The Ideal Optical Drive that Does it All on a Budget
Written: Jan 12 '02
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Pros: Saves a drive bay, Speed of CD-burner, DVD Playback and more.
Cons: Can¡¦t make instant CD copies.
The Bottom Line: If you¡¦ve been looking for a combo drive that has the power of the dedicated units, look no further with the LG DVD/CD-RW combo.
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| lavoisier's Full Review: LG GCC 4120B CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive |
Since the inception of the DVD/CD-RW combo drives, not to be confused with DVD-RW/CD-RW drives; it has been a miracle for many computer users, since some computers only have one 5.25-inch drive bay or that they only have one 5.25-inch bay left over. What it basically is that the drive has the capability of writing CDs (including CD-RW) and reading DVD discs like viewing a movie. Until more recently, those drives didn・t have the performance of dedicated DVD ROM and CD Rewriter units; but now as the technology is emerging they have become as powerful as many dedicated drives. In those days, the combo drives・ CD Writing speeds were low, which takes basically about 20 minutes to completely write a CD. With the LG DVD/CD-RW combo drive, you can replace your old CD ROM indefinitely, especially for those below 24x in just one drive bay if you want a DVD and CD Rewriter all together in just one drive.
Hardware and Experience
Even though it・s combo drive, it has the performance of dedicated a DVD ROM and a CD Rewriter, without the possible costs. In the old fashioned way to have a DVD-ROM and a CD Rewriter in a computer, you have to buy dedicated drives to do that, which can steal a 5.25-inch drive bay.
With the 8x DVD ROM capability, it is rather low by modern offerings; but basically it・s enough for years to come. With this kind of speed for reading DVD ROMs, it can read software and DVD video easily without slowing down your computer productivity. The DVD was able read a video DVD without any problems, no lags or skipping during high processor demand. As with any DVD movie running in a DVD ROM, do not run any other applications, especially ICQ. However to view DVD movies, it requires a decoder from your video card driver or hardware decoder; but many prefer software decoder, since it doesn・t take up a PCI slot on their motherboard and that many of our computer・s hard drive is sufficient in size to handle such software.
For the CD Rewriter portion of the drive, it writes a full CD-R disc in as little 6 minutes, which is fast enough for many computer users. It can even write to a CD-RW in about 10 minutes, ideal for those who periodically back up their hard drive. However, it・s required to format your CD-RW media before writing to it. Although it only features 2MB of buffer, but ：Exact Link； compensates the buffer by an under run protection, the buffer under run protection is designed to prevent coaster CDs, otherwise wasted CDs due to buffer under run. This is one of the first of the combo drives to ever feature a buffer under run protection, where it・s crucial for high speed CD writing.
Installation
The ease of installation is really great here, because you don・t have to take care of 2 drives, unless you have a dedicated CD ROM to install as well. Before installing the drive into the computer, setting the jumper is required according to the manual. Then open the computer case after the power is turned off and unplugged, then place the drive into a 5.25-inch bay. But if you・re replacing your existing CD ROM with the combo drive, remove the CD ROM first. Then plug the power supply into the drive and plug the IDE ribbon cable into the drive end outlet. In addition, plug the audio cable into the drive as well and it should connect with your audio card. After installing the drive properly and correctly aligned to the outer panel, tighten the drive with the screws. Before you actually close the computer case, go through the BIOS if changes are necessary. Then the computer reboots if you・ve left the BIOS program to your Windows operating system. From there, install your CD creation software; which includes Roxio Easy CD-Creator and Roxio Direct CD. All software are at least Windows 95/NT compatible. The Windows XP may require updates from the Roxio website. Then you can install your DVD decoder from your video card driver. Once the software is installed properly, it maybe required to restart your computer in order for the drive to be used. Then you should test if the CD Rewriter and the DVD ROM works. If it doesn・t work, you may want to check with the manual again to check for installation errors. If it occurs frequently, contact LG from your nation or region.
Software
As I have mentioned, the drive includes CD creation software and that if you happen to have purchased this in a retail package, it also includes MPEG-2 ：Power DVD； software to view DVD movies, if you do happen to have integrated video. Otherwise, it・s recommended to use the DVD decoding software from your video card (if not integrated in most cases).
Conclusion
At about $120 for an OEM bundle, this combo drive is really worth every penny and it can even save some money from purchasing dedicated drives. However, unless you have a dedicated CD ROM drive, you can・t make instant CD copies. But the software is very simple to make CD-to-CD copies without the dedicated CD ROM drive. But it will cost you about 800MB in your hard drive. I would definitely recommend it for those who only have one 5.25-inch drive bay and wanted DVD and CD Rewriter for their computer.
Minimum System Requirements
Pentium 2 300MHz (400MHz recommended for writing CDs at 12x)
64MB of memory suggested
Windows 95/NT 4.0 or higher
5.25-inch internal drive bay
75MB of hard drive space (800MB recommended for using the drive as your sole optical drive)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 120
Operating System: Windows
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Member: Hugh Jazz
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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