I was given a I/O Mega DVD+/-R/RW burner drive as a gift. I am not having any problems with it but was wondering if anyone can give me some insight into this company as I can find them on several major online PC Parts retailers (incl. newegg). Any info would be greatly appreciated.
saugmon's your man (if you mean i/o magic i mean) , he's always posting about these drives, either lookup some of posts or i'm sure he'll be along to advise :)
I/O Mega,also known as I/O Magic uses many different brand names for their DVD-RW drives.
I've got 2,about a year and a half old. First 16x I/O Magic turned out to be a Ligitimate Benq 1620-excellent drive. So I purchased another because of compatability issues on my spare pc. I went to the same staple's store where they had those I/O's on sale again.Well 3 months after my first one,the second I/O 16x writer turned out to made by EMPA of middle east FZCO. That burner was a pc of crap.It still sits in it's original box.
BTC also makes drives for I/O Magic in the 16x speed and are rated very low. Difficult to tell which manufacturer made that certain drive,until you remove it from it's box or hook it up in your pc. CDfreaks.com has some threads on these I/O Drives.
Best advice I can give-Beware of them. Their Lightscribe model has a 50/50 shot at being a benq 1655 or the lite-on model-with I/O Magic firmware. This firmware makes them different from actual benq/or lite-on drives with the same model#. To get better performance,people crossflash the firmware to the specific fw of the actual name brand drive.
The last staple's sales had the I/O Magic 16x for $29.99 after rebate a week or so ago.Some of these turned out to be Benq 1670s with the dvd-ram,but not the actual 1670 firmware.Not a very good model.
You can get the genuine benq or lite-on through newegg.com for well under $40 including shipping. Newegg is the place to go for quality drives. Look for the Benq 1650.
Take it from me. I got lucky with my first I/O,and got burned on the second. There's huge quality differences between brand names of drives.Even certain model#s. Get a quality booktyping drive like the benq 1640 or 1650. They feature solidburn/booktyping capability/overburn protection,and they are phenomenal drives.I've also got a Khypermedia +8x and HP640c lightscribe.All 4 of my benqs blow them away when it comes to low error scans/booktyped/95% stand alone compatability/with a faster burn speed.
To make it easy: Get a benq 1650,get some quality ty or verbatim plus format media,burn them at 8x,set them to be booktyped: You'll have very highly compatable backups that will play just about anywhere you want to play them.
No worrying about the dash format,no worrying about who's going to be playing those backups.No worring about slower burn is better.With a benq and quality ty/verbatim 8x and 16x media-They perform better with at least an 8x speed. More issues arrise with the slower 2.4x and 4x burns.
I've got 2 1620s,one being an I/O,a 1640,and a 1650. Excellent drives.Best burner for the $.And don't let the price fool you.
Firmware updates from benq is also another huge asset.Good luck trying to find firmware updates for the I/O rebadged drives. The firmware controls writing strategy.With the newer 16x media coming out,fw updates may be needed for best performance or to recognize them to be able to burn them. Benq keeps on top of their fw updates.
Thanks Saugmon. I got lucky and got a good I/O Magic Drive. I will definetly be buying the drive you (and several others) have recommened (the BenQ). And will make he I/O Magic the "reader" drive of my pc
