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Smart 100x cd-rom and CD-Express vs. 50x cd-rom. Interesting results.

M

Metalloid

Diamond Member
About a year ago I purchased the Digital Research 100x cd-rom drive from ebay. It is a cd-rom called the Smart 100x (which is really a 24x), and a program called cd-express. The program buffers the cd's contents to the hard drive and then you access the files from there. Today I decided to test it against another cd-rom drive I have, an Afreey 50x. I used sisoft sandra 2001te's cd-rom benchmark. For the cd, I used the game MDK2 (probably not ideal but it was the best I could find). I used the 50x cd first and got a Drive Index of 2634. A pretty good score. I then installed the Smart 100x cd-rom, its drivers, and the cd-express program. I put in the MDK2 cd and let it buffer to the hard drive. I ran the cd-rom benchmark and got a Drive Index of 20253!!! Thats 7.7 times faster than the 50x cd-rom! I figure I will keep the Smart 100x cd-rom in there instead of the 50x. The only downfalls to the Smart 100x and cd-express combo are that 1. You have to wait for the cd to buffer to the hard drive, which takes about 5 minutes. You can use the cd without buffering it first, it just wont be as fast. 2. The buffering program appears to have problems with some CDs. The two I have found so far are Max Payne and Unreal Tournament. It could be the actual cd or any Max Payne or UT cd. I also know that the program does not support burned cds and music cds.

Let me know what you guys think.
 
Hehe. That was my first thought too.

I use CD Bremse to keep my drive quiet anyway, except for installations. After a certain point, speed is useless.
 
Leokor, that is EXACTLY the point. If you can use your hard drive to access you cd's after buffering them. Your performance will be a lot better. Richleader, like you said after a certain point speed is useless. But I think I would rather have the faster drive in my computer than the 50x if I have to pick one. How much does CD Bremse quiet your drive, and where can I get it?
 
Metalloid15--I'm guessing it won't work with most of the new copy protected games. Just a guess. However, I believe Deamon Tools will.
--Randy
 
By copy-protected, I'm talking about the newer protections, that muck with many people's systems so badly, they can't run the game......especially if the cd doesn't like their reader/burner. Case in point: SD2 protection on Emperor: BFD. It caused so many problems, that EA actually had to come out with basically a hack to get around the protection.
--Randy
 
Takes about 5 minutes, but it depends on the cd. Some can only take 3 or 4. Some can take maybe 7 max. It is so worth the wait though. Randypj, what is Daemon tools and where can I get it?
 
Wouldn't it be easier to just do a full install on all of your games so that the CDROM doesnt even have to be accessed at all when loading?
 
Not all games can do that. I have played games where even if I chose full installation I still needed the cd to play.
 
Metalloid15--Right you are. It is especially a real pain, when some company like EA has to bring out a hack so people can actually install/play the game off their hard drive.....cause the copyprotection has it so mucked up.

daemon-tools
--Randy
 
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