MicroSolutions Backpack

The tumbling price of CD-R and CD-RW drives has meant that data and audio CD mastering is now well within the reach of many PC owners.

Or rather, within the reach of those PC owners who are prepared to ferret about inside their PC to fit a drive. If even the mention of drive cages and IDE channels has you all a-quiver though, don't despair, for the MicroSolutions Backpack CD-Rewriter gives you the fun of CD mastering with none of the hassle.

About the size of a box of man-size tissues, the Backpack connects via a PC's parallel port and there's a pass-through socket for connecting a printer. Getting the drive up and running takes no more than a matter of minutes and thankfully, there isn't a screwdriver in sight.

The Backpack is bundled with Easy CD Creator and DirectCD - both from Adaptec. The former provides an Explorer-like interface for CD creation, the latter the ability to drag-and-drop files onto CD-Rs as you would with any other disk.

Since it gets its data down a parallel cable, the Backpack isn't quite as fast as some internal IDE drives but it still manages a respectable double-speed write and rewrite speed - 300Kb/s, in other words. Discs are read at a quicker six-speed, which would make the Backpack usable as the main CD-ROM drive on a notebook PC.

We've reviewed the Adaptec software before in What PC? and suffice to say, it makes the whole process of making your own CDs dead easy. A couple of blank CD-Rs are supplied to get you going but, if you want to try your hand at a little rewriting, you'll need to buy your own CD-RW discs as none are provided.

If you're prepared to sacrifice performance for versatility, the Backpack CD-Rewriter is a quick and easy way to bring CD mastering to your PC.

SPECIFICATIONS

- Parallel port connection with printer pass-through

- Six-speed read speed (900Kb/s)

- Double-speed read and rewrite speed (300Kb/s)

- Includes Adaptec Easy CD Creator and DirectCD

- #349 (inc VAT)

- Ingram Micro: 01908 260422

- www.micro-solutions.com

MicroSolutions Backpack CD-Rewriter

Ease of use *****

Performance ***

Features ***

Value for money ***

Overall ****

Minimum requirements: Pentium PC with EPP parallel port, Windows 95, 16Mb of RAM.

See also:

MicroSolutions Backpack USB CD-RW

This USB version of an established external CD-RW drive could prove useful for desktop set-ups or those who are more mobile.  08 Oct 2000

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