NU HDW-164 external DVD Burner


Review:
NU
HDW-164
Reviewer:
Jan70
Provided by: NU
Taiwan
Firmware:
15QF &
16QF
Manufactured: N/A

New Universe
Technology Inc., Taiwan, was kind enough to send us their latest external
DVD-writer the NU HDW-164. This drive supports 16x DVD+R/-R writing, 4x
DVD+RW/-RW and 4x DVD+R9 DL writing technology - allowing dual layer discs of
8.5Gb to be written.

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Company
information:

Let us take a look
at some of the company information found at the global New Universe Technology
Inc. site.

Overview

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Nu
Technology Inc. is founded in May of 2003 by Quanta Computer (one of the best
Notebook IT groups worldwide) and Quanta Storage Inc. Located in the center of
the Silicon Valley; we are an optical storage drive manufacturer. Our company is
proud to produce a full range of both internal and external, Half-Height and
Slim optical storage products. Some of our internal and external optical
products include IDE CD/DVD ROM, CD re-writer, CDRW plus DVD combo drive, and
DVD writers.

Products

In order to
meet the fast growing demand of mobile storage devices, Nu Technology has
developed the world's first slim DVD writer, and slim CDRW DVD combo drive. Our
strong R&D department and large production capacity is the reason why we get
ahead of our competitors and produce the world's fastest slim USB CDRW DVD combo
drive. On top of all, Nu Technology also released the world's first 52X combo
drive for both internal IDE and external USB interface.

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News

In
September of 2003, our company unveiled the 8X IDE DVD-RW drive and the world's
slimmest 4X External DVD-RW drive.

Mission

Our mission
is to be the leader and transform the industry with external slim drives that
offer the most advanced technology, along with a user-friendly interface, and
stylish exterior design. Nu Technology is dedicated to offer fast and excellent
service to our customers. We stand behind our products? superior quality and
their unbeatable prices.

R&D
Focus

NU has 161
employees, of whom about 60, or 37%, are in the R&D division. The R&D
team is split into mechanical design, testing, and circuit design groups. Of the
R&D team members, 40, or 67%, are dedicated to firmware development (versus
20'“30 at other Taiwanese ODD producers), and 20, or 33%, to mechanical and
hardware design.

Product Road
Map

NU has been
dedicated to developing slim-type optical storage disk drives. However, it will
also engage in half height DVD-RW/Combo for desktop PCs to leverage its R&D
resources and fully utilize its manufacturing capacity. In addition to HH ODDs,
the company expects to launch portable DVD players in 2003 by providing engines
(loaded with PCB boards) to Chinese distributors. However, we believe that the
contribution from new products other than slim ODDs will remain small for the
next two years. As slim Combo speed migration is likely to top out at 24x, the
company aims to enhance the product features through ultra slim, slot-in, or
even expansion into car applications, a segment now dominated by Japanese
vendors.

If you are
interested in reading more company information, please visit:

Drive specifications:


The official
listed specification of this drive was found on the Global NU Tech.
website:

Dimension

23.3 x 16.3
x 5.5(cm)

Weight

1.49

Introduction

The HDW-164
is a USB 2.0 type DVD+R/RW recordable drive. The drive is able to write
DVD+R/RW discs as well CD-R/RW discs and can perform as a regular DVD-ROM
drive. The HDW-164 has 16X speed DVD+R disc writing, 4X speed DVD+RW disc
writing, 16X speed DVD-ROM disc reading, 40X speed CD-R disc writing, 24X
speed CD-RW disc writing and 40X speed CD-ROM disc reading capabilities.
Furthermore, the HDW-164 supports all writing methods specified in
industry standards and the functions of writing conform to
them.

Features And
Benefits

write speed
up to 16x on DVD+R media
write speed up to 4x on DVD+R DL (Double Layer
)media
rewrite speed up to 4x on DVD+RW media
write speed up to 16x
on DVD-R media
rewrite speed up to 4x on DVD-RW media
read speed up
to 16x on DVD media
write speeds up to 40x on CD-R media
rewrite
speed up to 24x on CD-RW media
read speed up to 40x on CD
media.

Leading Edge
Technology

Portable
& lightweight for multi-function data storage
Easy installation -
just plug and play with USB interface
Seamless Link Buffer Underrun
Technology
Intelligent Writing Speed Adjustment
Comprehensive
software bundle

Minimum
Systems Requirements

Recommended
system requirements:
HDD with 700MB free disk space for
recording
IBM compatible Pentium 4 2.4GHz or faster
USB2.0
interface
128MB RAM or higher recommended
Support Windows 98SE/
Windows ME/ Windows 2000/ Windows XP

Warranty And
Service

Warrants
your DRIVE against any defect in material and workmanship, under normal
use, for a period of one year following its date of purchase. In the event
this product is found to be defective within the warranty period, NU will,
at its option, repair or replace the defective unit.
This warranty is
void if:
The device is operated or stored under abnormal use and
maintenance conditions.
If the unit is repaired, modified or altered,
unless such repair, modification or alteration is expressly authorized in
writing by NU.
If the unit is subject to abuse, neglect, lighting
strike, electrical fault, improper packaging, or accident.
If the unit
is installed improperly.
If the serial number of the unit is defaced
or missing.

What's inside the
box?


On this page
we will take a look at what the drive came shipped with and take a look at the
drive and its technology.


Front


Back


Top


Left side


Right Side

Below you will
see the contents of the retail box:

  • The
    external drive itself
  • AC/DC Power
    adapter
  • Power
    supply cable (USA connector)
  • USB 2.0 Cable
  • Nero Express 6 OEM +
    Drive Manual
  • Quick
    Installation Guide

Now it's time
to take a look at the drive itself:

A standard
black bezel with only one logo - the DVD+R9 DL. headphone connector and volume
knob is missing. The drive uses one small coloured led (green) for read and
write (we prefer a different led colour though for writing).


Top


Underside

On the
underside of the external case we found one sticker and we can read it was made
in China.

On the back of
the drive from left to right: Audio out connector, USB2.0 connector and power
connector. (On and off switch is missing).

We installed
the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero
InfoTool:

 

From the
screenshot of Nero InfoTool above, we miss Mt.Rainier support and a larger
buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware 15QF and was updated to the
latest available verison 16QF.

And another
shot from Nero Burning ROM:

 

We do not
really find anything alarming here, but Mount Rainier and a larger buffer would
have been nice.

But let us continue
this review and see how it really performs.

On the next page we
will take a look at the test machine, the software, the drive features and the
included software…………


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