Developer: LaCie

Price: $150

Requirements: G3-based Mac with built-in FireWire and 64 MB of RAM.

Trial: None

The next generation of high-speed optical drives has arrived with LaCie’s newest—the d2 External FireWire CD-RW drive.

Sporting a sleek new look, this lightweight drive clocks in with blazing 52x24x52x speeds (that’s 52x read/24x rewrite/52x write to the laymen out there). The power button is conveniently located on the front of the drive in a brilliant shade of blue.

While the new benchmark in burning speed is impressive, the full potential of the drive can only be realized if the burning software and CD can handle a 52x write speed. Luckily, the d2 comes bundled with Toast Lite 5.2, which supports 52x drives; and SilverKeeper 1.0.1, a handy little backup utility (in a nifty CD case, I might add). For those less technically inclined, LaCie also ships out a CD full of user manuals for its optical drives. There is even a blank CD optimized for 52x-speed optical drives thrown in for that first burn.

And how did that turn out? Pretty well. Using Toast Titanium 5.2.1 (which I highly recommend over Toast Lite), it took four minutes to burn 600 MB of data from start to finish, two and a half if you cut out verification.

There are two extremely minor issues with the d2. The first is that it is too long to sit on my tower like my old one did. And the second is that while burning, it isn’t whisper quiet (though it isn’t loud, either). But these problems are so minute, they take nothing away from the experience of using this drive.

At a reasonable price, this speedy drive will make anyone who burns CDs extremely happy with the results.

Copyright © 2003 Dan Boland, dboland@atpm.com. Reviewing in ATPM is open to anyone. If you’re interested, write to us at reviews@atpm.com.