CD Freaks previews the Optiarc AD-7173A 18x DVD±R burner

Today, we are pleased to announce a preview of the latest drive from Sony NEC Optiarc. Long time staff member, JanS has obtained one of these writers from a local shop and has proceeded to run some preliminary tests on it for us.  

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This CD/DVD burner, is really cutting edge in terms of performance specifications. The Optiarc AD-7173A supports writing to DVD±R media at a blistering 18x and can also write DVD-RAM discs at an incredible 12x speed, giving unverified burns of around 6 and a half minutes for the latter. In addition, this new drive features 8x/6x DVD+RW/DVD-RW and 8x DVD+R DL/DVD-R DL writing. To top it off, the AD-7173A features the very interesting, LabelFlash/DiscT@2 feature, for direct disc labeling of recordable media.

'Optiarc being a newcomer on the block, shows us the joint venture between Sony and NEC, giving us a drive from two companies with very long experiences in the ODD industry."

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So, we have some very impressive specs, but can the Optiarc drive stand up to our real world testing? Can this drive really write a DVD at 18x or a DVD-RAM at 12x? If so, with what quality and with what medias? Jan has provided us with some preliminary findings, by using a pretty nice variety of media brands, to help us find out!

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If you would like to read what he has discovered, then please follow this link to the review page. Afterward, feel free to comment here or better yet, in our Club CD Freaks Forums, where Jan has set up a dedicated thread for discussing this new drive.

Source: CD Freaks

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