Speedomania: 48x/16x/48x-Burner from LG

48x-Burners - Evolution Or Revolution?

The product life cycles of CD-R/RW drives are getting shorter all the time. The first 40x drives reached the market early this year. Around the middle of the year, the manufacturers introduced their 48x CD-R/RW models, and the first ultra-fast 52x drives are appearing right now.

Users can't help asking whether continually upgrading their drives to a faster model is really worth it. To answer this question, Tom's Hardware has decided to compare the current 48x GCE-8480B speed king with the previous 40x version (GCE-8400B).

The retail version of the GCE-8480B that we tested includes everything that the user needs to get up and running quickly. Screws, IDE and audio cables, and Nero Burning ROM on CD are all provided as part of the retail package, although a CD-R and CD-RW were notably absent.

The retail package includes virtually everything - except the media.