detail information
| Posted by | Dennis |
| Posted on | 28/06/02 18:55 |
|
Review: VisionTek Xtasy 48X Based on: Lite-On LTR-48125W Reviewer: G@M3FR3@K Provided by: VisionTek Firmware: version VS06 Production date: May 2002 |
VisionTek was founded in 1988 by four childhood friends working at a small DRAM brokerage firm based in their Chicago apartment. Their goal was to capitalize on the expanding demand for memory products needed to run the newest software that was becoming available. Nowadays, VisionTek is the largest provider of 3D graphics accelerators and memory in North America. VisionTek entered the retail market in May, 2001, and by the end of 2001 had earned the #1 retail spot for graphics in the U.S.
A few weeks ago we posted a press release on our website about VisionTek expanding their 'Xtasy' product line with new, ultra-fast, optical drives. By partnering with retail giant Best Buy, VisionTek plans to extend the success of its Xtasy brand into product categories that appeal to the PC enthusiast beyond 3D graphics.
VisionTek was kind enough to send us a sample of one of their new writers, the Xtasy 48X. This writer, based on the
Lite-On LTR-48125W, offers ultra fast write speeds of 48x, re-write speeds of 12x and read speeds of 48x. In this
review we'll take a look at the drive's performance and compare it to other drives we've reviewed. Since the VisionTek
Xtasy 48X is exactly the same writer as the Lite-On LTR-48125W, this review is also interesting for people considering to
buy this latest Lite-On model. Read on to see what we have to say about this drive...
Test Machine:
For the tests we'll be using the following configuration:
Hardware:
- Motherboard: ASUS K7V
- Processor: AMD Athlon 700Mhz
- RAM: 256MB (PC133)
- GFX: ASUS V8200 (GeForce 3 Ti200)
- Hard Disk: Maxtor 30GB 7200rpm (UDMA66)
- IDE Controller: PCI UDMA100 Controller
- USB Controller: NEC USB 2.0 Controller
System set-up:
The VisionTek Xtasy 48X was set-up as MASTER on the (onboard) Secondary IDE Channel and, as you can see, identifies itself as "LITE-ON LTR-48125W". DMA (Direct Memory Access) was enabled and Autorun was disabled for every device. All drives (including the VisionTek Xtasy 48X) support UDMA33. The listed Mitsumi and Toshiba drives are running on a separate IDE-controller.
Used Software:
The Windows XP Professional operating system is installed on our test machine. We'll be using the following software to perform the various tests:
- Ahead InCD v3.31.0
- Ahead Nero Burning Rom v5.5.8.2
- Ahead Nero CD Speed v0.85e beta
- Ahead Nero InfoTool v1.01
- Elaborate Bytes CloneCD v4.0.1.6
- Exact Audio Copy v0.9 beta 4
- G&M CDR Identifier v1.63
One note before we start with our VisionTek Xtasy 48X review, we upgraded its firmware to VS06 (it was shipped with VS01) to get the best results out of our tests. You can get Lite-On firmwares from the Lite-On website. Now let's take a look at the package of the VisionTek drive on the next page...
Conclusion
Seems like smartburn isn't that smart. Might want to put that down as a con.
Seems like smartburn isn't that smart. Might want to put that down as a con.
If you had read the negative points you would have noticed we did mention that:
SMART-BURN feature isn't always correct
Personnaly I think the price is a bit high and I think most freakers won't like this
Don't care that I spent $140 on it.... its the best!
add a tag
