Yamaha CRW2100ix FireWire CDR-W - Page 8

Conclusion

The FireWire Yamaha CRW2100ix is not a drive that most of us would go out to the stores and buy. This protocol is mostly known on the Macintosh computers. However, our tests gave us the opportunity to reconsider our position against this particular solution versus (mainly) the SCSI one. The FireWire proved itself capable to treat BETTER the Yamaha high-speed recorder than what the SCSI and IDE protocols did in most of the tests. It occupied the CPU less than both IDE and SCSI solutions, and gave us slightly better numbers. Another point is the competitive price, while the drive pays you back with it's performance in many cases. Those features are good weapons against the competition from most of the other manufacturers, if you want a FireWire protocol drive. The lack of 10x RE-writing speed and the non-support of any anti-coaster (BURN-Proof, Justlink) technology is what you will really miss from this drive (as with the two other Yamaha models). As far as it concerns the DAO-RAW feature, it's here, performing pretty well when you demand a backup of your protected cds.

So, here comes the well-known question: "Should I buy this drive?". We'll be brief and clear as always: Definitely YES. The FireWire offers portability, low CPU usage and high daisy-chain conectivity (up to 63 devices). On the other hand, if you're after BURN-Proof/JustLink technologies there are several other FireWire choices for you to choose from (and faster too). Finally, if you're a Mac-user, I wouldn't recommend this drive to you...because you probably, have already bought it ;-)