In House Review - MSI XA52P 52/24/52/16 SATA CD-RW/DVD-ROM

[Ian]

To kick off the week, CDRLabs has taken a look at the world's first Serial ATA combo drive, the MSI XA52P. Featuring some of the fastest speeds currently available, the XA52P reads and writes CD's at 52x, rewrites at 24x and reads DVD's at 16x. Of course, MSI hasn't stopped there. Their new combo drive also includes features like SuperLink buffer underrun protection and support for SoftBurn, ABS and Active Panel technologies.

In this review we take a look at some of the features found on the XA52P and then put it up against some of the combo drives from the competition. Is support for Serial ATA enough to put MSI's new drive on top? You'll have to read the review to find out.

[url=http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=239]
MSI XA52P 52/24/52/16 SATA CD-RW/DVD-ROM[/url]

If you have any comments or questions about this review or the MSI XA52P, please post them in the forum using the link provided below.

[Ian]

This review should have been done awhile ago, but due to technical difficulties, it got a little delayed. With the XA52P, we had to put together a new test system and it was cursed from the start. After replacing both the motherboard and CPU, I was finally ready to test. Unfortunately, at that point, I realized that the XA52P MSI sent us had problems of its own (faulty flashrom). Anyway, enjoy!

[hoxlund]

I don't regret buying my xa52p, I love this drive

did you have to send this drive back to MSI?

[CowboySlim]

I don't regret buying my xa52p, I love this drive

did you have to send this drive back to MSI?

Oh, my gosh-gee-willy-wiz, then the picture of your room is not a joke.

Slim

[hoxlund]

you guys seem to think its a joke, but with how much burning i do, its not far off

[KristopherKubicki]

Isnt this drive limitted to Intels ICH5/ICH6 southbridge only? I remember when we got our drive in April that it only supported those SATA bridges. Has this been fixed in the new bioses?

Kristopher

[Ian]

Isnt this drive limitted to Intels ICH5/ICH6 southbridge only? I remember when we got our drive in April that it only supported those SATA bridges. Has this been fixed in the new bioses?

Unfortunately no. The performance still sucks with non-Intel chipsets. This problem isn't limited to the XA52P either. The Plextor PX-712SA is also in the same boat. Why Plextor doesn't point this out though is beyond me.

[KristopherKubicki]

I would append that info about both drives to your review.

Kristopher

[Ian]

While I didn't name the ICH5/ICH6 specifically, the info is in there. Bottom of the performance page.

[hoxlund]

he already mentioned it for the xa52p in the review:

"Aside from the problems with non-Intel chipsets, the XA52P performed pretty well throughout most of our tests. With its speed control feature enabled, the drive was able to read pressed and CD-R discs at 52x and had some good seek times. Writing CD's wasn't a problem for the XA52P either. While not as fast as some of the other drives, it turned in some pretty decent writing times and the writing quality was pretty good for the most part."

[KristopherKubicki]

"Aside from the problems with non-Intel chipsets .. " does not really address the issue at all. In fact "the problems" go completely unmentioned except that one half-sentence. Actually, this drive does not work period with CK8 and Silicon Image controllers --- and those are just the ones I tested.

Kristopher

[hoxlund]

ok how about you listen to what the box says:

1. Supports only Intel 875P / 865PE / 865G / 865GV / 865P / 848P
2. Do not support SATA controller cards.

and theres a big yellow advertisement stating:

Designed for Intel Chipset Mainboard

me personally im curious to see if it works in either the 915 or 925 chipsets, because i will be moving to the Asus P5AD2 Premium motherboard within a month and 3.4GHz P4 chip

[KristopherKubicki]

MSI sent us the review unit before the boxart was done. But thats a non-issue.

Many of us do not buy PC components in a retail store. Thats why its pretty important to notify people these things.

In any case:

>me personally im curious to see if it works in either the 815 or 825 chipsets, because i will be moving to the Asus P5AD2 Premium motherboard within a month and 3.4GHz P4 chip

I think you mean the 915/925 chipsets? Like i said earlier, the drive only works with the ICH5/ICH6 integrated southbridge SATA controller; and the P5AD2 uses the ICH6 southbridge SATA.

Kristopher