If you are researching a new CD-RW Drive or CD Writer, we hope that our I/OMagic Magic Writer 16X10X40X DR-CDRW1640 review, rating & buyers guide will help you.Not everyone needs a super-fast CD-RW drive. While the older first- and second-generation drives burned at 4X or so and took between 30 and 50 minutes to complete a 650MB disc, a 16X drive, such as the I/OMagic Magic Writer 16x10x40, can complete a disc in well under 10 minutes. Unless you need to generate dozens of CD-Rs at a time, that is fast enough for most users. In addition, a 16X burner such as this one can use less expensive blank media. The faster 20X and 24X CD-RW drives require CD-Rs rated for burning at those higher speeds, and these discs can cost as much as 20 or 25 cents per disc more than a blank 16X CD-R.

The Magic Writer can write CD-RWs at a very fast 10X speed. This fast rewrite speed is great to have when you are using CD-RWs for system backup. The 40X read speed on CD-ROMs is about as fast as you can get without going to esoteric read techniques, such as multiple lasers.

Because the Magic Writer is an IDE device, it is not useable on Macintosh computers. The box contains the drive, an IDE cable, and even a piece of CD-RW media. Also included is an audio cable, as well as a copy of Nero BURNING ROM 5.5.

Installing the drive is easy, especially if you are replacing an existing CD-ROM or CD-R/RW drive. In this case, simply unplug the old drive, remove the mounting screws, slide the old drive out, and insert the Magic Writer in its place. Connect up the data cable, audio cable, and power cable, and you are all set to install the software. The drive jumper is already set to the “Master” position. If you are adding the drive as a second optical drive, you’ll have to play with the drive jumpers. One drive needs to be set to “Master,” while the other drive must be set to “Slave.” Generally, the fastest drive, which will usually be the Magic Writer, should be set as the “Master” drive.

One area in which the Magic Writer falls a bit behind some of the faster drives we’ve tested is that it lacks buffer under-run technology. On the plus side, the Magic Writer does have a very large 4MB buffer on the drive. We did not experience any buffer problems in our testing.

Pro: Good price, includes Nero BURNING ROM 5.5

Con: Not as fast as 20X and 24X drives, does not incorporate buffer under-run technology.