Head to Head: 12X, 8X CD-ROM Drives

Head to Head: 8X CD-ROM Drives

In Brief: Speedy CDs

Standalone Reviews

Diamond 12X Multimedia Kit Diamond's 12X Multimedia Kit installs like a dream. Its $349 price tag buys a Mitsumi 12X CD-ROM drive, a Diamond 16-bit wavetable sound card, two Labtec LCS10122 stereo speakers, a modest software bundle--and a carefully built package of documentation and instructions that make setup impressively effortless. More ...

EXP CD Traveler 620 If you're into portable computing, you could find this drive to be a real lifesaver. CD Traveler 620 seems even more reliable than past EXP models, but unfortunately it's not as fast as some other portable CD-ROM drives on the market. More ...

Olympus CD-R2x4 Recordable Drive While there's nothing wrong with the Olympus CD-R2x4, it's also not particularly exceptional. This CD-recordable unit reads at 4X speed, writes at 2X and supports all popular formats, including data, audio, mixed mode, CD-I, Photo CD and Video CD. More ...

Plasmon Afterburner CDR4240e Novice CD-ROM creators and would-be CD producers have a new creative outlet. The Afterburner CDR4240e is a Plug-and-Play 2X write/4X play CD-Recordable drive with software that lets you make your own CDs. The Afterburner's easy setup and use makes it a good choice, especially for the newcomer to recordable CD. More ...

Toray Phasewriter Dual You'll get double the functionality for your money with the Toray Phasewriter Dual, a 650MB optical media drive and a 6X CD-ROM drive packed into a 5.25-inch internal package. This unit costs about the same as many lower-capacity rewritable drives, but its dual personality provides far more functionality. More ...