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Is it possible to take the 8MB Cache from an old CDwriter and transfer it to a newer, faster CD writer that only has 2MB Cache?

I have a 48x Yamaha CD-RW with 8MB Cache and just bought an MSI 52x CD-RW with SATA, but it only has 2MB Cache. So I thought why not take the Cache from the slower Yamaha and install it where the 2MB Cache is in the MSI?

It may be possible, but I really wouldn't try. I'm assuming the cache is found on a microchip within the actual drive itself, but if you could somehow unsolder it and re-solder it to another drive, it won't guarantee you success.

Really and truly, 2MB cache is enough. I'm sure your MSI has buffer underrun protection, so even if the cache does get soaked up, the burner is smart enough to recognize it and pause burning so a buffer underrun (i.e. an error) doesn't occur.

I only asked because I've seen so many reviews where 2MB Cache is considered a con. Did I do good or maybe I should say did I really upgrade by going with the faster SATA CD-RW even though it has less Cache?

jlaavenger wrote:I have a 48x Yamaha CD-RW with 8MB Cache and just bought an MSI 52x CD-RW with SATA, but it only has 2MB Cache.

Yamaha never released a 48x CD-RW-drive

jlaavenger wrote:I only asked because I've seen so many reviews where 2MB Cache is considered a con. Did I do good or maybe I should say did I really upgrade by going with the faster SATA CD-RW even though it has less Cache?

True, an 8MB cache is better than 2MB, but it doesn't come into factor as much as one would think. It's like going from a 100MB/second Parallel ATA hard drive to a 150MB/second Serial ATA hard drive. Yeah, 150MB/s is faster, but it's not a knock-your-socks-off improvement, it's only a slight step up. It's not like you'll be cranking 150MB/s all the time either; rarely does the speed max out. Same with a CD writer, you probably won't max out the 2MB buffer, unless you really tax your machine while burning.

As for your other question, you definitely upgraded by going to a 52x burner, but again, it's only a slight improvement. Burning at 52x will only shave off a few seconds of the burning process, compared to 48x.

Scour wrote:

jlaavenger wrote:I have a 48x Yamaha CD-RW with 8MB Cache and just bought an MSI 52x CD-RW with SATA, but it only has 2MB Cache.

Yamaha never released a 48x CD-RW-drive

yeah, the fastest Yamaha drive was the F1, it was 44x.
a far superior drive to the MSI. i would choose the Yamaha over the MSI without a doubt.
unless you really need the SATA, i would stay with the Yamaha. like the Wizard said, the difference in time to burn a full CD between 44x and 52x is negligible.

dodecahedron wrote:yeah, the fastest Yamaha drive was the F1, it was 44x.
a far superior drive to the MSI. i would choose the Yamaha over the MSI without a doubt.
unless you really need the SATA, i would stay with the Yamaha. like the Wizard said, the difference in time to burn a full CD between 44x and 52x is negligible.

I have the Yamaha F1, but I don´t used it since a long time. The writing-quality with many newer 48x and 52x-media is far away from good. Only some TY and MCC-media is working fine, and maybe some older media which the F1 burn max. 24x -32x.

Have/had 3 MSI-drives, one from Optorite and the other two are maybe from MSI itself. These drives offers much better writing-quality with the most media and offers much better speed.

However, the F1 is nearly unbeatable when reading protected CD.

i stand corrected! (and thanks for correcting me)

i guess the Yamaha was good in it's day (i guess that's what i had in mind when i wrote that - what i remember about the drive from back then), but now without firmware support it's too outdated. ahsame.

dodecahedron wrote:i stand corrected! (and thanks for correcting me)

i guess the Yamaha was good in it's day (i guess that's what i had in mind when i wrote that - what i remember about the drive from back then), but now without firmware support it's too outdated. ahsame.

The F1 was the best writer when hit the market, but only if you use good media.
It have OPC, but no walking OPC, so I got coasters when using black Plasmon-media because it writes @40x, but at the 30x-mark it was unreadable. Many media it only burns @24x or 32x, but you can select 44x, what a confusion

But I can tell to jlaavenger that he should not disassemble the F1, because it´s the best reader for protected Audio-CDs, only the Plextor-Premium could almost match it.

I have the SCSI version that burns images onto disks like Lightscribe. Only I haven't found disks it would work on and I had to remove the SCSI interface for the pci slot. I'm using the ATA interface. And your right it is 44x

The thing is it raddles when it runs and sometimes I think it skips when I'm playing games. I though without a doubt that the MSI 52x SATA would be an improvement.

Likewise I have a 4x TDK DVD-RW that I'm considering an upgrade to the BenQ Black IDE DVD Burner Model DW1625 BLK with dual layer dvd write and lightscribe technology. So am I making some mistakes here?

My system as of right now consists of:
GIGABYTE "GA-8IK1100" i875P Chipset Dual Bios Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4/ 3.2E GHz 800MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache, Hyper Threading Technology
Cooler Master Aquagate water cooling system for cooling the cpu
OCZ Premier Value Series, Dual Channel Kit 184-Pin 2GB (512MBx4) DDR
PC-3200
Supertalent memory cooler
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X850XT IceQ II Turbo VIVO 256MB AGP
Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with 8MB Cache
Seagate 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model ST3200822AS with 8MB Cache
Altec Lansing THX certified speakers and Sub woofer
Yamaha 44x24x44x Internal SCSI CDRW (Black) w/Nero Software converted to an EIDE drive.
TDK 4x DVD-RW
Black Super-Flower SF-201T All-Aluminum Mid-tower Case w/ Top LED Fan & 3 Windows
Epower Quiet Jaguar EP-450P5-E1 450W Power Supply w/ 3 Blue Windows, 2 Blue Fans & S-ATA Connectors
Dell 18" flat screen Monitor
Windows XP Professional with service pack 2

And of course I still have the MSI Description: COMBO CDRW/DVD DRIVE SATA 52X CDR 24X CDRW 16XDVD still in it's box.

jlaavenger wrote:Likewise I have a 4x TDK DVD-RW that I'm considering an upgrade to the BenQ Black IDE DVD Burner Model DW1625 BLK with dual layer dvd write and lightscribe technology. So am I making some mistakes here?

I guess. The Benq 1625 seems not to be a good deal, if you don´t need LS. The Benq 1640 without LS looks very better in performance and quality.

Actually lightscribe is a must for me. Benq seems to be the best according to reviews. What say you?

jlaavenger wrote: Benq seems to be the best according to reviews. What say you?

That´s logical

I never saw a review of a non-Benq-drive with LS. Only from LiteOn and LG exist s other LS-drives. The LG is based on the old 4082, the LiteOn is a 16x-writer, but I don´t sure if I can recommend it because the LiteOn-drives are not the best you can get.

If you want to buy it now, you can only buy the Benq and it´s OEM from HP. If you can wait, you have more choices because a LG is on the way with much better specs than the Benq 1625. And NEC will release a drive with a own LS-technical which is faster and offers other colours (I guess).

What do you mean with "Only I haven't found disks it would work on"?

If you can, I'd wait. Faster LightScribe drives are right around the corner. I haven't heard what BenQ is doing yet, but both Lite-On and LG are going to release new drives soon. HP's next drive, the dvd740, is based on the LG 4166.

Ian wrote:If you can, I'd wait. Faster LightScribe drives are right around the corner. I haven't heard what BenQ is doing yet, but both Lite-On and LG are going to release new drives soon. HP's next drive, the dvd740, is based on the LG 4166.

Do you know whether the Liteon release it by own or will it be only be avaible as HP-OEM?

From what Lite-On has told me, they'll be the ones selling it.

Thanks guys. I'll wait on the DVD-RW with Lightscribe. But can someone please clarify though why the Yamaha is better than the faster MSI?
The MSI seems to be rated an 8 where the Yamaha was rated a 7 but 3 out of four of you have said the Yamaha was better. I thought for sure I was making a major upgrade by getting the MSI with SATA. In fact I searched for days on the internet trying to find one in stock. Thanks again for all the advice. Kirk.

Huh? Where do you see the Yamaha getting a 7?

I just sold my yamaha F1 but it was an awesome drive. I just needed the room for another dvd writer and I dont rip protected discs anymore. If you plan on ripping protected audio discs the Yamaha is the best drive there is plus you can tatoo the disc when you are done for that ultra elite touch. I already miss mine just for that feature.

Right here:http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=23
at the conclusion. Not exactly the same writer but close. Mine looks a bit different and is black.
I don't rip many protected disks no. I liked it because it burned faster than my TDK DVD-RW. But I never found media that the Yamaha's image burning would work on.

Of course, like the MSI, I bought the Yamaha when it was already obsolete. Meaning I had to search for it because Yamaha had quit making them.

jlaavenger wrote:Right here:http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=23
at the conclusion. Not exactly the same writer but close. Mine looks a bit different and is black.

Oh.. I thought you were talking about the F1.. Yamaha's 44x writer.

jlaavenger wrote:I have a 48x Yamaha CD-RW with 8MB Cache

well, it's not clear what drive jlaavenger has.
there's no "48x Yamaha CD-RW with 8MB Cache" such drive.
as i said in a previous post it's apparently the 44x F1.

here's its review:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=135

Sorry. It is the F1 that I have. When I looked at reviews for Yamaha, I looked for SCSI in the review title. My mistake. I'm writting my posts from work and not where my home PC is. The F1 is rated as a 9. Guess I waisted my money on the MSI. My thinking was that SATA was faster and the thinner cable would provide more air flow through my case. And my Yamaha drive does rattle when I open and close it.

See I've been trying to take on three problems in my PC and it's a learning process.

First I wanted to reduce heat by cleaning up cables and improving airflow.

Second is noise (gettiung rid of the rattle) and

Third is as ridiculous as it sounds, fixing game lag.
I had thought that I might have an optical drive that was too slow or skipping, causeing skips in game play. I've recently been informed that optical drives have nothing to do with game lag or skips.

So anyway can the Yamaha be converted to a SATA drive?

I'll guess I'll put the MSI on ebay.

no, you didn't waste your money on the MSI.

like Gabe said, if you're going to use it for burning CD-R/Ws, it's definitely better than the Yamana. it's also a fater reader so that may help with game lag. i don't know how significant it is, but the thinner SATA cable is indeed better in terms of cable management and cooling.

so it appears that for all purposes except ripping (esp. protected) audio CDs the MSI is a better drive for you.
i recommend you keep the MSI. see how it works out for you.

i don't know if there's such a thing as a SATA-SCSI adapter.

Thanks everyone. I'll let you know how it goes after a few weeks.