Memorex DVD Recorder 100 DVD+RW/DVD+R/CD-R/RW Recorder
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Most Helpful First | Newest First (4 out of 5)Memorex Burner Review
Bored of swapping disk trays all the time? Keep accidentaly popping your CD-Rs in your DVD-ROM drive? Fed up of wasting all these 5.5" slots in your towercase? Then the Memorex Recorder 100 is the thing for you. Combining a DVD-RW with a CD-RW (of course it can read and write DVDs and CDs as well) This beast of a drive is designed to keep everything simple and compact.
Out of the box, installation may be a bit tricky as you'll need to either A) Open up a new 5.5" slot or B) Remove an old accessory from a 5.5" slot. Then you've got to plug in and wire up all the necessary connections. Of course there are instructions that come with the kit (very detailed ones too) but It's still not as user-friendly as could be. Then there's a CD to install the drivers (but how are you gonna install the drivers if you don't have a CD-drive yet?) and you're away.
Once set up functionality is everything you would accept from all of the different features. The drive does exactly what its promoted do be, It's unlikely to hassle you (although you'll need a hefty amount of RAM to get this baby running smoothly, or to multitask on your PC). However as with all equipment that tries to be two things or more at once, it often ends up being only average at everything and not excelling at all. So nowadays when CD-RW specific drives can write a CD at a whopping 24x (for example it writes a song onto a CD 24x faster than it takes to play it at 1x) this Memorex offering only manages 12x. Now while that's still very acceptable nowadays (it was top-range about a year ago) it still feels (as with the other features the drive offers) that instead of being an excellent machine that was great in all areas, its just not bad in all of them. In fact it almost seems as if the Memorex was only made on the gimmick of being a 6-in-1 piece of equipment.
Although it may lack the technical superiority, for those looking for ease of use and convenience the drive's a knockout. It frees up those precious 5.5" slots and the software that comes with the drive is very easy to use, only don't work it too hard (multiple drag n drop files) as it has a tendency to lock up under pressure. Which gives this whole package an intermediate-user feel, as if it's only suitable for people not concerned with speed or prowess or are looking for the convenience. And for those kind of people the Memorex Recorder 100 excels. If you're not fussed about high-end performance and are eager to start writing your own media (only not copying, remember, you've only got one drive) then this wil be the ideal tool for you.