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Unfortunately, not many drive manufacturers have supported LightScribe or have either taken their time to eventually jump into this
technology in order to compete well with a majority of DVD Writers on the
market. Fortunately though, there is one company that was not only one
the first to release a LightScribe drive, but has taken the initiative to
release a second drive supporting this highly useful, and now cost-effective
feature. BenQ is a company who happens to have some of the highest
performing drives on the market. Add a feature like LightScribe to one
of their excellent drives, and you'll have the best of both worlds.
Today I have the pleasure of looking at their latest drive, the DW1655.
Sporting the latest generation features, along with LightScribe
capabilities, it may very well be one of the best options on the market.
Read on and find out...
Packaging & Contents
**click to enlarge**
Our
sample from BenQ was an OEM model that came in a white box, but did include
the needed software CD.
The Drive
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
As
with any OEM drive, the faceplate is fairly standard and does not have the
BenQ logo. Our sample features a black bezel, but I'm unsure as to
whether they will release a retail model with the highly appealing bezel
found on their DW1625. Now, they apparently ditched the original bezel
design of the DW1655. When they first listed this model on their
global website, the bezel was quite unique and had what appeared to be a
green stripe going across. Not sure it was lighted, but it was
certainly a nice looking drive.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
While the manufactured date was October 2005, this drive has just been
released to the US market. Sample had an additional hand-written label
containing the firmware information.
Specifications
This is not yet an official US release so the following specs where taken
from their Europe portal site.
Performance
Writing Speed
16X +R
16X -R
8X +RW
6X -RW
8X +R DL
4X -R DL
48X CD-R
32X CDRW
48X CDROM
16X DVDROM
Reading speed
Max. DVD Reading speed 16x
Max. CD reading speed 48x
Seek time 120ms (DVD) / 120ms (CD)
Weight 0.82 kg
Dimensions (LxWxH) 146 x 178 x 42 mm
Buffer Size 2MB
Interface ATA / ATAPI
Writing Mode DVD+R/+RW]
DVD Data and Video
[CD-R/-RW]
Track-at-Once, Disc-at-Once, Multisession, Packet Writing (fixed & variable
packet), CD Digital Audio, Direct-Over-Write on CD-RW, Simulation Writing
Disc Formats DVD
Write :DVD+R DL 8.5GB, DVD-R DL 8.5GB, DVD+R 4.7GB , DVD+RW 4.7GB , DVD-R
4.7GB ,DVD-RW 4.7GB (Close session)
Read: DVD-5, DVD-9, DVD-10, DVD-18, DVD+R/-R/+RW/-RW
CD
CD-DA, CD-ROM XA (m1, m2f1/m2f2), CD-R, CD-RW, Bootable CD, Photo CD (single
& multi-session), Video CD, Super Video CD, CD-Extra, Mixed-mode CD,
CD-Text, CD-Graphics
Lightscribe
CD-R, DVD+R, DVD-R
OS Compatibility Windows XP / 2000 / ME / 98SE
Power Requirement DC 5V +/- 5%, ripple 160mVpp
DC12V+/- 10%, ripple 180mVpp
Environment Conditions Operating temperature: 5°C~50°C (41°F~122°F)
Operating humidity: 8%~80% RH
Non-operating temperature: -40°C~60°C (-40°F~140°F)
Non-operating humidity: 5%~95% RH
Reliability characteristics MTBF: 125.000 POH (20%)
Non-recoverable read error < 1 block in 1012 bits (CD and DVD)
System Requirement IBM PC compatible Pentium III 550MHz CPU or above
128MB DRAM, 100MB free HDD space for CD/DVD recording related software
installation. 1GB free HDD space for CD Image recording
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