BenQ Australia DW1640

PC World

03/01/06

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BenQ Australia DW1640

  • Expert Rating

    4.50 / 5

Pros

  • Feature rich, quick

Cons

  • No DVD-RAM support

Bottom Line

A great all-in-one burning solution. This drive has plenty of bells and whistles and delivers everything you would expect.

Would you buy this?

Stepping up from the BenQ DW1620 Pro, BenQ is still trailblazing with the DW1640. This 8x DVD+R DL is setting the benchmark in double-layer burning, as is BenQ's $89 price tag. Across the board for all media this is a fast drive, only falling down a little with the DVD-RW turning in a 6x rate and no support for DVD-RAM.

The package is rich in features, with plenty of innovations to ensure quality burning. Write Right technology, Walking Optimal Power Control II, Anti-Dust Cooling System and the Air Flow Cooling allow for precision and temperature stability, but how good is the output? Good enough.

The 8.5GB DVD+R DL test burnt with a transfer rate of 8.9KBps which translates to a full disc in just 15 min. Equally impressive was the 4.2GB DVD+R 16x burn at 12.5KBps and transfer speed to the hard drive of 10.9KBps.

BenQ's bundled software includes Nero and its own Qsuite, that allows a lot more configurability and control of the drive. The best function here is the ability to change the Book Type settings so that any DVD+ media you write to will appear as a DVD-ROM, so it will be readable in older drives and DVD players. This setting is not the default, so be sure to change it before laser hits plastic - it is a huge plus in this drive's favour.

The QSuite also allows for a significant amount of media diagnostics before burning, so you can check for a warped disc or a range of other errors.

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