Customer Reviews

QPS QPCDRW161040FEM External 16x10x40 FireWire CD-RW Drive

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Returned a loud buzzy Iomega Predator and got this instead, and it is much better. Operation is nearly silent, and it burned a 16x CD-R flawlessly while I kept the computer busy doing other work. It is bigger than the Predator but also feels much more solid.

There are two versions of this out there: one that embeds a Teac drive (you can see the label through the case) and another that embeds a Plextor drive. Other reviewers have praised the Plextor flavor but I have the Teac and it works great as well.

The carrying case it comes with sounds trivial but it is well designed if you need to travel with all the stuff that comes with it (cable, power cord, etc.).

I needed a CD-RW drive for my iMac and, since I had FireWire connectivity, I went looking for FireWire drives. The QPS drive was the fastest drive available at the time for what I deemed a reasonable price and it had received good reviews so I picked it up.

I have not been disappointed. Documentation was well done and connecting the drive and setting it up to burn CDs was a snap. Though the packaging contained third-party software, I chose to use Apple's iTunes to burn my first CD, in order to check on compatibility. The burn was flawless and seemed fast (though I have little basis for comparison) and has played well in several different systems.

So for quick, easy CD burning for your Mac, I can highly recommend the QPS drive.

QPS has released a newer model with faster write speed---Invest P>I am a devoted laptop user and hardcore CD burner. My options for laptops have always been limited to slow write speeds, even for internal models (8x max). I hooked up the QPS to my Dell's 1394 port using a Belkin 6pin to 4 pin FireWire adapter cable. I still had absolutely no trouble with it, setup took about 3 minutes (most of the time was rebooting), and I am burning full music CDs in about 7 minutes. This is an outstanding leap in technology. I would give it 10 stars if I could.

This is the easiest CD-RW drive I've worked with. Includes BURNproof technology that creates skip free music and NO COASTERS! Everything in one convenient carrying case makes it easily portable. I also recently purchased one of QPS' 20G external hard drives...works like a charm...

This drive includes a case, an inline power brick, a FireWire cable, and the drive. They all fit into the case. This is a *highly* portable drive and I shuffle between home and work with it often. Once FireWire card in my work PC and a Mac at home and I can burn anywhere.

And since it's a Plextor, I've not had a coaster yet.

After spending many frustrating hours with a crappy Iomega Predator, I finally gave up and went looking for something better and found it in this drive. Hooked it up and haven't had a single bad burn yet since I bought it almost a year ago. I burn all the time--it is fast, reliable, and durable. The case is a bit on the bulky side--even with the nice traveling case it's not what I'd call portable, but I don't really care.

This product is simply outstanding! Installation was a breeze, and I was burning CDs within 30 minutes. I haven't had any problems burning disks or reading the burned disks on other drives, despite a what finiky laptop.

I also like the handy carrying case for the drive, which goes well with a portable laptop.

By the way, this product comes with a 6 pin to 6 pin firewire cable. If you have a laptop with a small (4 pin) firewire port, you should order a 6 pin to 4 pin firewire adapter/cable. ...

After great trouble getting several other makes to work, this one plugged in and worked with no trouble at all. Ratings like "16x" always seem to be too optimistic: after overhead it drops some, but this drive is still impressively fast. And it has the seemingly rare distinction of working fine with Retrospect in case you want to do full backups to it.

PLEASE HEED COMMENTS IN OTHER REVIEWS ABOUT POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM QPS! I purchased a very similar QPS external RW drive (QPCDRW321040FL) that performed acceptably for about eight months...and then abruptly died. After determining that it was a hardware problem, I followed instructions that came with the burner to contact the company for information on how to return the drive for repair or replacement under the warranty. I have sent numerous email messages to the customer "service" department, with no reply. The form on the QPS web page for sending requests for customer service doesn't work (!). I called the QPS customer service department during business hours, waited on hold for about an hour and a half, and then was abruptly disconnected without being able to speak to anyone. I've even sent fax messages. No reply AT ALL from the company. I would never have purchased this burner if I had known that QPS had such poor regard for its customers. I STRONGLY recommend avoiding this company and its products if you have alternatives.

There have been some people leaving reviews for this product saying "why go external? Why go external?" Well look, if you've got a laptop that only has a DVD drive, or just a CD-ROM drive and you want to record your own CDs what do you do or even if you want to copy from one CD to another or some files off of a DVD what then?

Also have you thought that installing internals on a desktop on your own would void your warranty, because it does? And if something goes wrong then there you go, you're out of luck cause it's or own fault for cracking the case to put in a product.

As for the cost, yes we can easily see that cost is an issue. It's obvious externals will cost more.

Also, what about portability. I sure as heck don't want to buy two or three different drives for each computer I'll be using.

I could keep going, but but just think before you write. If you don't have anything directly product related, in regard to reviewing, just keep it to yourself. (I would take my own advice, but there are people out there not using these review places as they are designed to be used.)