Sony 32X/12X/8X REWRITABLE INT EIDE DOUBLE DENSITY 1.3GB SPRESSA CDRW

WHAT'S HOT: If 700MB isn't enough capacity for you, then the silver-hued, $220 Sony Double Density drive is worth a look. Performance when writing to ordinary CD-Rs and CD-RWs on the fly was equal to or better than that of other drives rated at similar speeds. And when we tried writing to Sony's Double Density media, the drive performed without a hitch.

We tested the drive's Double Density capacity and CD-R write speed by burning 1.28GB worth of files from an image and also on the fly. The drive did well, burning both the image and on the fly in an identical 13 minutes, 2 seconds. We then burned a 1GB folder to test the drive's CD-RW write speeds. The folder took 18 minutes, 16 seconds to write to CD-RW--spot on for a drive rated at 8X.

Sony created its 1.3GB media by reducing the normal spacing between both burn marks and tracks, as compared with conventional CDs; predictably, these discs can be used only on Sony's Double Density drive. The drive has no buffer underrun compensation technology; however, the drive's large 8MB buffer proved effective in our tests.