Samsung is a pretty familiar name in the electronics sector. They gained some big popularity a few years ago when their DDR memory turned out to be some good stuff for overclocking that didn't cost an arm and a leg like what was being offered from Corsair. While that may not be the hot item of the moment, Samsung is quite diverse in it's offerings. They manufacture other PC components, including the SW-252FENB (52x/32x/52x) CD-RW drive. I've used a couple of their CD-ROM drives, one of which I've had for just over 4 years and counting. I probably paid more for that 48x CD-ROM than what you can find the SW-252FENB for. But, enough of the hardware sentiments, let's take a look at the SW-252FENB. [attachfull]1020[/attachfull] There are several different models of the SW-252 series, but I didn't really find anything useful on Samsung's site to really tell the difference between them. The 252FENB is a black face CD-RW drive. Black is always stylish, no matter how you cut it. [attachfull]1021[/attachfull] The drive is less than an inch longer than the Lite-ON 52327S CD-Burner I reviewed awhile back, so it's not too big. The back of the drive has nothing that's surprising. You have the audio connectors, the jumper block, the IDE interface and the power connector---standard fare. [attachfull]1022[/attachfull] [attachfull]1023[/attachfull] Looking at the cover toward the back, Samsung has the lables for each connection stamped into the metal casing. Personally, I like to have the markings on the back of the drive, right above the connections, but it's not like you'll be lost without the markings elsewhere. [attachfull]1024[/attachfull] The tray is black, which severely reduces reflections during the burning process due to the fact that black absorbs light. It does have a function other than looking good. [attachfull]1025[/attachfull] The drive I recieved was an OEM bulk drive, so there is no retail box to show. The only thing you might be missing here, besides the box, is an IDE cable. However, for most people, this isn't going to be a problem. Samsung includes a quick setup manual, a CD with a detailed manual, a full version of Nero Burning ROM, and an audio cable. I'm glad to see the full version of Nero packaged as Nero Express has been buggy from my experience.
Benchmarking Test setup as follows * A7N8X-E Deluxe, BIOS 1008 * Athlon XP2000+ (Palimino/266MHz FSB) * 512MB PC2700 (2x256) * Sapphire Radeon 9600XT * Western Digital 60GB 7200 RPM HDD (OS install) * Maxtor 20GB 7200 RPM HDD * Maxtor 40GB 5400 RPM HDD * Seagate 9.1 10,000RPM SCSI drive * MadDog 16x DVD-ROM * Samsung SW252 FENB CD-RW * SIIG ATA100 PCI controller card (CMD 694 chip) * Tekram DC390U2W SCSI card * Sparkle 350W PSU * Thermalright SK-7 w generic LED fan * nForce driver 2.42 * Omega Driver 2.5.14 (Catalyst 4.2) * Windows XP Professional SP1a w latest updates For comparison, results from my review of the Lite-ON 52x burner will be used. A CD rip to WMA format under Windows Media Player 9 and a Burning test with Nero Burning-ROM 5.5 are the current tests used. CD Burning [attachfull]1028[/attachfull] Here, we can see the drives pretty much within a few seconds of each other. The only thing that might be a little disconcerting is that the Lite-ON tests were done @ 48x, and the Samsung @ 52x. However, I doubt that another 4x one way or the other is going to be a serious detriment to burning at these speeds anyway. CD Rip [attachfull]1029[/attachfull] Final Thoughts While not quite as cheap as a comparable Lite-ON, I enjoyed having a CD-RW drive that wasn't butting heads with the nForce 2 chipset, and the main reason why I tried something else. As of this writing I've had the Samsung SW252 FENB for a few weeks without trouble. On the flip side, if you're looking to rip CD's, this is not a drive I'd be looking at for that reason. On the large CD test, it took nearly three times longer than the Lite-ON did on the same CD. While I didn't formally test a data CD file transfer, this drive also seemed rather sluggish. For a CD-Burner, this is a solid pick. For CD ripping and other file copying, it's best to look elsewhere.
