52X IDE CD-RW Recorder Roundup - Page 2

- Mitsumi CR-487ETE

Mitsumi is also among the companies that offer a 52X CAV recorder. The CR-487ETE is a 52/24/52 IDE recorder with a 2MB cache buffer and "buffer underun prevention" technology implemented, while it is also Mt Rainier compliant. Let's have a look in the official specifications:

Besides the 52X CAV CD-R write/read and the 24X P-CAV US-RW writing speeds, the drive supports 40X CAV audio extraction. The firmware installed is v001E, as Nero InfoTool reports:

The following pictures show the available reading/writing speeds. Notice that the 48X speed is not available in the screenshots below. However, the drive can write at 48X, as we experienced in the writing tests.

The drive will automatically reduce the maximum writing speed according to the inserted media as the following picture shows (taken from Nero):

- Recording Technology

As Nero CD Speed graph shows, the drive starts writing at 23.24X and accelerates to 52.25X by the end of the disc. That gives an average theoretical writing speed of 39.59X with 80min CD-R media.

- NeroCDSpeed writing test at 48X

- NeroCDSpeed writing test at 40X

- NeroCDSpeed writing test at 24X

- The package

We got the European retail package an application software disc, containing Nero Burning Rom , Nero InCD, manuals, and some Mitsumi screensavers and games for your entertainment. The package does not include any CD-R or HS-RW media. Quick installation guides are also available in many languages. The drive is priced also around 80 Euro.

- Looking at the drive

On the front panel of the drive there are the usual eject button, the volume selector and the headphone jack, among with an indicator (LED). On the right side of the disc tray you can see the Ultra Speed Rewritable logo.

On the rear panel of the drive you will find the IDE connector, the configuration jumpers, the analogue and the digital audio output connectors and of course the power connector.

- Inside the drive

After removing the bottom screws we can see the internal of the drive. The drive uses Mediatek chipsets as well as many other 52X writers (ASUS, CyberDrive).

- Installation

The Mitsumi drive was installed as a Master device in the secondary IDE channel of our test PC, and worked at Ultra DMA mode. After booting, it identified itself as a "MITSUMI CR-487ETE". Even Nero reports the drive supports ExacLink, this isn't correct, since ExacLink is a OAK Chipset technology. The correct Buffer underrun technology would be SuperLink :-)