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AOpen CRW1632 & CRW2440


Date
: 02/21/02 – 01:36:59 AM

Author
:

Category
: Optical Devices

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: AOpen
Price CRW1632 : about $60
Price CRW2440 : about $90

Introduction

Are you tired of waiting more than 5 or even 10 minutes to burn your CDs? Well, I know I am! That's why I went out looking for one of the fastest CDRW drives currently available. At that same approximate time, the friendly peeps from AOpen contacted O² to ask if we wanted to test some of their top model CDRW drives. Talk about timing ;) Of course, we were thrilled to have these babies in our testlab. Because after all, it has been a while since we had a writer on our testbed.

Which drives are we going to look at in this article? Well, the first one is AOpen's 24x burner, codenamed CRW2440. This baby should be able to write a CDR at 24x, a CDRW at 10x and also act as a 40x CDROM drive. It is theoretically quite fast, though not AOpen's current flagship anymore. As we speak(or as I write), they're introducing a new model, capable of burning a CDR at 32x. We'll look at that one, as well as its ‘older’ and cheaper brother, the 16x (called CRW1632). This one writes CDRs at 16x and reads them at 32x. Like the 24x model, it burns CDRW discs at 10x. We decided to include the 16x model in our article because many of you will not have the need for the fastest model. The CRW1632 offers fast writing (but not the fastest) at a lower price but with the same specs as the newer model.

We all know that AOpen produces fine computer cases, but how about their CDRW drives? I was pretty eager to find out the answer to that question. By the end of this story, you will see that the final verdict is not bad at all. Now, let's have a look at the specifications of both drives and see what terms like ‘Justspeed’ and ‘Justlink’ mean.

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

I present you a slightly edited copy/paste from the AOpen CRW1632 and CRW2440 specifications page on the web. Here it is :

Interface: E-IDE/ATAPI (SFF8090), *ATA-33 (33MB/sec), DMA Mode-2 (16.7MB/Sec), PIO Mode 4 (*Default factory jumper setting is DISABLED.)

Data Buffer Memory: 2MB

CRW1632 Data Transfer Rate:

- CD-R Write: (CLV) 2X, 4X, 8X, 12X,
(ZCLV) 16X =2.4MB/sec (CD-R);
- CD-RW Write: (CLV) 2X, 4X, 10X =1.6MB/sec (CD-RW)
- CD Read: Up to 32X (1X=150KB/s)

CRW2440 Data Transfer Rate:

- CD-R Write: (CLV) 4X, 8X, 12X, 16X
(ZCLV) 24X =3.6MB/sec (CD-R);
- CD-RW Write: (CLV) 2X, 4X, 10X =1.6MB/sec (CD-RW)
- CD Read: Up to 40X (1X=150KB/s)

Average Access Time: 120ms or less
Mounting Orientation: Horizontal or vertical (eject button must be upside)

Supported Formats: CD-Audio,CD-ROM (mode 1 and 2), CD-ROM/XA (mode2, from 1 and from 2), CD-I, Photo-CD (single and multiple sessions), Video CD, CD Extra, I-Trax CD, CD Text, and High Density (80-min) CD.
*CD-I, Photo-CD requires special reader/player.
*Photo-CD writing requires Kodak's license.
*CD Text and High Density requires Nero.

Power Requirement: DC5V±5%, DC12V±10%

Logical Recording Format: UDF and ISO9660

Weight: 1.0 kg or less (accessories not include)

Dimensions: 149x42x196.5mm (WxHxD)

Power Consumption:
10W or less (normal operation)
1.2W or less (stand by)

Operating Environment:
Temperature (Without cooling)
Operating: 5°C ~ 40°C
Non-operating: -20°C ~ 55°C
Operating Humidity: 20% ~ 80% R.H.
Non-operating Humidity: 10% ~ 90% R.H.

A truckload of pictures :

Detailed Specs

First of all, I'd like to mention that the two CDRW drives in today's article are basically the same drives. What I mean is that apart from the burning and reading speed, these drives look the same, have the same specs and size and so on. Heck, they even smell the same!

The CRW1632 and the CRW2440 use an ATAPI interface which supports DMA mode-2, ATA33 (by changing the jumpers on the back of the drive) and PIO mode 4.

Because both drives are identical apart from the speed, they both use a couple special techniques to achieve such high burning speeds. These techniques are CLV and ZCLV which stands for Constant Lineair Velocity and Zone Constant Lineair Velocity. I know these words sound really difficult but when you have a closer look at the (Z)CLV process, the sun will start pushing away the dark clouds and the sky will become clear again ;) Here's how a burn process from start till finish goes on in the CRW2440. Keep in mind that 24x equals a data transfer of no less than 3600KB/sec (1x = 150KB/sec)! When the 24x writer starts writing a CDR, it never goes faster than 16x on the inner circle of the disc. Once it has come a certain point in the burn process, the writer switches to 20x to finally finish the CDR at 24x on the outer circle of the disc. That's how ZCLV works. An interesting and accurate technique which is used in most of today's top notch CDRW drives. The CRW1632 does something similar, but the drive isn't capable of burning faster than 16x of course. Both writers can burn CDRW discs at 10x but I don't think that many of you guys will ever rewrite at 10x because highspeed CDRW disc are pretty hard to find. There is one in each retail package of these writers though ;)

Both drives also act as excellent CDROMs. The CRW2440 should be able to read a CDROM at 40x while the slower model, the CRW1632, can read your favorite MP3 CDR at 32x. These speeds can be compared to those of many ordinary CDROM drives. But of course, you don't buy a CDRW drive just to read CDRs :)

Two more important features that are present in both drives are 'Justlink' and 'Justspeed'. I'll explain them very briefly because most of you will already know what I'm talking about. But for those who don't, here's the story. Although both AOpen CDRW drives have a data buffer memory of 2MB (the Plextor 24x drive has 4MB), technologies to prevent coasters are indispensable in today's CDRW writers. That's what Justlink and Justspeed do … they prevent buffer-underruns from occuring when your system and buffer can't provide the data to the writer fast enough.

When such a buffer-underrun occurs during the burn process, both drives will engage the Justlink technology and stop writing until the buffer is filled again. A similar technology used by Plextor is called BURN-PROOF. Some say Justlink is better than BURN-PROOF because it leaves a patch of only 2 µm or under. We have tried to create a coaster on writers with BURN-PROOF and writers with Justlink and both drives have finished the job with any hick-ups (no coasters). The audio quality of both CDRs didn't appear to show any sign of errors either. And now you know what Justlink is.

Another feature we like on these two drives, is the Justspeed technology. Justspeed determines the best possible burning speed for the CDR disc you're planning to burn on. Justspeed will therefor analyse the disc quality and adjust the burnbeam, writing speed, and so on.

My experiences with Justspeed so far haven't been that great though. Because of the Justspeed feature, I couldn't even write at 20x on CDRs that were rated as 24x discs. Fortunately, I was able to turn the Justspeed feature off in my favorite burning application. With the feature turned off, I could write the CDR at 24x with any problems. Maybe Justspeed is a little too safe?

Page 3 : In The Boxes

In The Box

One thing is sure : both AOpen writers are shipped in a nice striking package. Let's have a look at what we can expect inside the boxes :

Product Contents CRW1632 :

- CRW1632 Drive
- User's manual
- Audio cable
- Screws
- 1 blank 16X CD-R disc
- 1 blank 10X CD-RW disc
- Nero Burning ROM
- Nero InCD Packet Writing
- Formosoft Gamut 2000 MP3 Tools

Product Contents CRW2440 :

- CRW2440 Drive
- User's manual
- Audio cable
- Screws
- 1 blank 24X CD-R disc
- 1 blank 10X CD-RW disc
- Nero Burning ROM
- Nero InCD Packet Writing

Well well well, both retail packages have pretty similar products inside. If we don't look at the CDRW unit, both packages are identical except for the extra bonus software included in the CRW1632 box. I'm talking about the Formosoft Gamut 2000 MP3 tools … not a bonus CDROM to write home about. As you can read in the content lists above, both boxes contain a user manual, an analog audio cable, the necessary screws to mount the drive, 1 blank CDR disc, a blank CDRW disc and a CDROM with the Nero 5 Burning suite. Quite some sweet goodies, don't you think? The manual is
not
a tiny piece of paper without much in it. No sir, it's a well-documented book and contains all the information that you need to know about your CDRW drive.

Let's see how these drives perform, shall we?

Page 4 : Testing

Testing

Test System :

- AOpen HQ45 case
- AMD Athlon Tbird 1.4GHz
- IWill KK266plus-R Mainboard
- Swiftech MCXC370 Heatsink
- 256MB Crucial PC133 SDRAM
- Hercules GeForce3 Ti200 videocard
- AOpen CRW1632 CDRW Drive
- AOpen CRW2440 CDRW Drive
- IBM 20GB UDMA100 7200rpm hard drive
- Windows XP Pro
- VIA 4in1 4.37
- Deto 23.11

We decided to throw in several tests from the popular CDRW benchmark suite 'Nero CD Speed' which is included in the Ahead Nero Burning ROM 5 CDROM that comes with both AOpen writers …

CRW1632
: Transfer Rate & Seek Times

You can see that the 16x10x32 drive from AOpen has an average data transfer rate of about 25x (1x = 150Kb/s). It starts at 14.8x and continues to go up to its limit at 32.5x, just as we expected. And with a random seek time of 97ms, the AOpen 16x writer does better than similar products from other manufacturers. The CPU usage is also minimal and a tad less than on other writers we tested here at O². Will you notice these differences in real life? I guess not, but it is good to know.

CRW2440
: Transfer Rate & Seek Times

The AOpen 24x10x40 is a fine CDRW drive to say the least. I wonder if there's anyone who doesn't want to have this one in its case. With an average transfer rate of more than 31x, the CRW2440 is a tad faster compared to the 16x model. But of course, this is no surprise at all because it should be faster according to the specs. The CRW2440 starts at 18.69x, spins up and ends at 41.14x which is also well within our expectations. Again, the AOpen 24x model managed to outperform similar drives from other manufacturers when it comes to seek times. The random seek time of this baby is no more than 94ms. CPU usage is just as low as on the 16x model, so nothing to complain about here either.

That concludes our benchmarking for today, but how about personal experiences? Apart from the Justspeed issues I mentioned earlier, I don't have anything to complain about concerning these two writers. I also didn't have any problems with overburning a CDR with both drives. I also would like to note that Nero Burning ROM v5 was used througout all the tests.

Can we draw a conclusion now? Yep, I think we can …

Page 5 : Conclusion

Conclusion

CRW1632

Good

- Performance
- Justlink buffer-underrun protection
- Justspeed
- ATA33
- Low Price

Bad

- 'Only' 16x
- Justspeed not always accurate

CRW2440

Good

- 24x (!!) CDR burning
- Justlink buffer-underrun protection
- Justspeed
- ATA33
- Cheaper than most competitors

Bad

- 32x and even 40x writers already available
- Justspeed not always accurate

Overclockers Online certainly is impressed by the excellent quality and performance of these AOpen writers. The CRW1632 and CRW2440 are two outstanding CDRW drives with lots of features like the Justlink buffer-underrun protection, the Justspeed feature, resp. 16x and 24x CD recording and lots of goodies like free blank CDR(W)s inside the retail box and the Nero Burning ROM 5 CDROM. It feels really good to work with such high quality products. Now we know that AOpen not only manufactures nice cases, but also does a mighty fine job in constructing state of the art CD writers. If you're looking for a good CDReWriter, I guarantee you won't be disappointed when you buy an AOpen. Of course, the choice between the 16x or a faster model is a decision only you guys can make for yourselves.