate's Backup Exec. The case in which La Cie houses the Matsushita drive mechanism is a double-height, wide-stance, extremely sturdy unit. It's perforated in front to provide better airflow and prevent overheating.

Competing Standards
Not surprisingly, you may be worried about the 3GB DVD+RW, 6GB per side ASMO format and the 5.2GB per side MMVF format, both forthcoming from other factions of the now-divided DVD Forum. But DVD-RAM has some important advantages--it's here now, it works well, and the price is dropping to consumer levels. Even if another standard wins out, you've still got a very useful drive on your hands.

Though pricey, the La Cie DVD-RAM drive is well executed and sturdy enough for the most demanding corporate environments.