Speed demon! (LG GCE 8240B)

Member Name: Bob Barley

Product:	LG GCE 8240B
Date:	07/03/02 (951 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: VERY fast!, Big buffer

Disadvantages: Not all software supports it

It was no good I finally had to admit it to myself. The 4x external writer I had was no longer cutting the mustard. It worked a treat but was just too much effort to set up and not as fast as some of the newer drives on the market.

So I fired up Internet Explorer and wizzed over to Ebuyer. They had a few writers about, all 16x roughly. Then I noiced a sale on an LG 24x writer. I found the idea of burning an entire CD in 3 minutes VERY appealing so I placed an order straight away.

A few day's later it arrived and I shoved it into the PC. Being experienced in using writers I went for the Nero Burning package straight away. It wouldn't detect the drive. I went to their website and as I thought, it wasn't on their list of supported drives.

This left me forced to try Easy CD Creator. Again it wouldn't detect the drive however an update of the version I had soon solved that problem.

I am now able to sit back and burn a CD in the time it takes to go to the toilet! The drive seems very good. It's manufactured well and has been reliable so far, I've not had a single coaster from it yet and I imagine as time goes on more programs will support the drive, the problem I had was that I bought it when it was brand new.

I don't know how much the drive costs now but it is definitely well worth the money. The one I got was an OEM version so came in a brown box with just instructions manuals and a copy of Easy CD Creator 5 Basic. Investing in a copy of Easy Cd Creator Deluxe is WELL worth the money as it has a shed-load more features. the drive also reads Cd's at 40x and can burn onto Re-Writable CD's at up to 10x.

Overall it's a good drive. It burns fast, works well, looks nice. everything you would expect from a drive really.

Here's a few spec's for anyone interested in getting one:

Data Transfer Rate : Max 6,000KB/s
Write Speed (CD-R) : 8
x, 12x, 16x, 24x
Write Speed (CD-RW) : 2x, 4x, 10x
Read Speed (CD-ROM) : Max 40x
Access Time : 110ms
Mounting Type : Horizontal & Vertical
Buffer Size : 8MB
Loading Type : Motorized Tray
Compatible Formats :
CD-ROM Mode1, CD-ROM XA, Mixed Mode, Photo CD, Multi-Session CD-R, CD-RW and CD-TEXT CD-Plus, CD-Extra, Bootable CD
Interface Type : Internal E-IDE / ATAPI

the huge buffer comes in very useful because it is handling a lot of data!

Summary: