Customer Reviews

Yamaha CRW3200EZ 24x10x40 CD-RW Drive

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This was my second CD Burner. My first one was an HP 8550i with a 4x4x24 speed. The HP was very flakey. The Yamaha CRW3200EZ installed flawlessly. Now instead of taking 45 minutes to burn 650MB of data onto the disc, it only takes about 3 to 4 minutes to burn the same data. That was only burning at 16x. The one CD-R that I got with the drive was a 24x rated CD and I filled that thing in less than 3 minutes. The ripping speed of this drive is awesome also. The prices on this unit have really come down so now is probably a good time to buy. I don't see a whole lot more time spent improving this technology when DVD-R is emerging. So if your waiting for the drives to get faster than they are now, you may end up waiting a long time. So I would advise that if you are in the market for a new burner, you can't go wrong with this one.

I bought this drive because the store was out of the Plextor and Sony I wanted. The Yamaha was a bit more, but they have a good reputation and the 8mb buffer sounded impressive. Installation was a breeze, XP Home recognized it immediately. Comes with great software (Nero 5.5) and a blank CD. I have only used it a couple of times and had no problems. It isn't nearly as loud as I thought it would be, but it is louder than my older slower cd-rw. This drive certainly is fast. I was burning stuff just to watch it go. It's amazing how fast it is. I have a PIII 1 ghz with 512 mbRam and with the large buffer I can easily perform other functions on my pc while its burning.
On a side note, its also very nice looking. I would definately recommend buying this drive if you want it all.

The best and fastest CD-RW drive out there. True 24X, 8 MB of buffer, SafeBurn protection, P-CAV technology with no gaps between the zones - great for high quality audio (Z-CLV ...), great seek time, cool looking blue LED, CD-MRW support, Nero Burning Rom 5.5, Audio Master Quality Recording.

This is my second CDRW drive, my first was a 4 by 4 by 24, it usually took about 20 minutes to fill a CD. Now I can fill a CD in just over 3 minutes which is great.

Installation was easy, just opened the case and replaced it with my current drive. After that I installed the included software and was burning and ripping MP3's with in 10 minutes.

With the 8meg buffer and "SmartBurn" you can run programs with no worry of wasting a CD.

Simply put,an awesome drive.To the reviewer in Alexandria
VA,your problem is not with the drive it's with your computer.
If the drive isn't recognized you've got an IRQ conflict.Put the
drive on the secondary IDE connector and set the jumper to either
master or cselect.You shouldn't even need to look at the manual to install these drives.You simply plug in the ide cable,power connector and then the audio connector.If your drive isn't recognized or is unstable then you more than likely have two devices sharing the same IRQ.Make sure your jumpers are set correctly and if your bios cannot detect and assign IRQ's auotomatically then you're going to have to assign one manually within the bios.IF you connect the drive to the primary IDE cable
(the same one your hard drive is on)you better make sure the jumper is set to slave or cselect.The first drive is always the master and the rest need to be designated slave or cselect.

Please keep in mind I'm a 50 year old woman who bought her first computer 2 years ago. I bought this burner because I'm very impressed with Yamaha electronics and I was not disappointed. It took my 24 year old niece and I about half an hour to install it (very carefully if you know any old ladies) and up came the cues and away I went. I have burned about a hundred discs and never had one problem. Yamaha is the best and Nero is the best. I can't tell the difference when I play them on my wall-vibrating stereo (Yamaha, of course). Buy it, you'll love it.

I totally rely on amazon reviews and feedback for purchases, and this was no exception. Installation went amazingly well, considering I'd never installed an internal device before...don't be intimidated, you CAN do it!

Then, I had what seemed like tons of problems trying to get a CD burned. I'm not impressed with Nero, the included software. It would seem like it was burning, and then nothing would be on the CD. It turned out to be a *really* simple problem - which I figured out myself by messing around with it a lot, no thanks to Nero's subpar help files and FAQs (oh, and no phone support unless you live in Germany).

For me, the key was on the recorder menu "Choose Recorder" - where you have to pick the correct burner device. It had been recording to an "Image recorder." I certainly never set that up, so not sure how it got automatically configured that way. Before sending nasty notes to email support, you might double check that setting.

However - now it's working great! I blame the software - NOT the hardware, for my initial problems...

General note: This review and feedback system works if you work it! Thanks to all who helped me make my decision by taking the time to write detailed reviews...hopefully I can help with mine.

I would recommend this drive to anyone looking for a cd-rw drive. I installed this drive into my home pc in about 10 minutes, maybe a little less. I was shocked to find it no where near as noisy as it is made out to be. I had no trouble installing the software and making copies of files. This is a great drive, I was a little leary about buying it when I read some of the reviews, but I have to say, it was well worth the purchase. ... You'll love it, new to cd-r or not, Yamaha has made it simple, with a great software bundle and simple instructions.

I actually have the 24x16x40 Burner by Yamaha but my brother has this one as well. We have had no problems with it and it works just fine. The only problem I have with it is it is sooooo loud. I honestly think they need to put a muffler on it or something because I have to turn my speakers up most of the time to hear the sound over the Cdrom. I try not to use this for reading Cds but sometimes you just forget which tray you put it in. Go ahead and get it but get used to the noise.

If you are looking for satisfaction and performance, this is it! Yamaha has done it with the CDRW3200EX. Engineered to perform, and Nero is definitly a plus. I updated my CDRW with this product, and am loving it. Need I say more!