Staples Deals From 5/11 To 5/17

[BuddhaTB]

Memorex® 52x24x52 Internal CD-RW Drive
$79.98 - $10 instant savings - $20 mail-in rebate = $49.94
*Made By Lite-On*


TDK® internal DVD+R/+RW burner
$299.98 - $30 mail-in rebate = $269.98


Maxtor® 80GB 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive
$119.98 - $10 instant savings - $30 mail-in rebate = $79.94
*8MB Cache Buffer*


Maxell 650MB CD-R Media Spindle 50-Pack
$19.98 - $7 instant savings - $5 mail-in rebate = $7.94
*Made By Ritek*



www.staples.com

[Ian]

Time to dig up some coupons. I could really use that hard drive.

[Abell44]

From Hot Deals Club:

$20 off $100, code: 68829, expires May 11
$30 off $150, code: 51496, expires May 11

From Techbargains: 5/8-5/11
12% off in-store
http://anon.doubleclick.speedera.net/anon.doubleclick/cms/Staples/Contract/042903/03LateSpring5.pdf

I thought I saw a 10.00 off 40.00 somewhere, also.

[Inertia]

Maxell 700MB CD-R Media Spindle 50-Pack
$19.98 - $7 instant savings - $5 mail-in rebate = $7.94
*Made By Ritek*

www.staples.com

These Maxell 50-Packs are 74 minute 650 MB CD-R discs. In my experience the quality is not as good as the 80 minute Maxell/Ritek discs, with a higher error rate from the 74 minute discs unless they are burned at 32x. This is a counterintuitive experience, as one might expect a 74 disc from the same manufacturer to be of higher quality than an 80 minute disc. This expectation would be because of the less stringent manufactuing tolerances allowed the 74 minute disc.

[Ian]

Inertia, I agree with your comments. I really haven't had good experiences with those discs.

[Inertia]

Ian, I think you made an earlier comment about Ritek manufactured discs that you wished you hadn't bought. I suspect that these are the discs.

After buying these 650 MB 74 minute Maxells and testing them, I felt the same regret (even with a substantial rebate).

[cfitz]

Inertia, your observation is very interesting. I've haven't bought the 74-minute Maxell Ritek discs, but I have bought the 80-minute ones and they work fine. So I guess I can confirm half of your observation, and Ian can confirm the other half.

cfitz

[Inertia]

I haven't tested the 650 MB Maxells extensively, but when I burned a full disc at 52x with a LiteOn LTR-52246S (firmware 6S0D), there was a rapidly rising curve of C1 errors at the end of the disc, peaking at 70. There were 2 low amplitude (max 2) C2 errors as well.

I then burned the same file at 40x, with somewhat the same results. A rising C1 error curve began at about 64 minutes into the disc and peaked at 66 max at 74 minutes (disc end). There were no C2 errors at 40x.

The average C1 errors at both 52x (2.481) and 40x (1.872) were low, but I was disturbed by the rapidly increasing error curves (not random spikes) at the end of the disc in both cases.

When the same information was burned at 32x, the results were excellent. C1 max was 6 and averaged 0.102 with no C2 errors. This result is the equal of the Fuji/TY 800 MB burned at 52x, but a 32 burn was required to produce it. This was my qualified rationale for downgrading the quality of the Maxell 650 MB discs. Although SmartBurn rates them as suitable for 52x burning, in my experience they should be burned no faster than 32x for best results.

[cfitz]

Check the Circuit City deals for a great deal on what appear to be (awaiting StuyvesantGrad1970's confirmation) 40x 80-minute/700-MiByte Maxells:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=10797

cfitz