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Features
What has many interested in these drives is the fact that they are indeed
full-featured. Everything you can ask for in a DVD Writer is offered.
Let's have a closer look at its features...
We start with the new interface. SATA
optical drives have just recently been introduced to the market.
However, I'll be blunt and come out and say that there really aren't any
major advantages over an IDE drive other than the cable size. To most
though, like case modders, that's enough to satisfy as it will eliminate
unnecessary cable clutter in your case. Now, this is an SATA1 drive.
Unlike SATA2, in most cases, SATA1 can indeed provide lower CPU Usage over
IDE. I've tested this many times in the past and can confirm this,
despite of what you may have read stating otherwise. However, IDE
optical drives are more than capable
of running at their maximum speed for each supported media. SATA is just a convenience and not to be mistaken as a feature that will
indeed improve performance...at least significantly. There's a lot of confusion on this and I
wanted to come out and make that clear early in this article. However,
keep in mind that overall performance will greatly depend on the PC
components you choose to pair with it. While there are many factors
involved, the bottom line is that when it comes to optical drives only,
there is no major advantages in terms of performance.
The SH-S183L supports both 48x read/write speeds
on a number of CD media. Note though that the drive will not read recordable
or rewritable media at this speed. 40x is the maximum read rate on these
discs.
 This
drive is capable of writing to quality 16x DVD+-R media at slightly higher
18x speeds. Does it actually affect performance? Yes, but you'll
be quite surprised when you see the results on this particular drive.
 8x
writing to both DVD+R DL media is supported. However, the drive can
write to the -R format at a maximum of 6x.
Samsung drives have full support for DVD-RAM
media. They are also capable of writing to them at their highest speed
of 12x. Sadly though, most who purchase drives that support this
feature here in the US will not be able to obtain such media. It
simply isn't available nor will it be. I personally find this
extremely frustrating. Maxell is the only media manufacturer with such
discs and they are currently only sold in Japan with no plans for a US or
Europe release. Those new to optical drives will want to keep that in
mind when purchasing a drive with this feature.
The model numbers on these drives are highly
misleading to many, including myself. While the drives they manufacturer with an L in
the model number do support LightScribe, that's not always the case.
For example, the previous model, the SH-S182M, was the model in the 182
series that did support this feature. As I do with every review, I
will not only test how well it handles this media, but show you the best
software to use with it.
Samsung drives also feature some of their own technology built-in as well.
Let's have a brief look at them...
Speed Adjustment Technology
Intelligent detection of media type. Error-free reading of all media types,
increases life of drive.
Double OPC Technology
Provides reliable, zero-error recording.
Tilt Actuator Compensation Technology
Improves recording capability on deformed media.
Magic Speed
Enables flexibility of drive operation, low noise mode, high-speed mode.
Automatic Ball Balancing System
Vibration control for unbalanced discs.
Installation
I decided to make things a bit more
interesting and therefore, this drive was tested with the retail version of
Microsoft Vista 32-bit. Perhaps this will at least give many the
option to compare performance over an XP system. As with any optical
drive, install is a breeze and there is no action required on your part to
make the OS recognize and install the device.
The very latest version of Nero7 was used,
which does fully support Microsoft Vista. Using Nero's InfoTool, we
see that the software does properly identify all supported features.
The drive was tested with firmware revision SB01, which is the first and
only available for this particular model at time of review.
Considering it is a LightScribe drive, you'll
want to install the LightScribe API in order to take advantage of this
feature. I get many emails from users who can't burn labels with these
drives and is why I decided to add this to the install portion of the
article. My recommendation is that you disregard the included install
disc and head on over to the official
LightScribe Website for the latest
drivers. They are constantly updating these to support a wide range of
drives. Also note that the latest drivers from them do officially
support Windows Vista.
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