Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/240



As Newton made clear in his studies of motion, all things in the universe seem to be resistant to change. As we all grow used to doing things a particular way, any attempt to change our methods of thought, production, or creativity bring about a great deal of resistance.  replacement.Case in point would be the seemingly life-long strife the storage industry has had in the journey for a true replacement for the good ol' (albeit outdated) 1.44MB floppy drive.

Companies like Iomega have tossed their solutions at the market, however a true replacement for the floppy drive can't seem to be brought into acceptation by the market.  The primary reason being that the cost of a single floppy disk is next to nothing, it is at the point where you have no problem lending a friend a floppy disk and not worrying about getting the disk back anytime soon, if at all. On the other hand, very few of us would feel comfortable giving a $15 Zip disk or a $10 LS-120 disk to even the most trustworthy of friends without prior knowledge of when we'd get the disk returned. The reality of the situation is that while virtually everyone can give out floppy disks, there is truly no other medium capable of equaling the floppy disk in terms of cost, and widespread usage. This is a bit of a paradox since the costs of such devices (and media) as the Iomega Zip drive won't drop until the installed user base of the devices increases, a spiraling motion that holds no end, and indicates that there will never be a widely accepted floppy replacement.

Purchasing Information

Yamaha CRW4416S

The Good The Bad

The Yamaha CRW4416S

www.yamaha.com
$349.97 Retail as Tested

+

Very low CPU utilization; low-cost for its class, good bundle

-

Expensive
+ High quality construction, long lasting drive - SCSI installation can be slightly confusing for beginners
+ Arguably one of the best drives (if not the best, on the market) - Somewhat weak documentation

Second to floppy drives, the most frequently used form of removable storage happens to be the CD-ROM drive. The beauty of CD-ROM drives is that their discs are both plentiful, and cost efficient as a single disc can be purchased for, often times, less than $1.50 (USD). That would make CD the ideal floppy replacement, an idea which was experimented with early on as the release of recordable CD drives (CDR) first hit the market. Unfortunately, their inability to be written to more than once and their relatively expensive introductory cost kept them out of the hands of even the most storage hungry users. Luckily, with the introduction of the re-writable CD, and the mainstream inclusion of CDR/RW (Recordable/Re-Writeable) drives into the removable storage market, the CD has quickly become one of the most popular means of transporting and storing data. Since almost every computer user has a CD-ROM drive, you can almost be 100% sure that your recorded CD's will be as welcome as a Visa card, even overseas.

Now that you've decided to purchase a CDR/RW drive you might as well go for the, arguably, best on the market, and according to the hundreds of satisfied users that contacted AnandTech, Yamaha fits that description quite well with their latest SCSI writer, the CRW4416S.



Specifications

Yamaha CRW4416S Specifications

Software Compatibility Windows 95/98/NT 4.x; Macintosh System 7 or higher (MAC software not included)
Included Software (PC) Easy-CD Creator, DirectCD, Adobe Photo Deluxe BE, Adobe Page Mill 3.0
Type: Internal
Read/Write/Re-Write Speed Read 16x/ Write 4x/ Re-Write 4x
Interface SCSI-2
Buffer Size 2MB
Capacity 1.2m/sec: 666MB, 1.4m/sec: 540MB
Access Speed 160ms
Package includes Mounting hardware, audio cable, quick start guide, blank CD-R and CD-RW discs, SCSI ribbon connector cable, software
Recording Modes Session at once, packet writing, disc-at once, track-at-once, multisession
Formats Supported CD-ROM, CD-ROMXA (both PhotoCD and Video CD), CD-I, CD-Digital, Audio, CD-Extra and Video CD (requires a sound card and sufficient available hard drive space).

Looking at the Specs

What does all those names and numbers mean? For starters, the CRW4416S is available in both an internal and an external flavor (4416SXZ), the drive itself is the same in both versions, however the model tested by AnandTech was the internal 4416S drive.

The drive is specified as a 4/4/16 drive, meaning it can write or "burn" CD-R (write-once) discs at 4 times the normal speed (4X), as well as burn CD-RW (re-writable) at 4X, and as a reader it can read discs at 16X. In terms of the length of time it would take to burn a full disc, regardless of whether or not the disc is populated with data or audio, the following table represents the amount of time it takes to burn a disc at the available speeds:

Disc Creation Times

Disc Size Record Speed (x Normal) Record Time (Minutes)
650MB - 74 mins (audio) 1X 74
650MB - 74 mins (audio) 2X 37
650MB - 74 mins (audio) 4X 18.5
650MB - 74 mins (audio) 6X 12.34
650MB - 74 mins (audio) 8X < 10

As you can see, if you're going to be burning a full 74 minute audio CD, or a full 650MB data CD, the time to record on a 4X burner such as the Yamaha is approximately 18.5 minutes, a good balance between the annoyingly slow 2X burn time and the extremely fast, and expensive, 8X burn time. Why would you want to go for a 4X burner instead of a faster 6X or 8X drive? The speed at which you burn a disc doesn't depend entirely upon the drive itself, but also the media being used, as many cheaper discs won't allow for reliable copies to be made at speeds greater than 2X or 4X, with 6X or 8X writing being out of the question. Just recently have blank CD-R discs become available in 6X rated versions, with the majority of them concentrated at the 4X burner market, making 8X drives the alternative for those with much (much) deeper pockets as both 8X certified media and 8X burners are quite expensive.

The 4416S is the Internal SCSI version of Yamaha's 4/4/16 burner line, the interface is critical in the performance of the drive itself. While the time burning a full disc won't vary from an EIDE to a SCSI drive, the amount of processing power utilized by a SCSI drive is much lower than that of an EIDE drive, making the ability to multitask while burning a CD with a SCSI drive much more feasible in comparison to an EIDE drive. Since the CPU utilization of the drive itself is offloaded onto your SCSI controller rather than your on-board EIDE controller, you can perform a number of other tasks while burning a CD, such as playing a game of Quake 2 or even something as simple as surfing the net, a task that isn't even possible when burning on an EIDE drive.

Also featured on the 4416S is a 2MB buffer that aids in the maintenance of a consistent 4X burn throughout the entire writing process. As described in AnandTech's review of the EIDE HiVal 2x24x2 CDR/W drive, the function of a larger buffer is critical to stable operation:

In order to help ensure streaming uninterrupted data, CD-RWs make use of "on-drive" memory as a buffer. The system hard drive (or any other input source) sends the information to the CD-RWs buffer. In turn, the CD-RW then reads the data from the buffer (since the buffer is RAM, it is very very fast) and burns the data into the CD. The size of the buffer is very important to help maintain consistency and allow the user to run other programs while burning a CD.

Why is the size so important? Well, let's say you want to burn a CD and play Quake2 at the same time (not recommended) While Quake2 is loading, the CD-RW software will be accessing the HD for data to burn. If the drive is too slow to the supply the CD-RW drive (actually the buffer) with data fast enough before the data in the buffer drains out, there will be a Buffer Underrun error and recording will be stopped. (Since the laser head cant move backwards to go fix gaps) For this reason, a large buffer is very helpful, since it takes longer to "drain out".

The 4416S features two particular recording modes which are quite critical to the creation of audio CD's in their entirety, these two recording modes are disc-at-once and track-at-once.   Disc-at-once allows the user to burn an audio CD without having the burner shut off the laser between tracks as to avoid the normally inserted 2 second delay between tracks, a delay which cuts 2 seconds off the end of every track.  Track-at-once provides the same feature, except on a track by track basis.



Installation & Bundle

If you're going to be installing the 4416S on your own it is definitely recommended that you be at least somewhat familiar with the setup and configuration (including termination) of SCSI devices. The somewhat complex installation process is a downside to the low CPU utilization of the SCSI drive, however if you're familiar with the setup of a SCSI device, and the configuration of the (if any) SCSI devices in your system prior to the installation, you should be home free with the Yamaha.

The installation manual included with the drive AnandTech received covered the basics, including the manipulation of the standard 3 jumpers which control the selectable SCSI ID. The only other jumpers present on the rear of the drive are those that control parity and termination of the drive. In addition to the 50-pin SCSI-2 connector on the 4416S, the standard analog audio output is left alone without a digital counterpart, a definite downside to those users that are interested in using the Yamaha drive as the only CD-ROM drive in their system.

Yamaha chose to bundle the standard set of software packages with the Windows 9x, NT, and Macintosh compatible drive, basically consisting of the 9x/NT versions of Adaptec Easy-CD Creator, DirectCD, Adobe Photo Deluxe BE, and Adobe Page Mill 3.0. While the latter two titles are primarily "filler" titles and serve no relative purpose to the operation of the drive, the Adaptec Easy-CD Creator and DirectCD software allow for the easy production and reproduction of CDs at the click of a mouse. When going with any burner, if it doesn't come packaged with Easy-CD Creator, you're better off skipping it. Unfortunately, Yamaha failed to include the more expensive Easy-CD Creator Deluxe version which includes a session selector that allows you to switch/select CDR sessions in order to continue to fill up a partially filled CDR disc even after it has been written to until the disc itself is full.

As briefly mentioned before, the drive itself is compatible with Windows 9x/NT and Macintosh systems, meaning the cross-platform support for the incredibly popular drive is definitely present, obtaining updated drivers and firmware for the drive wasn't a problem at all as AnandTech paid a quick visit to Yahoo's fairly easy-to-navigate website.

Operation

The normal operation and usage of the Yamaha drive was quite impressive, a total of 10 sample burn tests were run on the drive (4 audio and 4 multi session data) and not a single one failed. During each of the burn tests, AnandTech managed to run a minimum of one more application in the background at full speed without jeopardizing the quality of the disc being produced at the time. This was completed on a Pentium II 333 system outfitted with 64MB of SDRAM running on an AOpen AX6BC motherboard using an Adaptec 2940UW PCI SCSI controller card for the drive.



One word of caution when installing the Yamaha drive is that the 4416S is specified for operation in environments not exceeding temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius, especially when in the process of creating a disc. Most CDR/RW drives have a tendency to grow quite hot during the disc creation process, making the reliability of the creation process somewhat dependent on the ambient case temperature where the drive is located, so be sure to install the drive as far away as possible to any cooling obstructions and make sure it is positioned in such a manner that it can be properly cooled. The drive itself does feature a somewhat productive fan, measuring a little over 0.75" diagonally, however that little fan can't do it all for your Yamaha investment. If you're looking to keep it healthy, then make sure that you install it in a well ventilated case that doesn't usually operate in 40+ degree environments.

The burning process of most discs, while running in 4X mode, took an average of 18 minutes and 36 seconds to burn a complete disc, either composed of 650MB of data or 74 minutes of CD-quality audio. In comparison to most other competing 4X SCSI products (especially those that can be bought in retail computer sales chain stores), you'll find that the Yamaha is one of very few to actually based on its own manufactured design. While the drive mechanism used in the 4416S was designed by Yamaha, many competing retail products use internal mechanics made by companies such as Sony, Ricoh, or even Yamaha themselves, so double check to make sure you're not going to be paying more for essentially the same drive.

Conclusion

If you've already set your sights on a SCSI CDR/RW, Yamaha has an attractive offer with a model that can definitely rise above the competition to become one of the world's most well known CDR/RW drives. The price of the 4416S is on-par with other such drives in its class, suffering from fairly weak documentation, and an obvious gear towards more experienced users.

Although you'll find that EIDE drives are consistently cheaper, for those that are looking to get some real burning done, SCSI is pretty much the only way to go in terms of performance and reliability. Once you hop on the SCSI bandwagon, with the Yamaha CRW4416S as your ticket, you'll never want to get off.