YAMAHA CRW2100EZ

[Guest]

Picked up this burner a few days ago from Best Buy for a "thirty-day" trial run.

Reviews by others on this burner are mixed with a significant slant towards the negative.

Here's my take so far:
1. Noise is not objectionable. On par with my other high speed cd roms. Really- a none issue.

2. The actual drive/hardware seems very good.

3. Supplied Adaptec "Easy CD Creator 4.0" seems to be THE PROBLEM. Even with no multi-tasking I had only a 40 percent success rate of burning audio cd's at 16X. No chance while multi-tasking or surfing. Bummer!

Wanting to give this drive every chance during my "30 day trail" I did some surfing research and downloaded NERO 5.03.8 ( demo) and WOW what an improvement!!!

Burned at least five full audio cd's at full 16X speed and no coasters! This even while surfing the web, downloading from Napster and checking my email.

My conclusion so far is this:
Great drive bundled with incompatable burner software.
With the right software this bad boy burns at full cd in 5 1/2 minutes.

I will keep ya'll posted- but this is starting to look good!

 

[Guest]

Oh yeah - FWIW here my system config:
Asus p2b
Micron pc-100 128 Mg
IBM Deskstar 7200 RPM HD
Celeron 466

From some of the reviews I've read on the Yamaha burner- my system would seem marginal.

Anyhow, I'll keep burning and will post follow ups.

 

[Guest]

Just finished recording a 78 minute audio burn in under 5 1/2 minutes using NERO software - this while surfing the web , checking email, etc.

Tonite I also formatted a RW CD. Work very well also for data. In fact, I may use as my primary source drive for Quicken and use my Zip as back up ( originally planned to use the cd as back-up, but the cd is Much faster- cool!).

Incidently, I called Yamaha tech support today and got thru after a reasonable five minute hold. I mentioned to the tech that the Nero software seems to eliminate coasters and supports 16X burns. The tech support guy indicated that Yamaha was aware of this software issue ( maybe they'll start shipping these units with something other than the adatec stuff- or maybe adaptec can update its software to be more compatable).

The more I use this burner the more I like it. The software compatability issue is probably the cause of the so so reviews.

I believe my 400 celeron is pushing the envelope while burning as my multi-tasking speed (surfing) is slowed. Oh well, I was looking for a reason to upgrade to an Thunderbird 1 gig and Asus MB- hey it only cost another $1,000 to go first class, eh?

 

[Guest]

Looks like I will keep this Yamaha burner !

While typing this memo I am burning a 78 minute track at 16X speed on Imation 16X media. Multi-tasking no problem- I have IE open, MS Word, MS Excell, and email open.

The Nero burner software is most definately the answer !

The software supplied with this burner is great for coaster making- with the NERO no more coasters!

The difference is truly amazing ! The software supplied with the burner would create coaster if you so much as touched the mouse- no kidding (error showed as buffer underruns). I thought it was the drive- it wasn't.

This seems to be a great drive with the appropriate software. My only complaint is that yamaha SHOULD HAVE done their homework.

I also like the fact that I can use the burner as a ide drive with RW media- it is fast ( much better and faster than my ZIP drive).

Well- good luck to all!

Hope my comments have helped - post any questions and I'll do my best to answer here.