Review summary
If you want the superfast 52X-recording and 32X-rewriting speeds of the fastest CD-RW drives on the market, our favorite is Lite-On's LTR-52327S. It matched or bettered the performance of both MSI's CR52-M and Samsung's SW-252FRNS in the majority of our tests, and we found it selling online for the lowest price of the three. Outside of Lite-On's minor penny-pinch--not including an IDE cable with the LTR-52327S--there's no downside to this deal. The drive's documentation is adequate, Lite-On includes two free pieces of media, and the software bundle is from Nero--one of our favorites. If you're in the market for a CD-RW drive, look no further. Installing the LTR-52327S is a straightforward affair; anyone with modest screwdriver skills and the nerve to open up a computer case can do it. Lite-On includes an abridged, illustrated quick-installation guide and a fairly comprehensive user manual; both are lucid and detailed enough to steer you through the setup process, although there's no mention of the three mysterious extra jumpers on the back panel (our advice: leave them alone).
For more help in getting set up, check out CNET's new feature on how to install an optical drive.
Lite-On doesn't include an IDE cable with the LTR-52327S, but odds are you already have one inside your computer. On the upside, Lite-On does provide mounting screws and a drive-to-sound-card audio cable, an item lacking in many drive packages. Although there's nothing particularly exciting or stylish about the LTR-52327S's putty-colored front panel, it has all the necessities: a headphone jack, a volume control, an eject button, an emergency-eject hole, and a power light. Our only gripe concerns the media tray, which is neither as quiet nor as sturdy as the one on MSI's CR52-M. Along with the three aforementioned mystery jumpers, the drive's back panel houses the standard IDE and power connectors, as well as digital and analog audio ports and master/slave configuration jumpers; the functions of each of these are etched on top of the drive so that newbies won't have to crack the manual to find out what does what.
Lite-On ships the LTR-52327S with one of our favorite entry-level programs, Ahead Software's Nero Express, which boasts a sleek user interface with lots of straightforward wizards for creating audio, data, and video CDs. And although highly simplified, Nero Express also lets you make more-complicated CD compilations, including bootable data CDs and mixed audio and data CDs. You also get Ahead's InCD for packet-writing duties.
The LTR-52327S turned in impressive test scores. In our CD-R recording test, it bested MSI's CR52-M and Samsung's SW-252FRNS; it was also the fastest to copy a 400MB folder from CD-RW. It was slightly slower than the SW-252FRNS at writing a 400MB folder to CD-RW and extracting a 26-minute audio file, and it lagged fairly significantly behind the CR52-M at copying a 400MB folder from CD-R. Still, of the three drives, the LTR-52327S is the best and most consistent performer overall.
Unless otherwise mentioned, all write tests are run with "_blank"="" rel="nofollow" class="c-regularLink" target="_blank">Verbatim media, rated at the drive's maximum speed. Find out more about how we test optical drives. Lite-On offers an industry-standard one-year warranty for the LTR-52327S. Although the phone number is hard to find on the company's Web site, Lite-On provides toll-free, 24/7 telephone support. The site is a bit slow, but the online support is copious, and it includes FAQs, software updates, RMA service, and registration. Firmware and software updates are also available.
If you want the superfast 52X-recording and 32X-rewriting speeds of the fastest CD-RW drives on the market, our favorite is Lite-On's LTR-52327S. It matched or bettered the performance of both MSI's CR52-M and Samsung's SW-252FRNS in the majority of our tests, and we found it selling online for the lowest price of the three. Outside of Lite-On's minor penny-pinch--not including an IDE cable with the LTR-52327S--there's no downside to this deal. The drive's documentation is adequate, Lite-On includes two free pieces of media, and the software bundle is from Nero--one of our favorites. If you're in the market for a CD-RW drive, look no further. Installing the LTR-52327S is a straightforward affair; anyone with modest screwdriver skills and the nerve to open up a computer case can do it. Lite-On includes an abridged, illustrated quick-installation guide and a fairly comprehensive user manual; both are lucid and detailed enough to steer you through the setup process, although there's no mention of the three mysterious extra jumpers on the back panel (our advice: leave them alone).
For more help in getting set up, check out CNET's new feature on how to install an optical drive.
Lite-On doesn't include an IDE cable with the LTR-52327S, but odds are you already have one inside your computer. On the upside, Lite-On does provide mounting screws and a drive-to-sound-card audio cable, an item lacking in many drive packages. Although there's nothing particularly exciting or stylish about the LTR-52327S's putty-colored front panel, it has all the necessities: a headphone jack, a volume control, an eject button, an emergency-eject hole, and a power light. Our only gripe concerns the media tray, which is neither as quiet nor as sturdy as the one on MSI's CR52-M. Along with the three aforementioned mystery jumpers, the drive's back panel houses the standard IDE and power connectors, as well as digital and analog audio ports and master/slave configuration jumpers; the functions of each of these are etched on top of the drive so that newbies won't have to crack the manual to find out what does what.
Lite-On ships the LTR-52327S with one of our favorite entry-level programs, Ahead Software's Nero Express, which boasts a sleek user interface with lots of straightforward wizards for creating audio, data, and video CDs. And although highly simplified, Nero Express also lets you make more-complicated CD compilations, including bootable data CDs and mixed audio and data CDs. You also get Ahead's InCD for packet-writing duties.
| "="" --="">/sc/30567093-2-300-SS1.gif" width="300" height="225" border="0" /> Nero Express's interface keeps it supersimple: what would you like to burn? |
CD-R tests (MB per second) (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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CD-RW tests (MB per second) (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Digital audio extraction test (MB per second) (Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Unless otherwise mentioned, all write tests are run with "_blank"="" rel="nofollow" class="c-regularLink" target="_blank">Verbatim media, rated at the drive's maximum speed. Find out more about how we test optical drives. Lite-On offers an industry-standard one-year warranty for the LTR-52327S. Although the phone number is hard to find on the company's Web site, Lite-On provides toll-free, 24/7 telephone support. The site is a bit slow, but the online support is copious, and it includes FAQs, software updates, RMA service, and registration. Firmware and software updates are also available.
| "="" --="">/sc/30567093-2-300-SS2.gif" width="300" height="225" border="0" /> In addition to 24/7 phone support, Lite-On offers firmware updates and drivers on its Web site. |