X-bit labs

MSI DR16-B2 DVD±RW Dual Layer Burner: Repeated Success or New Heights? (page 2)

Category: Storage

by Vasily Melnik

[ 09/27/2005 | 09:43 PM ]

Closer Look

The drive comes to you in a colorful retail package. Let’s see what it has inside besides the drive itself.

The box is designed in MSI’s traditional style – the previous model came in almost the same box, so it’s easy to confuse them at first glance. The user is first offered a list of the technical characteristics of the recent mainboards from MSI (this list is on the second, internal cover of the box). The box contains the following accessories to the drive:

• Multilingual installation guide;
• CD with Nero Express;
• CD with WinDVD and WinDVD Creator;
• Fastening screws;
• Audio cable.

So, you get everything necessary to use the drive, except blank discs. Well, write-once DVD media are so cheap now that you shouldn’t be very sad that they are missing here. But still the manufacturer might have included a dual-layer DVD+R blank or a few rewritable DVD discs at least. Well, this is just a consequence of the general trend towards making optical drives as cheap as possible – they didn’t even enclose interchangeable faceplates here! If things develop this way, OEM and retail versions of an optical drive will soon differ in one thing only – the retail version will still be shipped in a cardboard box!

Having the same design of the front panel, the MSI DR16-B2 drive resembles the DR16-B model much externally. The front part of the disc tray is designed in MSI’s traditional style and is embellished with the manufacturer’s logotype as well as the logotypes of the supported media formats. An Eject button, an emergency eject opening and a LED indicator are the only controls and indicators available here. The LED is quite informative, changing its color from green at reading to red at writing. The appearance of the front panel with its smooth curved lines is overall cute and eye-pleasing.

There’s nothing extraordinary on the rear panel – just a usual set of connectors. Well-readable labels for the connectors are placed on the plastic top of the rear panel, rather than on the top cover. Inexperienced users should appreciate this help as they install the drive on their own.

There are no vent openings in the rear panel. The lack of ventilation may lead to a higher temperature inside the case of the drive, but dust won’t get in, either. I should confess that the manufacturer was right in designing the rear panel this way – the drive doesn’t heat up much at work.