LG CED-8042B

Brenner-properties:

Burning CDs

For a closer look at the burningspeed we copied a CD and wrote the same CD, after copying it to the HDD, on a CD-R and a CD-RW ruffian. Further we copied an Audio-CD. The single times for each procedure and the resulting bruning speeds out of it are presented in the following table. The used burning software was WinOnCD, which was used in all tests before too.

The burning speed does not reach at all the predicted 4-fold speed. With 3,7-fold it lies about 7,5% thereunder. In the Creation of Audio-CDs the speed slows down to 3,3-fold speed, which is a tolerance of 17,5% to the predicted 4-fold speed.
A Plus for this drive is the independence of ruffians. We tested different ruffian-types. All burning trials had no problems. 
The user should mind the added paper, which explains important things to do before burning the first CD. So you have to deactivate the Power Management in BIOS and in Windows. If you have a VIA-Chipset, you have to deactivate the DMA-Modus.

HDD Simulation

After the introduction of the UDF-format it is possible to use a ruffian as HDD. Therefore the ruffian must be formatted. There are several usable programs. For a better comparison we always use the PacketCD software. The formatting process of a 650 MB CD-RW ruffian lasted 32:56 min. After this we copied some data packages to the drive. First a program directory with a lot of files of different size (overall 92,2 MB) and then a 59,3 MB big file. The HDD was operated with UDMA 33.

You can see, that the data is not written with the maximum speed (that is about 550 KB/s, see burning test), but reaches a transfer rate of 470 KB/s. That is 3,13-fold burning speed.

If you have once formatted a ruffian, for data deleting suffices a fast format, that means only the TOC is deleted. Therefore the drive needs 55 seconds.

Equipment & Accessories

The drive has all operating elements. A "Play/Skip"-Button is not resigned, so you can manually play  Audio-CDs with the drive. There is all comfort anyway.
There is no lack of accessories, too. Beside IDE- and audiocables are screws and ruffians(CD-R & CD-RW) for the first burningattempts added. Added burning software is Easy CD CReator 3.5b and DirectCD 2.5c.

There are no remaining wishes concerning equipment and accessories. LG has thought of everything.

User manual

LG delivers an user manual to the drive and a manual to the software "Easy CD Creator" and "DirectCD".
The manual to the drive is very detailed and helpful. It explains on the one hand side the functionality of the operation elements and on the other hand side an detailed mount instruction (with driver installation) for the drive. The instruction is very detailed and pictured with graphics. Build-in and connection of the drive should be no problem with this really good instruction, not for the trained user or the rookie. A bonus at the end is a 'checklist', that helps to fing errors. If this list does not help, you can call the service.
The manual to the software helps you at your first steps with the burner. Installation and software-using are possible without any knowledge. The manual shows you step by step, how to burn your CD or how to use a CD-R(W) as a HDD. Everybody should be abel to use the burner.
With both manuals you have no problem to use the drive. Nearly every using-possibility is explained.

Summary

The CED-8042B is in the areas of CD-ROM performance, equipment, accessories and manual really top. Only the burning speed is not so good, but a least-burner should not remark this. So if you don't want to start a CD production, this drive is top for you. Because of the great manual, the drive is recomended for everybody, who buys the first burner.