Customer Reviews

Sony CRX160E/A1 12x8x32 Internal EIDE CD-RW Drive

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The hardware itself for this CD-RW isn't bad but everything else is terrible. The software needed to produce discs comes with little to no documentation and has multiple problems writing files. abCD (one of the packaged software tools) is suppossed to let you drag and drop files like a floppy disc but many times won't write to my CD - RW. The tech support advertises a toll free 1-800 number but after hitting re-dial on my phone over a hundred times (I kept getting busy signals) I was then put on hold for over 30 minutes - Then automatically hung up on because Sony had a high number of calls. RUN don't walk away from this bomb.

This is my 4th CD burner. So far, I have not been very happy with Sony CD burners since other similar burners such as Recoh and Plextor are simply better with small price differences. Anyway, I decide to give another chance to Sony, and I see a lot of improvement over past Sony CD burners. Although its recording speed is little bit slower than its competing burners, the difference is not significant, just few more seconds. It has no Burn-Proof technology, but 4Mb buffer is good enough, and I have burnt more than 30 CDs without single error. Its audio extraction rate and reading speed are excellent. However, its bundled softwares are disappointing since they are not easy to use and not as convenient and speedy as Adaptec's Easy CD Creator. I would more stick to Easy CD Creator. You should upgrade your Adaptec's Easy CD Creator to version 4.03 to work correctly with this driver. Overall, the dirver itself is excellent without Burn-Proof technology.

Great drive! When used as a reader it is the quietest 32X drive I have ever heard - it's audible, but doesn't vibrate the case screws loose. As for burning, I was tempted by 16X drives, but 12X media is cheaper and more abundant, plus the time difference on burning a full CD is only about 2 minutes when you do the math.

I can't comment on the bundled software, since I'll never look at it. What I can say is that the drive works like a charm with Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.

It used to take over 20 minutes to burn a 700mb CD with my old 4X SCSI burner, now it's about 7 minutes with the 12X Sony! Haven't had any buffer underruns either, all you need is a source that can sustain a 2mb/sec read speed, which is easy to do with any 16X+ CD-ROM or modern hard drive. Who needs burn-proof these days anyway?

I am dissapointed in Sony! Usually you can't go wrong. However,the drive just doesn't do what it claims. It will not write fasterthan 8x when burning files and 4x when going from CD toCD. Bufferunderruns are the norm and not the exception. When it didrun it was real noisy. I tried callingSony.................................................I waited longerthan this, and they hung up on me after 35 minutes waiting to talkwith them. This happened three times. That was enough. You have tostand behind your product...

I wrote the previous comments and after further review decided to upgrade the rating on this to 3 stars for the following reasons...I finally did get in to Sony's support line and spoke with one of the best support people I've every spoken with - VERY helpful and knowledgable. I was directed to some websites that contained the proper manuals for some of the software (called CD Extreme) packaged with this CD-RW. Ever since, I've been much happier with this unit. I would have easily given this unit 4 or 5 stars if it would have come with proper manuals (or at least tell me where I could get them) and if it was a little easier to get into their support line. But all in all the unit itself is solid and once you figure out the proper bundled software to use (my opinion: CD Extreme is good, abCD terrible) this is a pretty good package.

This is my second SONY CD-RW,the 1st was a CRX100,4x2x24.A good drive but slow.This drive is fast,I'm using Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.02,had to update to 4.03 before it would reconize the drive(Thanks to a earlier reveiw)the update is free at Roxio under software updates,one note is to be sure to set the plug in back for master or slave,I didn't,had to take it back out.The drive is quiet.So far so good,would buy it again.

Since this is my first CD-RW drive & the only one I have ever used, I have nothing to compare against. Installation was easy, the software does what it should and, judging from a couple of reviews, it is fast - in fact, faster than advertised. The hardware itself is of pretty good quality.

It does not provide BURN-proof technology, but so far it seems to be unnecessary, although this probably depends on the speed of the other -source- drives & the PC itself.

I am quite happy with it.

I won't boar you with the details of the week I spent in Sony Customer Service hell. Suffice it to say the drive was defective right out of the box, the documentation says it is Windows 2000 compliant (it isn't) and Sony offers no software update which is W2K compatible, only that they apologize for the mis-representation. Add to this their only remedy for the defective drive is to repair it in 20 to 30 days. So, I end up with a rebuilt drive (they specificaly said NO NEW replacements) after paying for a new one that does not meet the requirements of my operating system. Good Luck.

this ATAPI/EIDE CD-RW writer is a little miracle in a mechanical box. This CD writer was factory installed in my pc when I bought it about three months ago.
It's a completely relable CD-RW. If I wanted to write a disc at the spur of the moment the writer was always willing and able. However there were a couple of times where I ended making coasters, but those were my stupid mistakes.
But for the CD writer novices out there. feel confident about this CD-RW, It will win your acclaim.

The drive looks great, was easy to install, and its fast.

The non-required burning software isn't bad, but I've seen better. It is very easy to use but dosen't allow you to burn a CD to CD copy at full speed with out making a temporary disk image. A great feature of the software allows you to go from MP3 tracks to an audio CD, some other software only allows you to go from WAV to an audio cd. The data cd feature is great.

As for RW features, the abCD Included Software is great! It allows you to write onto a CD-RW like a floppy with out having to make a full burning session.

If you already have software you bought seperatly from another burner, get this guy. He's fast ad easy to install.