BTC DRW1108IM DVD±R/RW


 





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Review: BTC DRW1108IM Dual format
DVD-Writer
Reviewer:
OC-Freak
Provided by: BTC Europe
Firmware:
B120/B222
Manufactured: March
2004


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BTC was kind enough
to send us their latest DVD-Writer; the BTC DRW1108IM. BTC is growing in the
optical market due to competitive prices and large OEM contracts, so it will be
interesting to see how their latest DVD-Writer performs. Read on to see our test
results and opinions on this writer.


Also thanks to
Memorex for providing some of the media used in this review.


Some BTC history and information:

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We took a quick look
at the company information found at BTC Europe's web pages:


Since its
establishment in 1982, the expert keyboard manufacturer BTC has laid its
foundation on incessant technological innovation, continuous pursuit of
excellent quality, and the sharing of profits with employees, which has enabled
it to become the world's top five CD-ROM and keyboard manufacturer and so to
capture the five elements of success-creativity, technology, production,
international marketing, and globalization.

In recent years BTC has been
engaging in opto-electronics, in hopes to become the leader of opto-electronic
products. In addition to earning numerous Product of Excellence awards from
Taiwan, BTC has been the model of small to medium
enterprise for years.

It is an appointed model manufacturer for visits by
foreign delegations and one of the top three globalization enterprises in
Taiwan
according to the Business Weekly Taiwan. Nowadays, the map of BTC stretches to
Asia, USA and Europe.

All these credits owe their roots to the R&D
ability and powerful production ability of BTC, which has enabled the
realization of the excellent R&D ability of the company. Amidst the rapid
change of the high-tech industry, BTC captures the key to success with its
outstanding company philosophy and stands on the world stage of high
opto-electronic development to seek pride of tomorrow.


Company mission:


Professional Manufacturer for Computer Peripheral, Opto-
electronic & Multi-medium products


Before:
Worldwide top 3
professional keyboard maker.


Now:
Diversify in input
device and opto-electronic areas. Worldwide top 5 professional CD-ROM / DVD-ROM
drives maker.


Tomorrow:
World leading
manufacturer for computer peripherals, opto-electronic device & Multimedia
products.


As we could all see
their history is pretty long and they aim high for the future.


Drive specifications:




These are the
specifications of this drive, found at the BTC webpage:



























































DRW 1108IM '“
DVD+/-RW Drive


Features:






  • 8x DVD+R/ 8x DVD-R Write,
    4x DVD+RW/4x DVD-RW Rewrite

  • 40x CD-R Write, 24x CD-RW
    Rewrite

  • 40x CD-ROM Read, 12X
    DVD-ROM Read

  • Supports easy drag &
    drop function

  • Software for audio/video
    authoring and editing included

  • Supports Buffer Underrun
    Prevention technology



Model
name


DRW
1108IM


Interface


E-IDE/ATAPI ,
MMC compliant


Disc data
capacity


(CD)
74min/650MB, 80min/700MB (DVD) 4.7GB 


Supported
media for writing


DVD+R, DVD-R,
DVD+RW, DVD-RW, CD-R, CD-RW 


Writing
formats


(DVD+/-R,
DVD+/-RW) DVD-ROM, DVD-Video
(CD) CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, CD-Extra,
CD-I, Mixed-Mode CD, Video CD, Photo CD, CD-TEXT, Bootable CD, CD-R,
CD-RW, Multi-Session


Writing
methods


Track at Once,
Disc at Once, Session at Once, Multi-Session, Packet Writing(Variable
& Fixed) , Multi-track Reservation


Writing
speed


(DVD+/-R) 2x,
4x, 6x, 8x
(DVD+/-RW) 1x, 2x, 4x
(CD-R) 16x, 24x, 32x,
40x
(CD-RW) 4x, 10x, 16x, 24x 


Reading
speed


(DVD+/-R) max.
8x,
(DVD+/-RW) max. 6x
(CD-R) max. 40x,
(CD-RW) max.
32x
(CD-ROM) max. 40x, 
(DVD-ROM) max. 12x


Data transfer
rate


Max.
33MB/sec


Access
time


(DVD) 160 ms
(12X)
(CD) 130 ms (40X)


Data
buffer


2MB


Disc
loading


Tray loader,
dust sealed


Dimensions
(WxHxD)


145.8 x 41.8 x
193.3 mm


Weight


1
Kg


Mounting
method


Horizontal


From the
specifications it seems to be a very good drive, and should be able to compete
with most other new DVD-Writers. But it's not always that the specifications
really shows the real world performance, so let us take the drive through
several extensive tests to see.


Test machine:




For this
review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:


Hardware:


        
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8KNXP with Intel
i875P chipset.
        
Processor:
Intel Pentium 4 2,8GHz 800MHz FSB with Hyper Threading support.
        
RAM: 1Gb
PC3500 DDR
        
GFX: ATI
Radeon 9800 pro
        
Sound: SB
Audigy 2
        
Hard
disks: 2 x Hitachi Deskstar 7k250 160Gb S-ATA in RAID 0 on the i875P S-ATA
RAID controller.


System
set-up:


 


The BTC
DRW1108IM was connected as Primary Master and identified itself as DVDRW
IDE1108. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled
for all devices.


Software:


Windows XP
professional is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 1 for windows
XP. We will be using the following software in this review:


        
Ahead InCD v 4.2.4.1
        
Ahead Nero Burning ROM version
6.3.1.10B
        
Ahead Nero CD/DVD Speed v2.94
beta
        
Ahead Nero InfoTool v2.21
        
Slysoft CloneCD v4.3.2.2
        
Exact Audio Copy v0.95 prebeta
5
        
K-Probe v2.1.0


Head on to
the next page and find out what's inside the
box…


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