MaximumPC 2008 05

O

ne of the most obvious differences between an external optical drive and

its internal brethren is in appearance. A device that’s going to sit out in the

open for anyone to see, after all, has to look the part. Lite-On’s latest EZ-Dub

optical drive accomplishes this with a fashionable white and black aesthetic

that would surely do Apple proud. It’s an update from the more staid look of the

previous EZ-Dub model, which was also nearly two inches longer and a half-

inch taller. As with the older model, this EZ-Dub comes with a stand, so you can

set the drive on its side to save desktop space.

Another distinction of external drives is convenience. The EZ-Dub connects to

a PC via USB and is ready to go with you

anywhere. Lite-On also equips the drive

with two touch-sensitive buttons to make common optical chores easier: a Dub but-

ton for disc-to-disc copies and a File button for backing up fi les to a disc. Pressing

the button automatically launches the bundled EZ-Dub software, and then it’s just

a couple steps to completing the aforementioned tasks. In the end, it saves a bit of

time, but these tasks aren’t all that laborious when you use the traditional means:

The drive also comes bundled with the Nero 7 Essentials package.

Of course, what should matter most about any optical drive is its per-

formance. The EZ-Dub is rated for 20x DVD+R write speeds, just like the

Samsung SH-S203 that we’ve been recommending for many months. But

Lite-On’s drive took a full minute longer than Samsung’s to write 4.38GB

to a single-layer DVD+R (6 minutes vs. 5 minutes). And when writing to a

double-layer disc, Lite-On’s drive took 17:56 (min:sec) to Samsung’s 13:10.

Still, these scores are solid, if not stellar—and if what you’re after is an

external drive solution, Lite-On’s

EZ-Dub is a credible choice.

—KATHERINE STEVENSON

Lite-On 20A4PU EZ-Dub

Optical Drive

Goes where you go, and looks good too

reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED

8

LITE-ON EZ-DUB DRIVE

$75, http://www.liteonit.com

76 MAXIMUMPC | MAY 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com

BENCHMARKS

Best scores are bolded. All tests were conducted using the latest version of Nero CD-DVD Speed and Verbatim media

(except where noted). Our test bed is a Windows XP SP2 machine using a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700, 2GB of

Corsair DDR2/800 RAM on an EVGA 680 SLI motherboard, one EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS card, a Western Digital 500GB

Caviar hard drive, and a PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool PSU.

LITE-ON 20A4PU EZ-DUB SAMSUNG SH-S203

DVD WRITE SPEED AVERAGE 12.10x 13.45x

DVD READ SPEED AVERAGE 12.07x 12.13x

ACCESS TIME (RANDOM/FULL) 115/205ms 116/198ms

DVD+DL WRITE SPEED AVERAGE 6.79x 9x

If you’re short on desk space, an included stand lets you set the

EZ-Dub optical drive on its side.

EVGA e-GeForce 9600

GT SSC Edition

Need a new videocard? Lucky you!

EVGA GEFORCE 9600 GT

$215, http://www.evga.com

9

MAXIMUMPC

KICKASS

HIS RADEON NVIDIA GEFORCE

WINDOWS VISTA HD 3870 9600 GT

3DMARK06 GAME 1 (FPS) 22.8 22.6

3DMARK06 GAME 2 (FPS) 20.6 19.8

CRYSIS (DX9) (FPS) 22.7 24.1

UNREAL TOURNAMENT 3 (FPS) 55.3 62.7

Best scores are bolded. Both cards tested with an Intel D975BX2 motherboard with an Intel 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme

X6800 CPU and 2GB of Corsair DDR RAM running Windows Vista Home Premium. Benchmarks performed on ViewSonic

VP2330wb monitors. For XP benchmark numbers, see the review at MaximumPC.com.

BENCHMARKS

T

here’s never been a better time to be in the market for a new videocard.

Nvidia’s GeForce 9600 GT, represented here by EVGA’s overclocked SSC

Edition, is one reason this is true.

We awarded AMD’s Radeon 3870 a Kick Ass award in our January 2008

issue when it was selling for $260. When the 9600 GT hit the market, the aver-

age street price for cards based on the 3870 plunged to $206. EVGA’s imple-

mentation of the 9600 GT was selling for $215 when we benchmarked it, but

the average price for cards based on that part was just $182.

The 9600 GT is based on Nvidia’s G94 GPU, a cut-down derivative of the

G92 that forms the more powerful 8800 GT and the even faster 8800 GTS (the

version with 512MB of memory, not the ones with 640MB and 320MB frame

buffers). By “cut down,” we mean all three chips share the same basic archi-

tecture, but the 9600 GT has 64 stream

processors compared to 112 procs in the

8800 GT and 128 in the 8800 GTS.

EVGA upped the core clock to 740MHz (from a stock 650MHz) and the 512MB

of memory to 975MHz (from a stock 900MHz). Nvidia’s ace in the hole is its ability to

run the stream processors at a higher clock rate than the core, which helps explain

how the 64 processors in the 9600 GT can outrun the 320 stream processors in

AMD’s Radeon HD 3870. EVGA bumped them from a stock 1.625GHz to 1.835GHz.

If your interests lie more in fi lm than gaming, you’ll be pleased to know that

the 9600 GT has the PureVideo HD circuitry that allows it to offl oad from the host

CPU all the decoding work needed to play high-defi nition movies on

Blu-ray and soon-to-be-obscure

HD DVD discs.

—MICHAEL BROWN

The 9600 GT

is a solid

choice for

both gamers

and cine-

maphiles.