Written By:
Date Posted: August 5, 2002

Software

    Now we've looked at the hardware, lets take a look at the software included in the package.

    Ahead's Nero Burning ROM is well know to anyone who does a fair amount of CD writing, and is one of the most feature filled CD writing programs available for use.  Version 5.5.7.1 that comes with the MSI drive can easily be upgraded to the latest version of Nero (5.5.9.0).  One thing about the software is that this particular revision was designed to work only with the MSI drive.  MSI isn't the only one who does this, so it isn't a major difference from any other manufacturer.  The basic design of the program hasn't changed for a while, but most of the progress has come under the 'hood' as it were, with the addition of many more formats available for use, and an integrated MPEG encoder. 

    The program automatically detects the maximum speed the blank CDR is rated for, in the case below it was using a blank generic CDR that was rated for 32X burning.

    Also included in the software is InCD 3.2.2 which is just like Roxio's Direct CD in that it is a packet writer for CD-RW discs that turns a CD-RW into a "large floppy disk"  I've personally found most packet writing software to be annoying at the least, and incompatible most of the time.  Doing a quick test between my two partitions, one partition with InCD install and on the other InCD wasn't installed, on a packet written CDRW, and two different drives, the files played fine except on my Pioneer in the partition without InCD installed.

    So the software does seem to add to the value of the hardware as both programs are some of the best writing tools (Nero) and packet writing tools (InCD) available, and are upgradable by going to and downloading the updates.  Now lets look at how well this hardware performs.

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