PC-World Value CD-Arrrghhhh's (Other CD Media)

Member Name: LegendaryMrDude

Product:	Other CD Media
Date:	13/11/02 (287 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Make good drinks coasters

Disadvantages: VERY Delicate, variable quality, No jewel cases

You know how it is with CDRs... they're so cheap these days that they have become 'disposable'. Got a file that's too big to fit on a floppy? Just burn it to a CD. It no longer matters if the file is only 3Mb and you have 697Mb of free space left on a disc, they're just so darned cheap!

And they don't come much cheaper than the Value CDRs from PC World. Weighing in at £27 for 100 discs, even I can work out that it's only 27p per disc!

So what can I say about them? Well for starters, they come on a handy spindle which is fine if you are using them for 'disposable' storage, they take up a LOT less space on a spindle than they would in Jewel cases. They're a standard CD-R colour, slightly 'off' silver on the writable side and shiny silver on the label side, although as there are no markings (of any sort) on the 'label' side, it's not always obvious. They support write speeds of up to x16, so burning a full disc is only a matter of minutes (if your burner is that fast) but don't trust them at speeds higher than this, you can end up with a lot of 'coasters'.

Well it all sounds fine and dandy so far, 100 discs on a nifty spindle for a super cheap price. "There's got to be a catch" you're thinking... and you're right. The problem with these discs is the fact that the 'silvering' is basically the surface that the label goes on, with no protective lacquer or anything. This basically means that should you accidentally scratch the label side of the disc, the silvering starts to bubble up, effectively rendering the whole disc useless. In fact you don't even have to scratch the disc, just rubbing your thumb over it a few times is enough to get silver flakes snowing down on your carpet. Couple this extreme sensitivity with the fact that you don't get jewel cases, and all of a sudden you are left with a heap of discs that really are only any use
for disposable storage. Which is terrible when you think how many thousands of years these things are going to last in a landfill site. So far I have burned 9 of these discs and all but 2 of them have been binned because of the dreaded silver peeling. The two healthy ones are kept in hermetically sealed isolation and handled with static free, sterile, dust free gloves.

In summary then, don't be sucked in by the ludicrously low price... they simply aren't worth it for anything other than throw-away storage. You're far better off going for something a bit pricier that will at least last a few months!

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