Benq 1640 OEM = Retail from NCIX

[jberry]

Well I decided to take advantage of the 1640 sale at NCIX (about $53 Canadian) and got the 1640....Prior to its arrival I got the .cvt file of the 1640 firmware thinking I would need to cross flash the OEM 1640 (which this IS) to retail....BUT HEY, it arrived with BSHB RETAIL firmware...so no need to crossflash....I thought Benq had diff firmware for oem and retail? This is great....

[eric93se]

I guess its not on sale anymore, its $51.07USD plus 10-15$ to ship currently.

Newegg has already started to drop its price, just waiting till it hits $40 shipped.

[dolphinius_rex]

I guess its not on sale anymore, its $51.07USD plus 10-15$ to ship currently.

Newegg has already started to drop its price, just waiting till it hits $40 shipped.

It'll be on sale again tomorrow

[jberry]

yah...the sale was for the long weekend here (in Ontario anyway)...ended Aug 2....I am still happy that it came with retail firmware....maybe benq is going to do this from now on....who knows.....looking forward to using this drive

[Dartman]

Mine finally got here and it had the retail firmware too, just like yours. Did a bunch of test burns then flashed to most recent and doing some more. So far good quality for all media tested, not outstanding, but very good. I think it's like the earlier versions of the 1620 and should improve a bunch and get overclocking of media, But dolphinius_rex probably allready has the next version and will let us know or it will get public release soon after testing finishes. I miss the red flashing light when burning and the overclocking but I can wait for upgrades. My 1620 started out as a 1600 made in June 2004 and it still works great as a 1620 pro.

[jberry]

strange they are giving out the retail on OEM....no sense in getting retail, unless NCIX is flashing them to retail.

[Dartman]

The build sticker on top list build date, country of origin, serial number, basic features and firmware revision installed. Mine says B etc.

[Ian]

strange they are giving out the retail on OEM....no sense in getting retail, unless NCIX is flashing them to retail.

What about the bezel? Is it the retail one (shiny stripe and long narrow eject) or the OEM one (large rectangular eject)?

[Dartman]

My OEM has the large one and no BenQ logo, not shiny either.

[jberry]

yah...nothing fancy here.....no Benq name or anything...nothing shiny.

Of note:

1. Louder than my 1620
2. Tray seems better made than 1620
3. Performance in enclosure not as good as 1620 or LG 4163b...tried burns of verbatim at 8x...2 coasters...TY 8x 1 coaster...all on firewire...1620 and 4163b all ok on firewire. Reduce speed on 1640 to 4x on firewire all ok....strange....for $52 Canadian not bad though (these were on the fly dvd copies; IDE to firewire)
4. 1640 reads my scratched discs better than 1620...I can get my 4163b to read anything of course.

[cfitz]

My black OEM 1640 from newegg also came with BHSB. I believe they are coming that way from the factory, and not being converted by retailers. Perhaps Benq decided a separate "G" series of OEM firmware is more trouble than it is worth to them.

cfitz