MSI DR12-A Preview: Still pushing for 12X DVDR
by Kristopher Kubicki on July 17, 2004 12:46 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Final Thoughts
At first glace, the MSI DR12-A does not particularly impress us. Poor burn speeds, media recognition and burn quality all really need to be worked on before the final release of this burner.Without a doubt, we will see better performance with firmware upgrades, but in the meantime, we have to wait for better samples to hit the market. Part of the poor read and write issues with the drive may stem from MSI's option to go with a 2MB buffer instead of the suggested 8MB buffer (which is found on the Plextor PX-712A). Other components, such as pickup, might be inferior to Plextor's as well - but keep in mind that the underlying LSI and controller are identical.
When we take a second look at our MSI DR12-A for our 12X roundup, hopefully the issues that we experienced will be fixed; do keep in mind that this is just a preview of the upcoming retail unit, and fortunately, not the final unit itself. The drive does have excellent CD burning and reading capabilities, but the more important DVD functionality of the drive still needs work.
Special Thanks to Verbatim, Prodisc and Ritek for providing media for this review.
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KristopherKubicki - Monday, July 19, 2004 - link
>Looking at your results, you probably got a faulty drive. Did you talk to MSI at all about these results?The drive isnt ready yet, its preproduction apparently.
Kristopher
Ian@CDRlabs - Monday, July 19, 2004 - link
I have to agree with Belzer here. Why are you saying that the drive is "similar" to the Plextor? I've said this to you many times in the past: same chipset != same driveLooking at your results, you probably got a faulty drive. Did you talk to MSI at all about these results?
KristopherKubicki - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link
PrinceGaz:The drive name is actually identified on the drive, not in software. We suspect the reason it came up as GENERIC is due to such an early firmware revision that MSI does not even have the drive labeled yet internally. They OEM to other people, and also use other people to OEM the drive too. If MSI is building the drive for a different client, it would make sense that they do not label a name onto their development model yet.
Kristopher
PrinceGaz - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link
My CD-RW drive originally appeared as "ATAPI CD-RW 52XMax" in Device Manager before I updated the firmware (very similar to the "GENERIC DVD RW 12XMax" of that DVD burner).I guess this happens because initially when a drive is released, no burning software knows about the new drive so they just have it appear to the system as a generic device with certain basic features.
Later firmware identifies it correctly but you need updated burning software for it to recognise the drive correctly. The generic names are just a stopgap to allow it to be used until that updated software is available.
KristopherKubicki - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link
>Yes that would be a great idea...if you want to f*ck up the drive. Same chipset != same drive or even "fairly similar" or "essentially identical". Besides the Plextor doesn't support bitsetting either so it would be pointless even trying...I didnt say do it. In either case, i missed your review of the drive - sorry. I think i got the message across, "dont buy this drive".
If you think i've got so much nonsense and crap in here, why dont you point it out? We had this discussion about the chipsets before, but for the time being lets just not talk about that for now. What other errors are so marvelous in this review that you can't bring yourself to read it all the way through to the conclusion?
Kristopher
Belzer - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link
"There are no official booktype setting capabilities for this drive. Since the drive is fairly similar to the Plextor PX-712A, it may be possible for creative users to flash an unofficial PX-712 firmware onto the drive and enable unsupported booktype functionality."Yes that would be a great idea...if you want to f*ck up the drive. Same chipset != same drive or even "fairly similar" or "essentially identical". Besides the Plextor doesn't support bitsetting either so it would be pointless even trying...
"Here is how the burner performed using Verbatim 8X DVD-R discs. These were the only discs that we could find which would burn 8X DVD-R on the burner."
Doesn't look like it's burning at 8x on the graph...
Then there are a couple of more errors/stupid things I don't even bother to comment. Everytime I read an AT optical drive review I'm surprised it's possible to have so much nonsense and wrong crap in one review.