LaCie 16x/10x/40x Firewire/USB

CNET editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.0 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Stephen Bigelow
• Reviewed on: 06/07/2001

LaCie touts its 161040 external CD-R/RW drive as two drives in one--since it supports both FireWire (IEEE 1394) and USB connections. Unfortunately, the drive may also be double the trouble. Be prepared to grapple with USB driver updates or FireWire errors before you get the drive running. And even after installation, the drive's performance proved disappointing--lagging behind the pack in everything but audio recording. Unless you need the portability and USB/FireWire versatility offered by the LaCie, pass this one by in favor of the QPS Que Fire 16X/10X/40X or even an internal CD-R/RW drive.LaCie touts its 161040 external CD-R/RW drive as two drives in one--since it supports both FireWire (IEEE 1394) and USB connections. Unfortunately, the drive may also be double the trouble. Be prepared to grapple with USB driver updates or FireWire errors before you get the drive running. And even after installation, the drive's performance proved disappointing--lagging behind the pack in everything but audio recording. Unless you need the portability and USB/FireWire versatility offered by the LaCie, pass this one by in favor of the QPS Que Fire 16X/10X/40X or even an internal CD-R/RW drive.

Installation snafus
In an ideal world, the $339 LaCie should have installed quickly and easily; FireWire and USB are both hot-pluggable interfaces, plus Windows provides the drivers and LaCie supplies both FireWire and USB cables. A Windows 98 SE or Me system should recognize the drive easily.

Unfortunately, the LaCie drive installation was troublesome under Windows 98 SE. Even with a capable Adaptec 4300 SPB2-compliant FireWire adapter, connecting the LaCie drive resulted in repeated problems. Windows recognized the new device, but the drivers failed to load, and blue-screen fatal-exception errors occurred each time the drive was connected. A call to LaCie technical support finally helped to correct the trouble: The drive needed to be turned off and then on again. The USB connection was a bit more forgiving, but it took USB driver updates from the LaCie Web site to make Windows 98 SE recognize the device. As if this weren't unfriendly enough, documentation is also sparse--so novices should definitely shy away.

The 161040's companion CD is light on tools. The LaCie CD carries just a few basic utilities, such as Easy CD Creator 4.03 and DirectCD 3.03; Mac users get Toast 4.1.2 and SilverLining Pro 6.4f2. But if you've used CD-R/RW drives in the past, chances are that you already have such tools on your system.

Third, at best
In CNET Labs' tests, the LaCie was generally a disappointment. It lagged behind the TEAC CD-W516E, the QPS Que Fire 16X/10X/40X, and the Plextor PlexWriter 16/10/40A in everything except audio recording. For both the 400MB packet-writing test from hard drive to CD-RW and the 500MB single-session data burn, the LaCie was the slowest of all the drives. Audio operation was a bit more competitive; the 161040 extracted a 27-minute audio track in an average of 72.14 seconds--still a few seconds slower than the QPS and the Plextor. Also, the 161040 burned a 43-minute audio CD in just 3.8 minutes--faster than the QPS but slower than the TEAC or the Plextor. The LaCie managed to install Office 2000 SBE in about 4.2 minutes, a minute longer than the TEAC and Plextor drives and only slightly shorter than the QPS. Continue reading

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