Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!convex!news.duke.edu!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!gatech!paladin.american.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!news.uoregon.edu!netnews.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!sisson From: sisson@u.washington.edu (Michael Sisson) Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom.reviews Subject: Re: CD-ROM drives Date: 28 May 1994 00:48:56 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 34 Message-ID: <2s64do$mr9@news.u.washington.edu> References: <940526.001650.7942@cheshire.oxy.edu> <2s57vi$h7c@zip.eecs.umich.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: stein.u.washington.edu grover@emunix.emich.edu (Grover Thomas) writes: >In article <940526.001650.7942@cheshire.oxy.edu>, >Mutalib Glasgow wrote: >>I am looking into buying a CD-ROM, and i was wondering what experiences >>people have had with particular brands of drives. Im looking at either a >>Mitsumi, a Sony or a Panasonic. Also id like to know which of these >>three perform better. >>Thanks > If you're looking for the least problematic drives, you should also >take a look at anything by Toshiba (of course you pay a premium here). > From my experience, the Mitsumi has the advantage of being cheap, but >also seems to have the most number of compatibility and hardware problems. > The Sony drives are decent, but I've been surprised by the amount of >minor "quirks" and annoyances people have reported with the drives (I have >an older CDU31A which occasionally won't read 74 minute discs). > I don't know enough about the Panasonic drives to comment. Be aware that Toshiba drives use the SCSI controller interface, not the Mitsumi controller interface used by the three brands above. I have a Toshiba double speed CD-ROM drive, controlled from my pas16 sound card, and due to the SCSI chip used on the card, I can't get the full speed of the drive (173 kbps vs. the 330kbps speed of the drive.). On a separate note, try to learn as much as you can about any needed drivers for your drive. The Mediavision SCSI driver I have is really lame. It hogs CPU time whether or not the CD-ROM drive is in use. An IRQ-driven driver allows for less CPU usage when the CD-ROM drive isn't in use. I hope this information is relevant to Mitsumi drives and useful to you. Michael sisson@u.washington.edu