Sony 40X CD-Rom Review

Everyone still needs a CD-ROM. We did, and recently got a Sony 40X. but with prices for most CD-Rom drives hovering close to the $50 mark how does anyone decide what to get? Is there really that much of a difference between a 24X and 40X CD-Rom, and is that difference even significant? We took a cross section of drives and compared them to our new Sony. As always some results were expected, and others were closer then we would have thought between a 24X and a 40X...

Sony CDU4011-10 40X CD-ROM DRIVE

Standard features include: Headphones jack volume Wheel Play/skip button Stop/eject button Drive activity light Cost $62 CDN

Drivers:

I hate CD-Rom drivers. On several occasions I've gotten that Win95 CD-Rom boot disc from an OEM, put it into my computer after a nice cleansing format c:\ and..... nothing. Blank discs. Try loading Win95 with no CD-Rom drivers on hand to load up the CD-Rom. With that said, the last CD-Rom I had was a 24X and it came with drivers.

For our review of the Sony CDU4011-10 we were installing Win2k Server on a brand new 20 Gig'er. In went the CD-Rom drive, and the computer was switched on as I fumbled around looking for a generic floppy full of CD-Rom drivers. With the BIOS already configured the boot sequence began. The four greatest words I have ever have seen popped up on the screen: "Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM." So in went the Win2k disc, and on with installation. There is nothing better then a bootable CD-Rom - nothing!

Is it speedy, or not..

The Sony spins at a higher RPM to give it the 40X ability, and as expected the sound it generates is a bit higher then any of the other comparison CD-Roms. It's also the heaviest of the bunch - to dampen vibration and cavitation no doubt. The CDU4011-10 has all the standard connectors on the backside (IDE, Power, Analog Audio, Digital Audio, and CS - SL - MA jumper.

When comparing CD-ROM drives there isn't really much to compare unless a utility of some sort is used. We used Maxa CDBench Pro to check out just how well the Sony CDU4011-10 compared with a good cross section of other drives.

The differences between the 24X and 40X were slight, except for access time. The Sony scored very high with an Avg. 85ms access time and transfer rate of almost 2mb/s which gave it a final ROMark of 7.5 .

All around this is a great 40X CD-ROM for a reasonable price. Granted you will pay more for the Sony logo (about $5-10), but that's down to personal preferences. It's definitely a good drive to have, very quite when the disc is spinning up, and ejects within 5 seconds, where some drives take a lot longer...