Rating: 
Summary: loud but sweet
Review: This drive is killer! It was super easy to set-up, and I had absolutely no problems, so I guess Yamaha fixed the problems that people were complaining about earlier. I burned a full 700mb CD in 7 minutes, even though Yamaha claims it can do it in about 5, that remains to be seen, but I'm not gonna complain too much. My only real complaint is that this drive is super loud! Yamaha claims this is normal since the disk is spinning so fast for the 40x read and 16x write capabilities, but it sounds like there is a friggin leaf blower coming from my computer! Otherwise, great...
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible Piece of Noisy Hardware
Review: I knew that the difference in price between this 16x and other's had to be mad up somewhere in something bad. And I found out right when I put my first CD into the thing and heard something that sounded like an prop-airplane taking off. This unit is *LOUD*, loud enough to hear from two rooms away. And the noise comes with vibration too. With the unit running I could actually feel the vibrations on my desk! The speed might be good, but the unit is definitely being returned for a refund--I don't think my computer can take this kind of shaking around, nor can I take this kind of noise. Avoid this unit at all cost.
Rating:
Summary: Avoid this CD Writer at all costs.
Review: Problems:CD Writer cannot detect media Solution: Due to the fact that auto insert notification is set to OFF instead of ON at default (or vice versa) - whatever it is set to upon installation - it needs to be changed. I forgot what the Yamaha defaults it as. Regardless, change it. This will fix adaptec. Reality kicks in here, upon fixing adaptec - the CD Writer gives buffer under runs for every form of CD media, including their own 16X certified media. I tried ample cd's, but to no avail. It turns out this burner is garbage and cannot even burn at 2X I also tried this burner with NERO, however, the same problem occurred. Most of you will have a comparable system to mine, feel free to compare - so you can predict if you will have the same problems. I easily surpassed the minimum requirements. My PC: Windows ME P3 733 MHZ 256 MB Ram 40gb 7200 RPM Maxtor (partitioned) Save your time and money and avoid this one. Think before you make a purchase, "Why is Yamaha the ONLY company with a 16X CD Writer when they do not even specialize in CD Writers to begin with. Companies like HP and Plextor don't even have 14X, these are reputable companies. If they do not have 14X, then Yamaha's 16X must be too good to be true." "Why is Yamaha's 16X within a $50.00 price range of the leading 12X? If it's so great, they would be selling it for $400, instead of in the $200 range"
Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: I have a AMD Thunderbird 1.1 ghz computer with 256 Ram. I can see why they put an 8MB buffer, because i have recieved many buffer under runs. Previous Yahama drives I have tested have worked decently. If you are looking for a great buner and you are like me, and want to avoid buffer under-runs i recommend a plextor which uses sanyo's burn proof technology or even the newer tdk models (12/10/32 or their new 16/10/32) or the new IOMEGA CDRW. All 3 of these drives that write and 12X and above should have the burn proof on it. The TDK and IOMEGA's that have the burn proof on it are OEM's of Plextor Drives, so you are most likely guaranteed good and postive results. HP are great drives, but have failed to enabled burn proofs on their drives. Other drives that have burn proof are CDRW by Richo and Creative. If at all possible go with Plextor, or their OEM drives. You will be one happy customer. Hopefully Yahama with improve their 16X drive, and maybe even decide to add burn proof to their drives, until then get their 8/4/32 drive, it is decent and cheap. NOTE: unless it is specificly mentioned that the cdrw has burn proof technology, then it probably doesn't and buffer under runs may or may not occur.
Rating: 
Summary: AMAZING BURNER
Review: THis is a great burner. Everyone who says it has problems is not to bright. THe first thing in the box is a Bright yellow peice of papper that says "INPORTANT READ BEFORE USING" all you have to do is go on the net and downlada a patch that takes 2 minutes. This burnere truly burns a full CD in less than 5 minutes. And IDE is fine Scuzi is not needed. THIS IS A GREAT BUY
Rating:
Summary: Awesome CDRW
Review: After reading some reviews i began to be a little confused weather i should or not buy this drive, but i decided to give it a try... I have an AMDK6-2 350Mhz with 128MB of RAM and a very slow HDD with 8.4GB. On my system, I can burn CD's at 16X with the buffer always between 98-100%, so, there is no need for "burn proof", but only with Windows ME. I've tryed it with win2000 and it works fine, but i can only burn CD's at 12X while keeping the buffer at 100%, if i try to burn at 16X, SOMETIMES buffer underrun occurs. I don't know why, but i gess that's because win2000 needs a faster HDD. I am very happy with this drive. Congratulations YAMAHA...
Rating:
Summary: Yamaha makes a great CD-RW
Review: Despite what a previous user mentioned, Yamaha makes a great cd-r and cd-rw. The are one of the few manufacturers that have products that can support cd-g (music and graphics). I have this installed on a custom pc I build and it performs great. I also have an older model installed on a Compaq at my office and again no problems. I burn data, mp3s, audio cds, and cd-gs easily.
Rating:
Summary: DO SOME RESEARCH
Review: There is absolutely nothing wrong with the CdRW itself it's the Adaptec software that comes with it. I purchased mines back in October when it first came out. I must admit it is very aggravaiting to buy something that is suppose to be the latest and greatest that does'nt work However in the computer world. Knowledge or lack there of seems to be scarce. After doing some investigating and calling the Yamaha support enough and also reading a few articles on writers. I found out that the majority of people who bought this CDRW had a problem with it detecting the media. Me personally either I got a Bad Medium Bad disk error when I checked in cd Info or the writer just would not detect it at all.. I Found excellent software from www.nero.com on this site you can download a free 30 day trial version and if you decide to keep it which I see no reason not to it is $49 . Nero allows you to add equilizers, fade tracks in and out and edit in many ways that normal cd burner software does not. AFter You get Nero which i only frown on Yamaha for not having this software instead of Adaptec in the box when you buy it it works fine.
Rating:
Summary: Delivers as promised
Review: I was a little hesitant to purchase this drive due to the mixed reviews on it's performance, but I decided to give it a shot. So far I have had absolutely no problems with the drive or it's software. I installed it on a PIII500 with 128meg RAM running Windows ME. Installation was "by the book" and it works perfectly. I have tried transferring data from my hard drive and another CD and it really zips. From what I've read owners seem to either love this drive or hate it. I am impressed with Yamaha's efforts...at least on the day they made mine!
Rating:
Summary: Don't get it! You know better!
Review: Bleeding edge technology == BAD! This drive doesn't hold up, it doesn't work. I have installed the updates, but it's been showing up saying all my media is bad (including the cd-r it came with). So hours later blah blah blah... same old story, it doesn't work. It reads just fine I know it's setup right I setup the software off the drive, it does not write. I have owned a 2x CD-RW drive for nearly 2 years up until I sold it a year ago. 1 year has gone buy and I felt the need to have one again, so I chose this one. Do not get this product! Yamaha does NOT have a good name in the CD-RW industry... instead try plextor or HP. Reliability is extremely important, too bad I have wasted my time, I hope you can save yours.
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