- TDK CyClone 401248B

The drive supports 40x writing (Z-CLV), 12x re-writing, 2MB Buffer and anti-buffer under run technology. The maximum reading speed of the drive is 48x (CAV). The exact writing speeds are 4x, 8x, 12, 16x (CLV), 20x, 24x, 32x and 40x (Z-CLV). The re-writing speeds are 4x, 8x, 10x and 12x (CLV). The drive is Mt. Rainier ready and can author AudioCDs up to 40x recording speed. Lastly, the drive supports all the known writing modes (DAO, SAO, TAO and RAW) including hardware EFM correction. It is quite possible that with a newer firmware upgrade drive to adopt the P-CAV as the main recording technology.

- 40x writing speed

The drive supports the 40x writing speed with the use of the Z-CLV writing technology. Below is the Nero CD Speed writing graph, which illustrates the use of Zone-CLV writing technology:

The 40x writing speed range is divided into 4 zones: The drive starts writing at 20x from lead-in till the 4mins, shifts up to 24x at 8mins, shifts up to 32x at 28mins and lastly shifts to 40x at 54mins and stays there until the end. The theoretical average recording speed is 30.58X making it faster than some other drives in the same category.

- The package

The package supplied was the European retail version. This included: the drive itself, a quick set-up guide, a techical support printed guide, 1 piece of TDK 80min CD-R blank (actual manufacturer Ritek), 1 piece of TDK 80min 4-12x High-Speed RW blank (unknown manufacturer - 97m 10s 00f - Cyanine), audio cable, mounting screws and a CD-R pen.

The software supplied with the drive was Nero Burning ROM v5.5.7.5, Ahead InCD v3.22 (for packet writing use) and TDK's Digital MixMaster v1.2.2.13. There is also an electronic PDF manual which user may want to take a look before start using the drive. The drive includes 2 years of warranty (applies only for the European territory).

The front of the drive is very simple and according to the previous CyClone series. In the front contains only the "HS-RW" logo and the drive's features (40x12x48x). You will also find only one led, the eject button and the headphone input jack/volume selector:

In the back of the drive we will find the usual connectors (IDE interface, power), the jumpers for making the drive Master/Slave, the SPDIF output connector, 3 factory reserved jumpers and the analogue/digital output connectors.

- Installation

TDK CyClone 401248B was installed as a Master in the secondary IDE BUS. The drive worked in UDMA33 mode and after booting, identified itself as the "TDK CDRW401248B". We used WinXP for the recording/reading tests. DMA was automatically activated from the operating system. The drive is a March 2002 model with firmware revision vZ7S4 installed.

If you use low quality media, the drive automatically lowers its recording speed down to (even down to 16x) before it starts writing. There is a way for end user to overpass it with de-activating "Smart-Burn" technology.

Inside the recording software (in our case Nero under CD Recorder properties), you can un-check the "Smart-Burn" function and write ANY media at ANY recording speed (even at 40x). After un-checking the "Smart-Burn", Nero will display the following warning you notify you about the risk. Turning the Smart-Burn off can also decrease the writing time with higher quality media but there are questions about the quality of the written discs, so it advised from our side to leave 'SmartBurn' always on!