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12x write and 10x re-write CD-RW drives have been on the market about 5 or 6 months and now faster drives are beginning to hit the stores. This is good news for consumers because these new drives force down the price of the older models.

The AOpen CRW1232A is a 12x10x32x drive – the same speed as the Iomega ZipCD that we recently reviewed. One of the major differences between these two drives is that the AOpen drive uses Ricoh’s “JustLink” technology and the ZipCD makes use of Sanyo’s “BURN-Proof” technology. These technologies may have different names, but they share a common goal: to rid the CD-burning process of the revolting buffer-underrun.

AOpen CRW1232 Box Shot & Angled Product Shot

When JustLink and BURN-Proof were newly released, JustLink was considered to be the superior method of thwarting the creation of coasters, but Sanyo has since improved BURN-Proof, leveling the playing field. And now, an explanation of these technologies is in order…

All CD-RW drives have a write buffer – a small chunk of memory that stores data just before it is burned to a CD. This buffer is kept full so that when the system lags behind there will still be data available for the CD-burner to write. If the buffer runs dry, the burning process is forced to stop and yet another coaster is born. And that’s how it used to be… before JustLink (and BURN-Proof) came along. These technologies allow the laser to pause when the flow of data stops and start again once the data begins flowing.

The CRW1232A is an updated version of AOpen’s CRW1232. The key improvement is the introduction of JustLink and as this reduced the buffer requirements, the write buffer was reduced to 2MB. Here are the rest of the CRW1232A’s specs:

Specs

AOpen recommends using Nero for high-density (80-min) discs as well as for burning CD-Text CDs.

Although it isn’t in these specifications, this drive is about 1cm (1/4”) shorter the Iomega ZipCD 12x10x32. This is probably due partly to technological improvements and partly to better over-all design. Whatever the reason, the room will be much appreciated by end-users – especially those with small cases.