Toshiba/SUN XM-6201B 32x SCSI-2 50-pin internal CD-ROM Drive, p/n: 370-3416 (оптический дисковод)

Оптический дисковод Toshiba/SUN XM-6201B 32x SCSI-2 50-pin internal CD-ROM Drive, p/n: 370-3416

Toshiba has been a major player in the OEM CD-ROM market for several years now. Up until recently, I used the company's 4x SCSI drive, the XM-3501B. That venerable drive served me well until I finally decided to upgrade to a Plextor UltraPLEX. Though its hard to deny that its the best drive around, the Plextor costs a good chunk of change. What kind of performance could you get from a less costly 32x drive? Further, is the SCSI version of a given CD-ROM drive superior to an ATA version? In the 32x arena, Toshiba OEMs its XM-6202B (ATA) and XM-6201B (SCSI) drives. Its likely that a purchaser may end up with a Toshiba drive in one of the many "no-name" retail packages sold in electronics superstores. For this review, we purchased two Toshiba-packaged plain-looking brown boxes. Both packages contained the drive and manuals; no cables or screws were included. The ATA version of the drive came with a single sheet outlining master-slave jumper settings. The SCSI drive included a more comprehensive 30 page manual explaining SCSI, installation, and operation, complete with black-and-white photographs. The drives are a very plain beige color, nothing daring here- it'll blend in perfectly with the average clone case. The drive's front bezel sports a headphone out jack, headphone volume control, and an load/eject button. Conspicuously absent is the play/stop button that's becoming more common on today's CD-ROMs. Toshiba's SCSI XM-6201B CD-ROM drive is a viable alternative to the UltraPLEX for those who want 32x SCSI speed but don't need the Plextor's outstanding DAE capability. At less than half the cost, the Toshiba drive delivers virtually the same application and multimedia performance. The ATA version performs similarly while not requiring a SCSI controller, though in my opinion this may be false economy if down the road you wish to expand your storage options. Do yourself a favor and pick up an inexpensive PCI SCSI controller and enjoy SCSI rather than ATA/parallel devices when you inevitably add them down the road.