CDRLabs.com

Looks like you've gotten a lot of good advice on CD-RWs, so I'll give you some different "food for thought".

Marge wrote:I have a Dell XPS P133c - 512 pipeline burst cache, 4GIG HD (max the box will take) running Windows 95 - will have 128MB RAM once I install the new cards; currently it's 80MB.

DO NOT INSTALL 128MB OF RAM!
You have a Intel 82430FX chipset. Only 64MB is cacheable, even though you can physically install & recognize 128MB.
Performance will suffer.

Ooooo, brillman that's bad news! I've already bought the cards and they're sitting here waiting for me to install them:-(

Why on earth would they make a computer with a stated max. RAM of 128MB if it can only use 64MB????

I was thinking that added RAM would help out when I'm working in Photoshop - a resources hog if ever there was one - and you're saying it won't?

Sorry, know this is off topic for this forum![/b]

Your PC can use 128MB, it is just that only half of that will be cached, which will slow things down a fair bit. And if I recall correctly, it will be the half that Windows populates 1st, that will be the uncached half. So it will likely slow the computer down all of the time, not just when there are lots of memory hungry programs open.

Hi cfitz,

Any time you want to know about plants, just ask...would be my very great pleasure to share what I know:-)

Seems, then, like maybe I ought to wait until this new system is set up and networked and see how it goes with transferring files from my box to it before I go out and buy a CD-RW for this system? If that doesn't work, then I know what drive to go looking for, thanks to all the great information you guys have given me.

I will be most interested to find out what kind of CD-RW is in that new computer:-) The computer is here - sitting in its box, waiting for the monitor to arrive, which is supposed to be this week (got it from another source). When that gets here, we can set it up and see what it has.

I do have a network card - not installed, but sitting here - for this system. I was waiting to open my box until I had all the bits I needed to put into it....playing inside my computer is not something I love to do:-) Besides, I have to shift a printer and 2 scanners to even have room to open it up (not to mention the piles of paper on each of them).

Guess I'd best get busy and figure out what I need to do to get networked!

Thanks to all of you, once again...I have learned a whale of a lot through this exchange thanks to your generosity!

Back in the day (1996 for your PC I would guess) - 128MB or even 64MB of RAM was heaps, so the chipset's limitation did not matter to most people.

You hit the date on the head, Robotnik...1996 it was. The system came with a whopping 16MB RAM, which I had considered an incredible amount, considering what the 386 system I was moving up from had...and we won't even go to the amount of memory my original 8086 system had:-) Still have that one, gathering dust. It still works tho' I never use it anymore. Don't know what to do with it. Circa 1980:-) Just about museum quality.

I sort of understand what you're telling me about the RAM, but not totally. I understand the part about the system's limitation on cache, but don't understand why having more RAM would slow everything down so much when it seems like it ought to prevent the thrashing around I get now with memory hungry programs.

Marge wrote:Seems, then, like maybe I ought to wait until this new system is set up and networked and see how it goes with transferring files from my box to it before I go out and buy a CD-RW for this system?

That is what I would do, as long as you are going to install the network card anyway. It might save you a few dollars, and, more importantly, it means one less change to your old 95 box. The network card installation may be shock enough for it. Let us know how it works out.

cfitz

Marge wrote:Any time you want to know about plants, just ask...would be my very great pleasure to share what I know:-)

Can I ask a question?

Is it possible to grow edible white mushrooms in the basement?

I know they grow in dark, damp and cool environments [like a Dungeon? hehe ]

Well, I'm happy to find things working tonight; just kept getting error messages last night and could not connect to this forum.

Thanks again, cfitz. Think I will try this. If the gods are willin' and the creek don't rise, ought to find out by the end of this weekend whether this will work...keep your fingers crossed for me. I will report back

Action Jackson wrote:Is it possible to grow edible white mushrooms in the basement?

I't sure possible to grow them at home, and maybe in a basement if you can provide the right conditions. Since this is so off topic, I'm going to try to reply to you privately...have not used this feature, so if you don't get something from me shortly, post again and I'll put it here.

Marge wrote:I sort of understand what you're telling me about the RAM, but not totally. I understand the part about the system's limitation on cache, but don't understand why having more RAM would slow everything down so much when it seems like it ought to prevent the thrashing around I get now with memory hungry programs.

You are right of course, installing more than 64MB of RAM will probably slow things down, but whether you will be able to notice it or not, is a another matter. Even uncached RAM is faster than a hard drive though, and the system will definitely be faster than before, if you always run it with loads of programs open that fill up the memory to more than 64MB. You see, when a computer runs out of physical memory it swaps data to its hard drive. This is the thrashing around you see when you have big programs open.

Well, Robotnik, that makes sense. I have 80MB now and tend to operate with several things going at once unless I know that will crash something I'm doing. Hence, I assume, the thrashing. So, my new memory ought to help in that regard...right?

Well, guys, we installed our new workstation today and I have no clue what they've sent as a CD-RW.

I ordered: 48X/24X/48X IDE CD Read-Write - CDRW48

Properties for the CD-RW installed say:

HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE - 8481B

DVD/CD-RW (I did not order a DVD??)

Mgf. Standard CD-Rom drive

Firmware revision C102

40x max read
40x max write

Came with Direct CD as the software

Has good old Dell installed a piece of garbage or is this something decent in disguise?

Rest of system seems to be OK disk drive is ST380021A, which I hope is what I thought I was getting...

Gonna take a bit of getting used to XP pro; quite a bit different from good old win95

According to this site from the Nero Burning Software people a GCE-8481B is a Hitachi LG 48x24x52 writer, which is better than the specs you ordered.

http://www.ahead.de/en/content2/recorderH.html

Marge wrote:Well, guys, we installed our new workstation today and I have no clue what they've sent as a CD-RW.

I ordered: 48X/24X/48X IDE CD Read-Write - CDRW48

Properties for the CD-RW installed say:

HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE - 8481B

DVD/CD-RW (I did not order a DVD??)

Mgf. Standard CD-Rom drive

Firmware revision C102

40x max read
40x max write

Came with Direct CD as the software

Has good old Dell installed a piece of garbage or is this something decent in disguise?

Rest of system seems to be OK disk drive is ST380021A, which I hope is what I thought I was getting...

Gonna take a bit of getting used to XP pro; quite a bit different from good old win95

Marge wrote:I have no clue what they've sent as a CD-RW.

I ordered: 48X/24X/48X IDE CD Read-Write - CDRW48

Properties for the CD-RW installed say:

HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE - 8481B

It is an LG Electronics GCE-8481B 48x24x48 CD-RW drive:

http://www.lgeus.com/Product/CD/GCE_8481b.asp

Ian did a review of the model just prior to that drive, the 48x16x48 GCE-8480B:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=150

It had some performance issues :

http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.ph ... erformance

Hopefully the revised drive cleared up those problems.

Marge wrote:Came with Direct CD as the software

Did it come with just DirectCD, or was EasyCD Creator included also?

cfitz

You're right, Robotnik, they do list that very number...now wonder why those two companies are using the same number - and for different pieces of hardware?

Well, cfitz, most interesting review...not exactly the drive I would have selected if I'd had my 'druthers. The salesman, when asked, said, "oh, usually Sony drives". guess this is what was sitting on the shelf at the time. The LG site also gives the speeds as 48x. But, Ian's review said that it only actually read and wrote CD-RW at 40x (if I read that right) and I wonder if that's why the computer says max. read and write is 40x?

Yes, sorry, it did come with Roxio's Easy CD Creator. Version is 5.2 Basic, not the 5.3 that came with the one Ian reviewed. Wonder if what they installed is OK?

Also interesting is that the front has absolutely nothing on it - no LED; nothing - doesn't look a thing like the image in the review, plus it's black to go with the mini-tower...interesting. When I open up the box to add the modem card, maybe I can see something written on the back side that will tell more. If I do, I will report for input

Even if it comes with Easy CD Creator, would you recommend getting Nero instead, or would it work?

Guess I will just have to try it out and see what it does, but this should be a lesson to me. If they won't tell you; don't take it; get what you want and bite the bullet and install it

Thanks to both of you! This saga goes on and on...

Marge wrote:You're right, Robotnik, they do list that very number...now wonder why those two companies are using the same number - and for different pieces of hardware?

Hitachi and LG formed a joint venture to design, manufacture and market optical storage drives. So these really aren't two separate companies in this context.

Marge wrote:Well, cfitz, most interesting review...not exactly the drive I would have selected if I'd had my 'druthers.

The writing errors that Ian ran into are rather distressing, but they didn't occur on all media. The Fuji/Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim Data Life Super AZO discs burned well. We all try to find media that work best in our particular drives. TheWizard has devoted a thread to just that topic: http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6005

Marge wrote:The LG site also gives the speeds as 48x. But, Ian's review said that it only actually read and wrote CD-RW at 40x (if I read that right) and I wonder if that's why the computer says max. read and write is 40x?

No, the drive Ian tested (which is slower than yours when it comes to CD-RW media) showed the following:

pressed read max = 51x
CD-R read max = 41x
CD-R write max = 49x
CD-RW read max = 40x
CD-RW write max = 16x (you should get 24x with your model)

Marge wrote:Yes, sorry, it did come with Roxio's Easy CD Creator. Version is 5.2 Basic, not the 5.3 that came with the one Ian reviewed. Wonder if what they installed is OK? <snip> Even if it comes with Easy CD Creator, would you recommend getting Nero instead, or would it work?

I would give Easy CD Creator a try before going out and buying Nero. You might find that you like it. I would, however, suggest upgrading to version 5.3.2 just to make sure you have the latest fixes:

http://www.roxio.com/en/support/roxio_s ... _updt.html

Marge wrote:Guess I will just have to try it out and see what it does, but this should be a lesson to me. If they won't tell you; don't take it; get what you want and bite the bullet and install it

I wouldn't give up on your new drive already! I suspect it will do what you need it to do and you will be satisfied with it.

cfitz

cfitz wrote:Hitachi and LG formed a joint venture to design, manufacture
and market optical storage drives. So these really aren't two separate companies in this context.

Lordy! It's getting so, nowadays, you just can't tell who makes what! But, it did seem like they were not the same drive, given the burn speeds...of course, I could have misread that, too.

cfitz wrote:The Fuji/Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim Data Life Super AZO discs burned well.

Thanks! Acer Gold/AC, HP/TY, and Verbatim Super Azo/MC were the only three listed on that page. What is HP/TY? Is that the Fuji/Taiyo?

Hmmm...if I should get the readings you posted, why does the computer say max. read and write 40x in properties?

Will take your advice on Easy CD Creator.. Thanks for the link to the upgrade; will download this.

cfitz wrote:I wouldn't give up on your new drive already! I suspect it will do what you need it to do and you will be satisfied with it.

I won't Best I don't, since I haven't even tried burning disk one...

Thanks again! If I learn anything new when I open the box and see what's on the back side of the drive, I'll post it for comment. Hope to get to that tomorrow; really too fagged out tonight to play inside that box.

Marge wrote:Acer Gold/AC, HP/TY, and Verbatim Super Azo/MC were the only three listed on that page. What is HP/TY? Is that the Fuji/Taiyo?

HP/TY = Hewlett Packard branded Taiyo Yuden made media. I don't think Hewlett Packard sells media anymore (you can see that this particular media is older since it is only rated to burn 24x), but that isn't very important. The important part is the Taiyo Yuden part - since they are the ones who actually manufacture the media. TY makes good media - many say the best. Notice how the HP/TY 24x media burned okay at 40x. Fuji is the most commonly available brand that sells discs made by TY, but Memorex and TDK also do. Read this thread to learn how to identify who made the media you are considering buying before you buy it:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7280

Marge wrote:Hmmm...if I should get the readings you posted, why does the computer say max. read and write 40x in properties?

Who knows? Probably someone didn't update something. I wouldn't worry about it.

cfitz

cfitz wrote:Read this thread to learn how to identify who made the media you are considering buying before you buy it:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7280

Wow! I am truly amazed at the depth of knowledge you guys on this site have...thanks!

cfitz wrote:Who knows? Probably someone didn't update something. I wouldn't worry about it.

OK, I won't lose any sleep on it; just another of those little computer mysteries of life.