Yamaha CRW2100E
Yamaha's box looks the most professional and comes with a CD containing Adaptec's Easy CD Creator 4, DirectCD and Take Two, a useful system backup tool. There are also two brochures inside which explain the software in detail. As always, you will also get each one CD-R and CD-RW disc. Keep in mind that Yamaha's own CD-R media is specified for 16-speed writing, of course.
An audio and an IDE cable are also inside the package.
As you will see in the test result section, the Yamaha drive scored high. However, there is one noticeable drawback - the drive is noisy. Although the access noise is very gentle, the vibrations at 32x speed are enough to make the entire computer case vibrate as well (CD reading only). I'm not sure if maybe bearings were damaged when the drive was shipped; but even if they were, it probably would not have been enough to cause such intense vibrations. Conclusion: Do not use this drive for standard read purposes if you want a quiet computer.
