CRW-1610A - Asus
The Asus CRW-16010A is a very good-looking drive that comes in a colorful box. You will not miss it if it happens to be sitting on the shelf at your local dealer.
Asus has been dabbling in the optical storage market for some time now. Until last year, most of what they had been doing was centered around CD-ROM drives. Starting last year they have been making an all-out assault on the optical storage market with a variety of optical storage products in all of the latest speeds.
| Speed - CDR / CDRW / READ | 16X/10X/40X |
| Interface | ATAPI/IDE |
| Firmware Version | 1.20 |
| Best Write Mode | RAW-DAO 96 |
| Best Read Mode | RAW+96 |
| Best Audio Read Mode | RAW+96 |
| Buffer-Underrun Technology | Yes |
| Correct EMF-Encoding | Yes |
| Street Price (USD) | Under $75 |
We have been using the Asus CD-ROM drives for a long time now and have found them to be quiet and reliable. The new CDRW drives seem to be cut from the same cloth. The CRW-1610A was the first purely Asus-designed writer to enter the market. It would seem that they have really spent a lot of time looking at how other people have been doing optical storage and have learned a lot from it.
The CRW-1610A features the Asus-designed second generation double dynamic suspension system (DDSSII). This technology is designed to greatly reduce vibration caused by the spindle motor. Vibration can cause a lot of problems with CDRW drives, as we have all seen.
Nero CD Speed Test results for the CRW-1610A.
In our back up testing, the Asus is rated as excellent. The CDR-1610A was able to handle three out of our four test discs, which tied it for the lead. We didn't have any problem reading our test discs in other drives.
The performance of the CRW-1610A has been exceptional, and frankly, it is one of the best drives that we have ever used. It is very reliable, and offers exceptional quality from a manufacturer well known for its quality products and customer support. If you have not considered Asus as a potential optical storage provider, now might be the right time to look at the CRW-1610A, as its performance is exceptional for the money. One word of caution: we have been told that the ability to produce copy-protected back ups isn't something that is shared by all Asus CDRW drives, so you should refer to the compatibility information on the Blindwrite and CloneCD website if you plan to purchase a model other than the CRW-1610A.
