In House Review - MSI MS-8348A DragonWriter 48/16/48 CD-RW

[Ian]

While MSI is better known for their motherboards and video cards, they have started to show the optical storage industry what they can do. The MS-8348A DragonWriter is their latest addition to their line of CD-RW drives. The MS-8348A reads and writes at 48x and is the first drive from MSI to feature 16x rewriting speeds. Of course, MSI's new drive isn't just about speed. This budget priced drive also has features like Oak Technology's ExacLink buffer underrun protection. In this review we take a look at some of the features found on the MS-8348A and then put it up against some of the 48x drives from the competition. How does MSI's new writer stack up? Does the new "DragonWriter" live up to the MSI name? You'll have to check out the review to find out.

MSI MS-8348A DragonWriter 48/16/48 CD-RW

This review has been in the works for awhile. We had a lot of problems with writing quality early on and instead of thrashing MSI's new writer, we gave them a chance to fix the problems. If you have any comments or questions about the drive or the review, please post them in the forum by using the link below.

[Ian]

I should also add that I cannot send anyone the 150D firmware. MSI sent me a drive that was already flashed with it. I will try my best to get it from MSI for those that already own this drive.

[minchin]

Ian,
If this drive is anything like the Optorite....
You are probably tired of hearing me about this drive on VCDs, but I just found something that might be of interest. You remember me saying that a lot of drive slows down a lot when reading VCDs. Optorite seem to be the exception (probably because it doesn't care about errors very much like you said in doing scratch disc test). I was curious so I rip a pressed VCD twice and compare their MD5 checksum.... yes, they are different each time. Tried it with CDR VCD, same thing. The VCD burnt from the image looks just fine, but I wonder if you have a Mode 2 disc with data, would there be a problem (don't have some around to test).

Also noticed that TDK 4800B is so far the best VCD ripper. It is quite speedy (not as fast as Optorite) and accurate.
However, LiteOn 52x24x52 and Asus 48x16x48 all seem to have problems reading VCD properly. It will read fine and at some %, it will slow down.... then picks up again, and for some reason, at 80% or so, it will slow to almost a stop..... no LED activity.... CloneCD shows read speed 0.0.

I don't know if it has to do with CloneCD (multimedia profile) or not. I have not yet fully tested cloning VCD with the Data disc profile to see if it is just with MM profile. Maybe it has to do with the extract subchannel data function when reading a mode 2 disc.... (probably not necessary with VCD, but a default for the MM profile)

If you have any suggestions as to what tests I should do to investigate this further, let me know.

Min

[edyros]

Hi Ian:

I read the review of the MS 8348A and it looks that you guys have the new firmware 150D. I would like to know where you guys have downloaded that firmware since MSI page hasn't posted it yet. The only firmware I've downloaded is the 140D and it has the problem that it doesn't recognize 48X media, instead, it says they're 40X.

Thanks for the help you can give me.

[Ian]

edyros, read the news post on the main page.