Preview:
Optiarc AD-7173A
Reviewed by: Jan70
Provided by: CDFreaks
Firmware:
1-01
Manufactured: August
2006
We at CDFreaks would
like to present a preview of one of the latest DVD-ReWriter from Sony NEC
Optiarc Inc. 'โ the Optiarc AD-7173A. The Optiarc AD-7173A supports 18x
DVD±R, 8x/6x DVD+RW/DVD-RW, 12x DVD-RAM and 8x
DVD+R DL/DVD-R DL writing technology, allowing
Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written. This drive also supports the
LabelFlash™/DiscT@2™ feature.
Company
Information:
At the time
being the Sony NEC
Optiarc Inc. website is only available in Japanese:
Sony NEC Optiarc Inc is a
joint venture of Sony (55%) and NEC (45%) - established on the 3rd of
April 2006. Their headquarters is located in Tokyo, Japan with approximately 350
employees.
The company is into
development, engineering, production, marketing and sales of optical disc drive
products.
The name Optiarc comes
from Optical (Opti-) and archive (-arc).
Drive specifications:
General
Width | 14.8 |
Depth | 19 |
Height | 4.2 |
Weight | 0.7 |
Device | DVD+/-RW (+/-R DL) |
Enclosure | Internal |
Interface | IDE |
Expansion
/ Connectivity
Interfaces | 1 x ATA-33 - 40 PIN |
Compatible | 1 x front |
Optical
Storage
Type | DVD+/-RW (+/-R DL) |
Access | 160 ms (DVD), 140 |
Features | Emergency disc |
Compliant | CD-Bridge, Video |
Read | 48x (CD) / 16x |
Write | DVD+/-R (SL) 18x |
CD / DVD Rewrite | CD-ROM |
Buffer | 2 |
Media Load | Tray |
Supported CD | CD Text, CD Extra, |
Supported Recording | Multisession, |
Supported Media | CD-ROM, CD-R, |
What's inside the
box?
Since the
drive is a bulk drive, there is neither a retail box nor any software, cables or
fixing screws.
Now it's time to take a look at
the drive itself.
The bezel is NEC's usual plain but
not unattractive style. The front sports a single (green) LED for read/write, an
emergency eject hole and the eject/close button. The logos located on the bezel
include: the LabelFlash™ logo, a DVD Alliance DVD+R DL
logo, a DVD-R DL multi recorder logo, and a CD-RW Ultra Speed
logo.
Top
On the top of the drive we found
one sticker, and we can read it was manufactured in Malaysia, during August
2006.
Side
Bottom
On the back of the drive there are
from the left: Digital Audio connector; analogue audio connector; pins and
jumper to set the drive to cable select, slave or master; IDE connector, power
connector.
Now, let us install the drive and
check out the features on the next page…