In House Review - LG GCE-8520B 52/24/52 CD-RW

by **Ian** on Thu Feb 13, 2003 9:58 am

CDRLabs has taken a look at LG's newest CD-RW, the GCE-8520B. Featuring some of the fastest speeds currently available, the GCE-8520B reads and writes at 52x and rewrites at a blazing 24x. Thanks to its MediaTek chipset, the GCE-8520B also has features like Super Link buffer underrun protection, a 2MB buffer and support for the Mt. Rainier format. Does the GCE-8520B deliver the level of performance and features LG is known for? Is it the fastest 52x writer around? You'll have to read the review to find out.

LG GCE-8520B 52/24/52 CD-RW

If you have any comments or questions about this review or LG's new writer, please post them in the forum by clicking the link below.

by **Scour** on Thu Feb 13, 2003 2:18 pm

Hello!

Hm, i don´t understand LG. Top-performance when it comes to write a CD, but slow reading. Why is it so slow when reading CD-R?

But I think, the LG 8520 is a top-drive

by **Raz0rX** on Thu Feb 13, 2003 3:08 pm

I have eMailed some suggestions to LG's optical engineer department for releasing a new firmware that can enable the drive to read @ 52x for CDR and other discs, as well as add an option for user to turn off the drive's optimum write speed. Am I hoping for too much :lol:

by **freestyle** on Thu Feb 13, 2003 4:03 pm

Yes i also hope they will release that firmware, the korean site has already released firmware for the GCE-8481B 48x writer which allows 48x CDR read speeds. I tried it and it works, now all i hope is that they will release it for the 8520B, or I might revert my burner back to 8481b :lol:

by **Ian** on Thu Feb 13, 2003 4:06 pm

Yeah, the GCE-8480B and GCE-8481B have a "turbo boost" now. I was hoping that the GCE-8520B would have the same thing. I'm sure its possible with a firmware update.

I do have a question for GCE-848xB owners. Does the turbo boost increase the DAE speeds too?

by **irikumi** on Thu Feb 13, 2003 8:15 pm

Enjoyed your review, Mt. Rainer support did make it to LG's 48X24X48 CD-RW, if you update it to firmware 1.02 it is there.

by **Ian** on Thu Feb 13, 2003 8:37 pm

irikumi wrote:Enjoyed your review, Mt. Rainer support did make it to LG's 48X24X48 CD-RW, if you update it to firmware 1.02 it is there.

Yeah, but it didn't ship with it here in the US due to the crappy Roxio software they were bundling with it.

by **irikumi** on Fri Feb 14, 2003 12:53 pm

They are no longer bundling the 48X24X48's with Roxio, they come with Nero now.

by **kooij** on Sat Feb 15, 2003 8:48 pm

I just bought an LG 8451b two days ago, and it came with Roxio (I live in Canada, and I think I bought an end-of-line). Hence, no Mt Rainier support. I'm a lot new to this, and I'm wondering how to upgrade my 8451 to a firmware that supports Mt Rainier or even that turns it into an 8520B. I'm also worried about how to change it back if it doesn't work.

Thanks for the help,
k

by **irikumi** on Mon Feb 17, 2003 6:56 pm

kooij wrote:I just bought an LG 8451b two days ago, and it came with Roxio (I live in Canada, and I think I bought an end-of-line). Hence, no Mt Rainier support. I'm a lot new to this, and I'm wondering how to upgrade my 8451 to a firmware that supports Mt Rainier or even that turns it into an 8520B. I'm also worried about how to change it back if it doesn't work.

Thanks for the help,
k

Not familiar with the "8451B", do you mean the "8481B"? If you have a 8481B, you can get the firmware by searching for it at www.firmware-flash.com and use the 1.02, or new 1.03 firmware to get Mt. Rainer support.

Good luck.

by **kooij** on Mon Feb 17, 2003 10:23 pm

Yes -- sorry, the 8481b (that's twice now I've made that typo on the number pad). I've got the firmware, I just can't seem to flash it. It keeps telling me that it can't erase the original version. If I use an executable upgrade like "gce-8481b103(win).exe" it freezes endlessly and requires a restart, without upgrading.

by **irikumi** on Tue Feb 18, 2003 4:45 pm

kooij wrote:Yes -- sorry, the 8481b (that's twice now I've made that typo on the number pad). I've got the firmware, I just can't seem to flash it. It keeps telling me that it can't erase the original version. If I use an executable upgrade like "gce-8481b103(win).exe" it freezes endlessly and requires a restart, without upgrading.

What other drives do you have in the system? Do you have a standard CD-ROM reader on the same IDE cable that is possibly interfering with the flash program? Try disconnecting any other drives like a CD-ROM first if it is connected to the system before flashing. Hope that helps...

by **kooij** on Tue Feb 18, 2003 11:05 pm

SUCCESS! I finally got it to work thanks to some help. The problem was my syntax. I was using "MTKFLASH 3 W /B FILENAME.BIN" when what I needed to use was "MTKFLASH 3 W /M /B FILENAME.BIN" contrary to the instructions in the .txt file with MTKFLASH.

Thanks for all the help.
kooij