52X
Roundup Vol.1 - Page 2
- SONY CRX220E1
This may surprise several users, but this model actually doesn't exist yet.
SONY currently sells CRX215E1 that supports 48X/24/48X re-writing speeds and
the upcoming CRX220 series are not yet announced. However with the use of special
firmware we (and you) could turn either a CRX210E1 (48/12/48) or a CRX215E1
(48/24/48) into a CRX220 (52/24/52) drive.
The benefit from this upgrade, beside the increased writing/re-writing/reading
speeds, is the fact that with this firmware the drive works at max speed. The
CRX210E1 and CRX215E working default at 40X and with the use of 'Turbo' mode
are reaching the 48X writing/reading speeds. The negative with this is that
user has to turn on the 'Turbo' mode every time inserts a disc, which
is at least annoying...
- The drive
The SONY CRX220E1 supports CAV recording technology for reading/re-writing
and recording. The drive's features as Nero Info Tool reports are:
The drive supports 52X maximum reading / writing and 24X re-writing speeds.
PowerBurn and SmartBurn technologies are present to prevent the buffer underrun
problems and ensure the burning quality. The buffer is only 2MB and reading
of CD-Text, CD+G is supported. Nero Info Tool reports that C2 error information
is also supported but its accuracy would be examined later. Lastly Mt. Rainier
is present.
The following pictures show the drive's supported reading/writing speeds:
- Recording/Re-writing speeds
The SONY CRX220E1 supports 52X writing with the use of CAV recording technology.
As Nero CD Speed unveiled, the drive starts writing at 23.30X and gradually
ends at the 52.54X speed, giving an average of 39.77X.
When using a US-RW media, the CRX220E1 will start burning at 10.70X and gradually
end at 23.99X. That gives an average of 18.19X that is much lower than
what both Plextor PX-W4824A and YAMAHA CRW-F1 series gave in previous tests
(23.78X average!).
- The package
After removing the screws on the button we can easily see the drive's internal
design (attention this voids your warranty!).
Noticed anything in the above picture? Lets zoom at the bottom. Something
interesting seems to be there.
The "LTR-32123S-A Rev: 01" words are printed in the circuit. Its
not a secret that SONY and many other manufacturers use LiteOn OEM drives. As
it seems the 48X recorders are based in the same circuits with the 32X series,
not in the exact same design (we confirmed that after opening a LTR-32123S)
The drive is build around MediaTek series chipsets (MT1518E and MT1516E).
- Installation
The SONY CRX220E1 was installed as a Master in the primary IDE BUS. The drive
worked in UDMA-33 mode. After booting, it identified itself as a "SONY
CD-RW CRX220E1". We used Nero v5.5.9.14, CloneCD v4.0.1.10 and Ahead
InCD v3.5.16 for the recording tests.
The firmware version installed was v6S.02. Nero Burning Rom reports that
the drive also supports the "SmartBurn" feature, for accurate burnings
to various media. When you un-tick the "SmartBurn" box, a warning
message comes up with information about the usability of this option. In short
words, you can write every media at 48X when "SmartBurn" is disabled!
